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Category: hard-to-peg

2012

Tuesday, 5/1/12

ready to levitate?

Peter Brötzmann  Chicago Tentet,* “Aziz” (M. Zerang), recorded live in Chicago (Empty Bottle), 9/17/97 (Okka Disk OD-12022)

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lagniappe

art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after meeting with a client at the nearby federal jail)

Utagawe Hiroshige, Suijin Shrine and Massaki on the Sumida River (from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo), c. 1856

*****

reading table

Were I to choose an auspicious image for the new millennium, I would choose . . . the sudden agile leap of the poet-philosopher who raises himself above the weight of the world, showing that with all his gravity he has the secret of lightness, and that what many consider to be the vitality of the times—noisy, aggressive, revving and roaring—belongs to the realm of death, like a cemetery for rusty old cars.

—Italo Calvino, “Lightness,” in Six Memos for the New Millenium (1988, translated from Italian by Patrick Creagh)

*****

*PB, tenor sax/clarinet/tarogato; Mars Williams, tenor/alto/soprano sax/clarinet; Ken Vandermark, tenor sax/clarinet/bass clarinet; Mats Gustafsson, baritone sax/fluteophone; Joe McPhee, pocket cornet/valve trombone/soprano sax; Jeb Bishop, trombone; Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello; Kent Kessler, bass; Michael Zerang, drums/percussion; Hamid Drake, drums/percussion.

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2012

Saturday, 4/28/12

James Blood Ulmer, “Are You Glad to Be in America?”
Live, 2008

Imagine this with bass and drums. Can’t? Me, neither. That’s one sign of a great solo performance: accompaniment is unimaginable.

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2012

Friday, 4/27/12

what’s new

The Very Best, “Yoshua Alikuti” (Nairobi, Kenya), 2012

Any resemblance to this is purely intentional.

Lil Wayne, “A Milli,” 2008

*****

Here’s a big shout-out to my son Alex, who just finished his last week of classes, graduates from Harvard next month, and introduced me to The Very Best in the first place.

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2012

Wednesday, 4/25/12

two takes 

“Run Joe” (L. Jordan, et al.)

Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers, live
Capital Centre, Landover, Md., 1987

*****

Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, recording, 1948

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lagniappe

random thoughts

Last night, sitting at Wrigley Field with my brother Don (something we’ve been doing together for over 50 years), I thought of a line my younger son Luke, who turns 21 next month, wrote in elementary school in response to a prompt: “When I am 100 I will not be able to play baseball with my brother.” (P.S. Cubs 3, Cards 2—their second straight walk-off victory.)

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2012

Tuesday, 4/24/12

not for the faint of heart

Phil Minton (vocals), Mats Gustafsson (baritone saxophone), John Russell (guitar), live, London (Cafe Oto), 2010

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lagniappe

art beat: Sunday at the Art Institute of Chicago

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Seascape, 1879

Sometimes, when posting an image of a painting, I wonder: “Why bother?” No art form resists reproduction more successfully.

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2012

Sunday, 4/22/12

two takes

“Feel Like Going Home” (C. Rich)

Charlie Rich (vocals & piano), demo, 1973

*****

Tom Jones with Mark Knopfler (guitar), TV performance, 1996

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

I don’t think I ever recorded anyone who was better as a singer, writer, and player than Charlie Rich. It is all so effortless, the way he moves from rock to country to blues to jazz.

—Sam Phillips (Sun Records)

*****

radio

Happy Birthday, Charles!

All Mingus, all day: WKCR-FM.

*****

reading table

I thought that you were an anchor in the drift of the world;
but no: there isn’t an anchor anywhere.
There isn’t an anchor in the drift of the world. Oh no.
I thought you were. Oh no. The drift of the world.

—William Bronk,* “The World” (mp3 [Hudson Falls, NY, 1978], Selected Poems [1995])

***

*Bronk, who died in 1999, was recently inducted, posthumously, into the ultra-exclusive MCOTD Hall of Fame, joining tenor saxophonist Von Freeman and poet Wislawa Szymborska.

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2012

Friday, 4/20/12

passings

Levon Helm, drummer, singer, songwriter, actor, etc.
May 26, 1940-April 19, 2012

Live,  2/12, Woodstock, NY (Levon’s home)

“Ophelia”

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“The Weight”

*****

“When I Go Away,” recording (Electric Dirt, 2009)

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lagniappe

Levon Helm will always hold a special place in my heart. He was as great of an actor as a musician. For me watching him play the role of my daddy in Coal Miner’s Daughter is a memory I will always treasure.

—Loretta Lynn

*** 

When I heard The Band’s Music from Big Pink, their music changed my life. And Levon was a big part of that band. Nigel Olson, my drummer, will tell you that every drummer that heard him was influenced by him. He was the greatest drummer and a wonderful singer and just a part of my life that was magical. They once flew down to see me in Philadelphia and I couldn’t believe it. They were one of the greatest bands of all time. They really changed the face of music when their records came out. I had no idea he was sick so I’m very dismayed and shocked that he died so quickly. But now my son [Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John] has his name.

—Elton John

***

He was my bosom buddy friend to the end, one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation. This is just so sad to talk about. I still can remember the first day I met him and the last day I saw him. We go back pretty far and had been through some trials together. I’m going to miss him, as I’m sure a whole lot of others will too.

—Bob Dylan

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2012

Wednesday, 4/18/12

Peter Brötzmann, reed player, composer, bandleader
German Blues, performances 1999-2002, interview 2000

You can have the blues even if you’re German . . .

—Peter Brötzmann

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lagniappe

found words: AOL Headlines

Autistic Cheerleader Inspires Her Squad

*****

Kayaker Drowns After Swan Attack

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2012

Tuesday, 4/17/12

Happy (70th) Birthday, Han!

Han Bennink, drummer, percussionist, visual artist, etc.

Han Bennink (drums) & Guus Janssen (piano), “One Bar”
Live, Japan (Chiba), 2010

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lagniappe

You’ve got to hand it to WKCR-FM. There are a few stations, here and there, that might spin a track or two in honor of the Dutch drummer’s 70th birthday. Somebody might even give him an hour or two. But who, other than a station deeply in tune with Bennink’s own inspired lunacy, would stage a five-day marathon?

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2012

Sunday, 4/15/12

Deep River Choir, Amiri Baraka (spoken words), David Murray (tenor saxophone), “Oh Freedom,” live

One reason this works so well is that none of the participants—not the singers, not Amiri Baraka, not David Murray—tries to take the performance over. How refreshing, and inspiring, in an age whose motto seems to be “look at me,” to come across folks so intent on serving—not dominating—a performance.

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