hard-to-peg | music clip of the day

Thursday, June 20th

In a world this fast what you need, sometimes, is something this slow.

Shirley Horn (1934-2005), “Summer (Estate)” (B. Martino & B. Brighetti), live, Switzerland (Bern), 1990

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Space is a valuable commodity in music. Too many musicians rush through everything with too many notes. I need time to take the picture. A ballad should be a ballad. It’s important to understand what the song is saying, and learn how to tell the story. It takes time. I can’t rush it. I really can’t rush it.

—Shirley Horn

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art beat: more from the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago

Statuette of a Female Figure
Cycladic, probably from the island of Keros
Early Bronze Age, 2600/2400 B.C.

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Wednesday, June 19th

serendipity

Last night, while I was doing some law work, these guys—I’d never heard of them before—jumped out of the radio.*

Los Pirañas, “Bambo Ha Muerto Devorado Por El Pecado (Version Alterna),” live, Colombia (Bogotá), 2011

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lagniappe

reading table

I am not poor, I am not rich, nothing’s here but nothing’s lacking, I have little, I want nothing: all my treasure is in Minerva’s tower.

—Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

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*Give the Drummer Some (WFMU-FM [Give the Drummer Radio Stream] Tues., 6-7 p.m.; Fri., 9 a.m.-noon [EST]).

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Tuesday, June 18th

two takes

Music for Airports, “1/1” (B. Eno, R. Davies, R. Wyatt)

Bang on a Can All-Stars, live, Düsseldorf Airport (Germany), 2011

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Brian Eno, recording, 1978

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lagniappe

art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (while waiting for the jury in my federal bribery-conspiracy trial to return a verdict, which, alas, they did)

Bowl, 150/50 B.C.
Greek, Hellenistic, Eastern Mediterranean
Glass, mosaic technique

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Monday, June 10th

old stuff

This I could listen to all day.

Fats Waller (1904-1943), “Numb Fumbling,” 1929

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lagniappe

reading table

Two of us
brush painting in turn;
autumn night.

—Ryokan, 1758-1831 (translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi [Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan])

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Saturday, June 8th

sounds of Chicago

Bangs & Works Vol. 2 (The Best of Chicago Footwork), 2011

Jlin, “Erotic Heat”

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Young Smoke, “Space Muzik Pt. 3”

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RP Boo, “Off Da Hook”

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Most musicians are no more able than anyone else to talk about what they do in ways that are fresh and absorbing. This guy, to these ears, is something rare: a compelling player who is, as well, a provocative thinker and talker.

Vijay Iyer (piano), playing and talking, 2010

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2013

Wednesday, June 5th

kinetic

Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto saxophone), Rez Abbasi (guitar), Rich Brown (bass), Rudy Royston (drums), “Killer,” “Playing with Stones,” Washington, D.C., 2012