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No one could convince me, when I’m listening to the clarinet, that any instrument is more beautiful.
Shabaka Hutchings, clarinet, with Kit Downes, keyboards; John Edwards, bass; Mark Sanders, drums; Leafcutter John, electronics; live, London (St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate), 7/14/11
Vodpod videos no longer available.Melody?
Just little fragments now and then.
Harmony?
None in the usual sense.
Rhythm?
Ditto.
What is there?
A sonic space you inhabit the way you would a dream.
Olivia Block, composer, sound artist, performer; “field recordings on damaged cassette tapes,” “controlled feedback from small speakers/contact mic,” “amplified autoharp” (YouTube post); Chicago (Saki Records), 2010
Vodpod videos no longer available.You’ve got to be bold, or nuts, or both to do what these Saki folks did last year in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood—open a new record store.
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lagniappe
reading table
summer moon—
there is no such thing
as a flawless night—Kobayashi Issa, 1812 (trans. David G. Lanoue)
serendipity
The other day, while I was listening to the radio,* this popped out.
Derek Bailey (guitar) & Tony Oxley (percussion, electronics)
“Sheffield Phantoms,” The Advocate, Tzadik, 2007 (rec. 1975)
Rarely do you hear something that’s both this “out” and this intimate.
*Afternoon New Music, WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University), Mon.-Wed., 3-6 p.m. (EST)
serendipity
The other night, as I listened to the radio,* this (“Patient Observation”) floated out of the speakers.
Falling From Trees, Neon Productions, music by Peter Broderick
Premiered at The Place, London, 1/09
Excerpt, Part 2, “Patient Observation”
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Full Length
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Falling From Trees is a 30-minute production set in a psychiatric hospital that delves into the mind of a resident patient. The piece explores how a neurological disease can alter your sense of self and relationship to the world and people around you. Peter Broderick’s score has been created solely on piano and strings; it is also the first time Broderick has created music specifically for dance.
*Mudd Up! with DJ/Rupture, WFMU-FM, Monday, 8 p.m. (EST), archived shows here
Mardi Gras Indians, New Orleans
Young Wild Magnolias, St. Joseph’s Night, 3/19/09
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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United Indian Practice, Handa Wanda, 1/2/11
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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Indian Practice, 7th Ward, 11/22/10
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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Spy Boy Demond, Seminoles, c. 2010
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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With some forms of musical expression, value is tied to scarcity: the smaller the number of people who can do something, the more highly it’s prized. But with others, the opposite is true: the more readily other folks can join in, the greater the value.
Today, in celebration of my son Alex’s 24th birthday, we revisit a few of the many posts he’s inspired.
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I’ve got a song for you to listen to . . .
—my (23-year-old) son Alex
tUnE-yArDs, “Bizness,” live, Austin (SXSW), 3/18/11
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted 4/30/11.)
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I’ve got a song for you to listen to . . .
—my (23-year-old) son Alex
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, “Say No To Love” (2010)
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted 12/28/10.)
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The other night, after falling asleep, my older son Alex (now 22) had an unexpected visitor—this guy showed up and began to play.
Vijay Iyer Trio (VI, piano; Marcus Gilmore, drums; Stephan Crump, bass)
“Galang,” recording session (Historicity), New York (Systems Two Studios), 2009
(Originally posted 6/30/10.)
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Someday, just as I sometimes do with my own father, who’s been gone for over thirty years, my older son Alex, now twenty-three, will recall occasions, after I’m gone, when he and I went out to hear live music together, like, for instance, last night, when we saw this group, from Africa, who are on their first U.S. tour.
Group Doueh, live, San Francisco, 7/1/11
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted, with a different clip, 6/27/11.)
Charisma needs no translation.
Mahmoud Ahmed & Badume’s Band, live, France (Festival de Sete), 2008
“Belomi Benna”
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
“Atawurulegn Lela”
Vodpod videos no longer available.Listening to the Cubs—baseball’s always been a radio game for me—just hasn’t been the same without Ronnie.
Ron Santo
Cubs’ radio color commentator (and player)
February 25, 1940-December 3, 2010
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, “My Oh My” (2010)
Vodpod videos no longer available.Dave Niehaus
Seattle Mariners’ radio play-by-play announcer
February 19, 1935-November 10, 2010
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lagniappe
random thoughts
One of many remarkable things about the world we live in is the variety of ways you can die. It’s easy to imagine a world in which there was just one cause of death—say, heart attack. But here we have strokes, too. And there is colon cancer, and liver cancer, and breast cancer, and brain cancer. Don’t forget infectious diseases: pneumonia, tuberculosis, AIDS. Daily folks depart in car crashes. You could also drown. If death were a product sold in stores, imagine how many aisles it would occupy.
Don Byron New Gospel Quintet (DB, tenor saxophone & clarinet; DK Dyson, vocals; Xavier Davis, piano; Brad Jones, bass; Pheeroan akLaff, drums), “Precious Lord” (T. A. Dorsey), live, Brazil (São Paulo), 2010
Vodpod videos no longer available.Last night I heard these folks live at the University of Chicago. Whenever I go out and hear someone, I’m reminded, again, that even (especially?) today, when records and the ’net make more music more available than ever before, there’s no substitute for live music. No recording offers the textures and nuances of a great live performance. (Never, for instance, have I heard a recording that truly reproduces the sounds of a drum kit, much less the interplay between horn and drums.) Not only is there more to hear live, your focus is sharper: you know you won’t have another opportunity to experience these sounds. And when you go to a club or a concert hall, you become, for that night, a member of an ad hoc musical community—something you can’t do sitting in your living room.
