(Yeah, the fact that I’m posting four tracks by this guy shows how much his music, which I just encountered recently, has been getting under my skin.)
(Originally posted on 11/23/09.)
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lagniappe
[Russell’s] various distinctions—folkie, art-music songwriter and improviser, dance-club maven—seem incoherent until you hear several of his records. When musicians get angry about being categorized by critics, I usually feel frustrated: readers, after all, want to know what the record sounds like. With Russell, I take the musicians’ angle. Just listen to it and you’ll understand.
For Arthur, there was no cachet to being eclectic. Rather, he played across genre because it would have required a colossal and entirely counterproductive effort on his part to stick to one sound. . . . Drifting into an ethereal, gravity-defying zone, Arthur had come to embody the interconnectivity of music.
Christian Wolff (composer, piano, melodica; with Larry Polansky, guitar; Robyn Schulkowsky, vibraphone, miscellaneous percussion; Robert Black, bass; Joey Baron, drums), “Quintet,” live (performance followed by conversation), New York (Roulette), 12/12/09
To these ears, this is just inches shy of insufferable—too cute, too precious, too fey. But those inches make all the difference. As it is, I find it beguiling.
Clare and the Reasons, “Wake Up (You Sleepyhead),” 2009
For those who’re interested in such genealogical details (and are old enough to remember), Clare is the daughter of Geoff Muldaur.
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lagniappe
reading table
Utterly unbelievable, incontrovertibly real: his poems, at their best, have the associative logic of a dream.
music clip of the day 