Tuesday, February 10th
more sounds of Mali
Toumani Diabate (kora), live, India (New Delhi), 2011
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lagniappe
random thoughts
If today is the answer, what is the question?
*****
taking a break
I’m taking some time off—back in a while.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2015
2015
Monday, February 9th
Why start the week with the same old stuff?
Derek Bailey (1930-2005, guitar), Min Tanaka (1945-, dance), Japan, 1993
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lagniappe
reading table
For you fleas too,
The night must be long,
It must be lonely.—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828; translated from Japanese by R. H. Blyth)
*****
the beat goes on
Nineteen hundred posts—and counting.
2015
Friday, February 6th
sounds of Mali (day four)
Tinariwen, live, Paris, 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
It was what it might have been to be alive, but tenderly.
—Lucie Brock-Broido, “A Meadow” (Stay, Illusion)
2015
Thursday, February 5th
sounds of Mali (day three)
Ballake Sissoko (kora) and Vincent Segal (cello), live, Washington D.C., 2011
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Perpetual astonishment is one plausible response to being alive in this world. Abject despair is another. The list goes on.
2015
Wednesday, February 4th
sounds of Mali (day two)
Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet, “Diaraby,” live, University of Maryland, 2014
2015
Tuesday, February 3rd
sounds of Mali (day one)
Africa Express, “Terry Riley’s in C Mali,” 2013-15
I am overwhelmed and delighted by this CD. I was not quite prepared for such an incredible journey, hearing the soul of Africa in joyous flight over those 53 patterns of ‘In C’. This ensemble feeds the piece with ancient threads of musical wisdom and humanity indicating to me that this work is a vessel ready to receive and be shaped by the spontaneous feelings and colours of the magician/musician. I could not ask for a greater gift for this daughter’s 50th birthday.
—Terry Riley (1935-)
2015
Monday, February 2nd
what’s new
D’Angelo and the Vanguard (Pino Palladino, bass; John Blackwell, drums; Jesse Johnson & Isaiah Sharkey, guitars, et al.), Saturday Night Live, 1/31/15
“Really Love”
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“The Charade”
2015
Saturday, January 24th
what’s new
Shabazz Palaces, “Forerunner Foray” (video by Chad VanGaalen), 1/9/15
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lagniappe
passings
Ernie Banks, Chicago Cubs infielder (SS, 1B), January 31, 1931-January 23, 2015
2015
Friday, January 23rd
More reasons to wonder: Where would we be without the saxophone?
Collective Identity Saxophone Quartet (Alex Harding, baritone; Jorge Sylvester & Bruce Williams, alto; Sam Newsome, soprano), live, New York, 10/11/14
2015
Thursday, January 22nd
my back pages
On this date in 1977, at a church thirty miles north of Chicago, amidst the cold and the snow and the dark, tenor saxophonist Von Freeman (1923-2012), a MCOTD Hall-of-Famer, played for a wedding. He was accompanied by pianist John Young (1922-2008). Here is how they sounded that night, as people were entering the church (0:15-, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “More”), as the bride walked down the aisle (8:00-, “In a Sentimental Mood”), and as folks were leaving (10:20-, “My Favorite Things,” “Song for My Father”).
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Von Freeman
