We are all from everywhere . . .
—Mai Lingani
Burkina Electric (with Mai Lingani, vocals; Wende K. Blass, guitar; Pyrolator [Kurt Dahlke], electronics; Lukas Ligeti [son of composer Gyorgy Ligeti], electronics, drums)
Live, Middletown, Connecticut (Wesleyan University), 2010
#1
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#2
Vodpod videos no longer available.More? Here.
Comedy, like jazz, is an art of syncopation.
Lenny Bruce, 1959 (with Cannonball Adderly, saxophone; Bill Evans, piano; Teddy Kotick, bass; Philly Joe Jones, drums)
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Yeah, I could do without all the extra blah-blah-blah, too.)
More Lenny? Here.
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lagniappe
radio
Today WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) is remembering George Shearing, who passed away Monday at the age of 91, with a memorial broadcast that runs until 9 p.m. (EST).
Some music circles back on itself, over and over, slowing time.
John Luther Adams
(not to be confused with the other John Adams)
“In the White Silence,” 1998 (excerpt)/The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Tim Weiss, conductor (2003 recording)
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
“Red Arc/Blue Veil” for piano, percussion, and tape sounds (excerpt)/live, Kentucky (Lexington [University of Kentucky]), 2008/Clint Davis, piano; Charlie Olvera, vibraphone, crotales
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Adams talks about his music
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
I admire a radio station where you can’t be certain when you first tune in—as happened to me yesterday afternoon, while working, when I turned on WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)—whether they’re playing a recording or having technical difficulties.
You weren’t there Saturday (neither was I); but, hey, we’re here now.
North Mississippi Allstars (Luther [guitar] & Cody [drums] Dickinson [sons of the wonderful Jim Dickinson]), “Let It Roll,” “Ain’t No Grave,” live, Atlanta (Criminal Records), 2/5/11
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lagniappe
Keys to the Kingdom (new album)
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reading table
Country Fair
If you didn’t see the six-legged dog,
It doesn’t matter.
We did, and he mostly lay in the corner.
As for the extra legs,One got used to them quickly
And thought of other things.
Like, what a cold, dark night
To be out at the fair.Then the keeper threw a stick
And the dog went after it
On four legs, the other two flapping behind,
Which made one girl shriek with laughter.She was drunk and so was the man
Who kept kissing her neck.
The dog got the stick and looked back at us.
And that was the whole show.—Charles Simic
Simic reads this here, beginning at 2:08:
Vodpod videos no longer available.Music, like people, comes in all kinds. Some is easy to embrace, some thorny. I wouldn’t want to live without either.
Milton Babbitt, May 10, 1916-January 29, 2011
About Time, Alan Feinberg, piano
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String Quartet No. 2, Composers Quartet
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lagniappe
His music can be playful, too.
Semi-Simple Variations, The Bad Plus
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If you know anybody who knows more popular music of the ’20s or ’30s than I do, I want to know who it is. I grew up playing every kind of music in the world, and I know more pop music from the ’20s and ’30s, it’s because of where I grew up. We had to imitate Jan Garber one night; we had to imitate Jean Goldkette the next night. We heard everything from the radio; we had to do it all by ear. We took down their arrangements; we stole their arrangements; we transcribed them, approximately. We played them for a country club dance one night and for a high school dance the next.
How many musicians are so at home, and give so much pleasure,
in so many styles?
Marc Ribot, guitar
Border Music, with David Hidalgo (Los Lobos, Latin Playboys)
Live (with Anthony Coleman, organ; Brad Jones, bass; Cougar Estrada, drums; Fabian Hevia, percussion), Australia (Sydney), 6/2/10
“Choserita Plena” (Marc Ribot)
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“Chinese Surprize” (David Hidalgo)
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Live (with Rob Burger, keyboards; Greg Cohen, bass; Cougar Estrada, drums; with guests Juan Medrano Cotito, cajon, and Hugo Bravo, congas),
Germany, 11/10/09
I can’t make up my mind about the Internet.
Does it make it possible, with simply a click, to travel anywhere in the world?
Or is it just a vast collection of electronic wallpaper?
Are these the right questions?
Baloji, “Tout Ceci Ne Vous Rendra Pas le Congo” (Hotel Impala), 2007
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lagniappe
radio
Having just completed two days of trumpeter Roy Eldridge’s music, WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) begins a 24-hour Memorial Broadcast honoring composer Milton Babbitt, who passed away Saturday at the age of 94.
Feeling lousy?
This’ll make you feel good.
Feeling good?
This’ll make you feel better.
It ain’t subtle. And sometimes their energy outdistances their musicianship.
But when they’re on their game, it jumps.
Bahamas Shed Session with drummers Mannix Evans, Ken McKenzie, Samuel Murphy & Christian Pratt; live; Bahamas (Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Nassau)
Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
Vodpod videos no longer available.two takes
The other night, as my older son Alex packed up his stuff for the next day’s trip back to school, this played on his computer—over and over and over.
The Mountain Goats, “This Year”
#1: recording (The Sunset Tree), 2005
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#2: live, Iowa (Ames), 2006
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lagniappe
art beat
Lee Friedlander, New York City (Self-Portrait), c. 1960(?)
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More Son Seals
Last night I discovered that two of the sets Son played at the Bottom Line in January of 1978 can be heard here and here. The second features a guest
artist—Johnny Winter.
music clip of the day 