Friday, 7/1/11
scenes from New Orleans
(an occasional series)
Rebirth Brass Band, live, Maple Leaf Bar (where RBB plays Tuesday nights), New Orleans, 2011
“Big Chief”
***
“I Like It Like That”
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2011
2011
Tuesday, 6/28/11
Quiet beauty—what a novel concept these days.
*AR (Autumn Richardson, Richard Skelton), “Rise”
Vodpod videos no longer available.2011
Monday, 6/27/11
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, England (Bristol), 5/10/11
Vodpod videos no longer available.2011
Friday, 6/24/11
only rock ’n roll
(an occasional series)
Hasil Adkins with SCOTS (Southern Culture on the Skids), “Hubcap Hunch”
Live, Sleazefest, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1994
2011
Tuesday, 6/21/11
one man’s meat, etc.
(an occasional series)
The other night I happened upon a live set by this guy on WKCR-FM’s Live Constructions—after a few minutes, it felt as though someone had poured a bottle of Drano down my ears (which, actually, I mean as a compliment).
Rust Worship (Paul Haney), live, New York, 2009
Music? Noise? What’s the difference?
2011
Thursday, 6/16/11
serendipity
(an occasional series)
One of the things I love about radio—and, for my money, being able to tune in to radio stations from all over the world is one of the greatest things about the ’net—is that you can listen for hours, while doing this and that, as I was last night (WFMU-FM, The Push Bin with Lou), and not hear a single track, or even a single artist, that you’ve ever heard before, knowing all the while that whatever is playing means enough to at least one person (the DJ, that is) that, at that moment, it’s being shared, eagerly, with whoever happens to be listening.
Onmutu Mechanicks, “Calyx” (Echocord Jubilee Comp., Echocord, 2011)
Vodpod videos no longer available.2011
Saturday, 6/11/11
What would Monday’s featured artist sound like if he’d come along a generation later?
Tyondai Braxton (Anthony’s son), “Dead Strings,” live, 2009
Part 1
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Part 2
Vodpod videos no longer available.More? Here (with Battles, a group he’s since left).
**********
lagniappe
If you had to take five albums, books or DVDs on tour with you, which ones would they be, and why?
I picked 5 records and they are:
1. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & Marin Alsop: Takemitsu: The Flock Decsends Into The Pentagonal Garden
Honestly I always take this piece and the score with me on tour everywhere I go. It’s one of my favorite pieces.2. Fela Kuti: Underground System
This record is a force. Infectious.3. Black Dice: Miles Of Smiles
One of my favourites from this band. The mood it creates is wholly its own.4. Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Pierre Boulez: Boulez Conducts Varèse
Varese is where my head has been for the past couple of months. Amériques is such a mind boggling piece.5. The Bulgarian State Radio & Television Choir: Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares 1&2
Another go-to old favorite. Stop what you’re doing and order this right now.For DVDs, the complete Six Feet Under, The Wire and Entourage. Is any other network up to the challenge to even attempt to compete with an HBO series?
Books:
Donari Braxton: The Invisible Alphabet
New novel from my brother. It’s seriously amazing. He seems to have an inexhaustible amount of ideas and has such a great sense of control in his craft. I looked to him and his work when struggling to flesh out my own.Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
Such an incredible book. Ross fed into my already glorified view of the 20th century composers and made them into the lead characters in one of the most compelling stories I’ve ever read.John Adams: Hallelujah Junction
It’s great to hear a very down to earth narration of a composer who you respect.
*****
art beat
Lee Friedlander, Flowers and Trees (1981) (one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen), Tokyo 1977
2011
Friday, 6/10/11
recipe
Take 1 cup of James Brown’s emphatic funkiness.
Add 1 cup of Fred Astaire’s lighter-than-air elegance.
Stir. Let sit.
Add 2 cups of Jackie Wilson’s liquid grace.
Mix until thoroughly blended.
Michael Jackson, August 29, 1958-June 25, 2009
Michael Jackson does James Brown, live, Los Angeles, 1983
Vodpod videos no longer available.2011
Thursday, 6/9/11
kaleidoscopic, adj. 1. changing form, pattern, color, etc., in a manner suggesting a kaleidoscope. 2. continually shifting from one set of relations to another. E.g., the music of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Art Ensemble of Chicago (Roscoe Mitchell, saxophone; Joseph Jarman, saxophone; Lester Bowie, trumpet; Malachi Favors, bass; Don Moye, drums), live, Europe, 1980s
Part 1
One of my all-time favorite musicians—no matter the instrument, no matter the genre—is the guy playing bass. If I’m feeling down, he lifts me up. If I’m feeling good, he makes things even better.
***
Part 2
Vodpod videos no longer available.How many trumpeters play so many different colors?
***
Part 3
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Part 4
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Part 5
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Part 6
Vodpod videos no longer available.Avant-garde? Their use of polyphony recalls the earliest New Orleans jazz.
***
Part 7
Vodpod videos no longer available.How many musicians not only roam so widely but swing so hard?
**********
lagniappe
more
Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass, “Theme de Yoyo” (1970)
More? Here.
music clip of the day 