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Category: jazz

Thursday, April 3rd

passings

George Freeman (guitarist), April 10, 1927-April 1, 2025

Birth Sign,* 1970 (Delmark Records)

When, fifty years ago, I first heard this album, I thought it was wonderful. I still do.

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*1. “Mama, Papa, Brother” 2. “Cough It Up” 3. “My Scenery” 4. “Must Be, Must Be” 5. “Birth Sign” 6. “Hoss” 7. “My Ship”

George Freeman, guitar; Lester Lashley, trombone (track 4); Von Freeman (brother, MCOTD Hall of Fame), tenor saxophone (tracks 2-3, 6-7); Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, tenor saxophone (track 4); Sonny Burke, organ (tracks 1–6); Robert Pierce, organ (track 4); Billy Mitchell, drums

Tuesday, April 1st

what’s new

Paal Nilssen-Love (drums, percussion), Jim O’Rourke (guitar), Ken Vandermark (reeds), live, Japan (Club Sakuraza, Kofu), 2024 (published 3/10/25)

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Illinois

Tuesday, March 25th

sounds of 1940

Raymond Scott And His Orchestra (feat. Walter Gross, piano), “Creepy Weepy” (R. Scott), 1940

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Oak Park, Illinois

Saturday, March 1st

From Miles Davis to the NYC Subway: The Forgotten Jazz Legend Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (Danilo Parra, director), published (YouTube) 2/20/25

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Illinois

Wednesday, February 12th

Some performances just keep building, getting better, and better, and better.

Steve Coleman Five Elements (SC, alto saxophone, compositions; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; Anthony Tidd, bass; Sean Rickman, drums; Kokayi, vocals), live, Spain (Donostia San Sebastian), 2022

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Chicago

Wednesday, January 22nd

my back pages

On a cold, snowy night forty-eight years ago, at a church thirty miles north of Chicago, my wife, Suzanne, and I were married. Tenor saxophonist Von Freeman (1923-2012, MCOTD Hall of Fame) and pianist John Young (1922-2008) provided the music, playing before the ceremony (“Over the Rainbow,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “More”); during (Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” [unaccompanied saxophone], as Suzanne walked down the aisle), and after (“My Favorite Things,” “Song for My Father”). All of what they played that night can be heard here (0:14-).

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Chicago

Thursday, January 16th

what’s new

Marshall Allen (1924-, alto saxophone, composition), “New Dawn” (Knoel Scott, lyrics), feat. Neneh Cherry (vocals), published 1/15/25

Tuesday, December 31st

sounds of Chicago

DKV Trio (Hamid Drake [MCOTD Hall of Fame], drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, reeds), live, Chicago, 12/28/24

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lagniappe

random sights

Dingle Peninsula, Ireland, 2017

Thursday, December 19th

like nobody else

Cecil Taylor (1929-2018, piano), live, Washington, D.C., 1978

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lagniappe

art beat: other day, National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago), Day of the Dead exhibit

Tuesday, December 17th

alone

George Dumitriu (viola), “Four in One” (Thelonious Monk, 1917-1982), Amsterdam (Bimhuis), 2023

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Oak Park, Illinois (Conservatory)