Monday, October 14th
less is more*
Rashied Ali (drums), Leroy Jenkins (violin), “Swift Are the Winds of Life,” 1975
*****
*Sometimes, anyway.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2013
2013
Thursday, October 10th
alone
Need a jump-start?
Cecil Taylor (1929-), piano, “Looking (Berlin Version) Solo,” live, Berlin, 1989
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
When you are playing, whether you know it or not, you are dancing.
*****
art beat
Lee Friedlander (1934-)
2013
Wednesday, October 9th
homage to John Cage
2013
Tuesday, October 8th
alone
György Kurtág (1926-), Perpetuum Mobile (from Játékok [Games])
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lagniappe
reading table
‘There is no God and Mary is His Mother.’
—Robert Lowell (1917-1977), “For George Santayana” (excerpt)
2013
Saturday, October 5th
alone
Arthur Russell (1951-1992), “Soon-To-Be Innocent Fun,” 1985
2013
Wednesday, October 2nd
love it or hate it
Anthony Braxton 12+1tet, Composition 355, live, Italy (Venice), 2012
*****
Anthony, a MacArthur “genius” award winner (1994) and professor at Wesleyan University, talks about this and that:
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music can take us places we’ve never been before, if we’re willing to listen to sounds we’ve never heard before.
2013
Saturday, September 28th
good news, bad news
24 Recipients of MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant Named
First the bad news: MCOTD was passed over, again. The good news? This guy, often featured here, wasn’t.
Vijay Iyer (1971-), pianist, composer, soon-to-be Harvard professor
“Imagine” (J. Lennon), live, Germany (Leverkusen), 2011
*****
“Actions Speak” (V. Iyer), live (Stephan Crump, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums), New York, 2012
*****
“Somewhere” (L. Bernstein), recording (Stephan Crump, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums), Historicity, 2009
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
the stillness of the valley
is itself a kind of music—Du Fu (AKA Tu Fu; 712-770; “Visting the Fengxian Monastery” [excerpt]; translated from Chinese by David Young)
2013
Friday, September 27th
what’s new
Chvrches, “Gun,” 2013
2013
Wednesday, September 25th
love it or hate it
Weasel Walter (drums), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Peter Evans (trumpet), live, New York (Death By Audio, Brooklyn), 2012
2013
Wednesday, September 18th
serendipity
Yesterday. Late afternoon, working on an old murder case. Happen upon this: windows open, letting in a breeze.
Mary Halvorson Quintet (MH, guitar, compositions; Jon Irabagon, alto saxophone; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; John Hebert, bass; Ches Smith, drums), “Love in Eight Colors,” “Hemorrhaging Smiles,” live, Washington, D.C., 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
From now on
it’s all clear profit,
every sky.—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), on his fiftieth birthday (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
music clip of the day 