a gathering of birds
Evan Parker Quartet (EP, soprano saxophone; Peter Evans, trumpet; John Russell, guitar; John Edwards, bass), live, London, 2009
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music offers a way out of our little cluttered closet.
sounds of Chicago
Michael Zerang and the Blue Lights (MZ, drums; Mars Williams, alto saxophone; Dave Rempis, baritone saxophone; Josh Berman, cornet; Kent Kessler, bass), live, Chicago (Hideout), 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
Now, in general, Stick to the boat, is your true motto in whaling; but cases will sometimes happen when Leap from the boat, is still better.
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
Feeling glum?
No more.
Orphic Oxtra, live, Iceland (Reykjavik), 2011
“Kebab Diskó”
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“Orfeus Bekonovitsjí Polka!”
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“Viiinur”
sounds of Mali
Salif Keita, live, Switzerland (Winterthur), 2013
Thirty-seven years ago, at a church outside Chicago, my wife Suzanne and I were married. Saxophonist Von Freeman and pianist John Young played at the ceremony.* Afterward, at the nearby reception hall, this guy tickled the ivories. All three are now gone.
Blind John Davis (1913-1985), live, Canada, early ’80s
#1
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#2
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#3
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*Here’s how they sounded that night. (Give it a few seconds.)
Some people make music even when they speak.
Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream,” Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963
Reading this, instead of hearing it, would be like reading a transcription of a spellbinding saxophone solo.
sounds of Chicago
Hieroglyphic Being (AKA Jamal Moss), “Space Is The Place (But We Stuck Here On Earth)”
William Basinski, “Silent Night,” 2004
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
If all we ever listen to are things that sound like things we’ve heard before, aren’t we living, however comfortably, in an echo chamber?
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taking a break
I’m taking some time off—back in a while.
Henry Theadgill’s Zooid,* live, New York (Roulette), 2012
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lagniappe
radio
Today WKCR-FM (Columbia University) is featuring Threadgill and a host of other musicians who came out of Chicago in the ’60s and ’70s.
In May of 1977, members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) collaborated with students at WKCR to present “Chicago Comes to New York,” a four-day music festival at Columbia University’s Wollman Auditorium. Join us starting midnight on January 7, 2014 as we revisit this momentous event with a 24-hour marathon broadcast featuring music and interviews by the AACM.
Thirty members of the AACM came to New York with their families and friends for the festival, many for the first time. The festival also included an on-air component in the form of a ninety-hour broadcast of music and interviews with AACM artists. Over the last year, two recent WKCR alums restored and digitized the entire collection of reel-to-reel tapes from the festival, hearing the music for the first time since it was recorded.
Celebrate the incredibly important work that members of the AACM have been doing to promote artistic freedom and self-determination for nearly half a century. Help us revitalize and share these unique pieces of recorded history that WKCR is so privileged to have regained access to.
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*Henry Threadgill (alto saxophone, flute), Liberty Ellman (acoustic guitar), Jose Davila (tuba), Elliot Humberto Kavee (drums), Zachary Lober (bass), Christopher Hoffman (cello), Ben Gerstein (trombone), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Stephanie Richards (trumpet), Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet).
Lucid, supple, propulsive: This stuff I could listen to all day.
Steve Lehman Octet (SL, alto saxophone; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; Tim Albright, trombone; Jeremy Viner, tenor saxophone; Jose Avila, tuba; Chris Dingman, vibraphone; Drew Gress, bass; Tyshawn Sorey, drums)
Live, Germany (Moers Festival), 2010
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Live, 2011
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lagniappe
art beat
Lee Friedlander (1934-), Japan (Tokyo), 1981
music clip of the day 