3n
Matthew Shipp Trio (MS, piano; Michael Bisio, bass; Whit Dickey, drums), live, Cold Spring, N.Y., 2011
#1
#2
#3
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Don’t be too eager to ask
What the gods have in mind for us . . .—Horace (65 BC-25 BC), Ode I.11 (excerpt; translated from Latin by David Ferry)
They play each note as if, at that particular moment, nothing in the world is more important.
György Kurtág (1926-) and Márta Kurtág, live, Kurtág (Játékok [Games]) and Bach (miscellaneous transcriptions), Paris, 2012
**********
lagniappe
musical (and other) thoughts
Q. One last question—are you a believer?
A [G. Kurtág]. I do not know. I toy with the idea. Consciously, I am certainly an atheist, but I do not say it out loud, because if I look at Bach, I cannot be an atheist. Then I have to accept the way he believed. His music never stops praying. And how can I get closer if I look at him from the outside? I do not believe in the Gospels in a literal fashion, but a Bach fugue has the Crucifixion in it—as the nails are being driven in. In music, I am always looking for the hammering of the nails. . . . That is a dual vision. My brain rejects it all. But my brain isn’t worth much.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker blog, quoting György Kurtág: Three Interviews and Ligeti Homages (2009)
achieving world peace: a how-to guide
Last night, at FitzGerald’s (see the last two posts), everybody was intoxicated by music. Violent behavior? None. Here, at this club 7,500 miles away, the story’s the same, as you’ll see. The way to world peace seems plain: put a club on every corner.
Fendika, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
tonight
These guys will be at FitzGerald’s (see yesterday’s post)—me, too.
St. Paul and the Broken Bones, “Broken Bones and Pocket Change,” live, Nashville, 2012
***
Went to Mercury Lounge tonite. I have seen the future of music & the name of the band is St. Paul & the Broken Bones.
—Rosanne Cash, Twitter, 6/5/13
what’s new
I don’t understand a word of German. No matter. Commitment and passion don’t require translation.
Carolin Widmann (violin), playing and talking; Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Violin and Orchestra (1979); CM, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Emilio Pomarico, cond.), ECM Records, 5/13
what’s new
M.I.A., “Bring the Noize,” 6/13
**********
lagniappe
this just in
It is a slightly intellectually undemanding thing to do, being a rock singer, but, you know, you make the best of it.
White folks are cool, too.
Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale, live, Washington, D.C., 2013
what’s new
Mavis Staples, “I Like The Things About Me” (R. Staples & M. Stubbs), One True Vine, 6/13
**********
lagniappe
random thoughts
Language, no matter how much it’s used, never seems to get used up. Take this sentence, for instance, which opens Donald Ray Pollock’s story collection Knockemstiff: “My father showed me how to hurt a man one August night at the Torch Drive-in when I was seven years old.” Not one of these words is unusual, nor is the syntax. But this particular set of words, in this particular order, never existed before. How improbable is that?
tonight
I’ll be at the Hideout, a small club on Chicago’s northwest side, seeing this Ethiopian dancer, this baritone saxophonist, and an array of other dancers and musicians.
Melaku Belay (dance), Ken Vandermark (baritone saxophone), Joe McPhee (alto saxophone), Milwaukee, 6/22/13
**********
lagniappe
reading table
wind blowing
paper fans rustling
rustling—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), 1823 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
music clip of the day 