what’s new
Tim Berne (alto saxophone), Matt Mitchell (piano), Dave King (drums), live, New York, 1/7/19
**********
lagniappe
reading table
in my thatched hut
even dreaming
the cold—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
what’s new
Miguel Zenón (alto saxophone, compositions) featuring Spektral Quartet, live (“Rosario,” “Milagrosa,” “Villabeño”), Washington, D.C., 1/4/19
**********
lagniappe
reading table
thin wall—
from the mouse’s hole
the cold—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
what’s new
Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone), Marilyn Crispell (piano), Carmen Castaldi (drums), playing and talking about their forthcoming album, Trio Tapestry (published 1/8/19)
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
Here, rehearsing, is the most influential pianist in jazz of the last fifty years.
Bill Evans (piano, 1929-1980), Eddie Gomez (bass), Alex Riel (drums), live, Denmark (Copenhagen), 1966
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
The ‘open’ voicings that Evans used [i.e., leaving out a chord’s root note] were not new . . . . They had been there in ‘classical’ music since the early part of the century, since Bartok and Stravinsky. But they were new to jazz, and they opened up melody and flow in new ways.
—Martin Williams, The Jazz Tradition (2d ed. 1983)
*****
Bill had this quiet fire that I loved on piano. The way he approached it, the sound he got was like crystal notes or sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall.
—Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography (with Quincy Troupe, 1989)
sounds of New York
Tim Berne (alto saxophone), Michael Formanek (bass) Andrew Cyrille (drums), live, New York, 2018
**********
lagniappe
reading table
One need not be a Chamber – to be Haunted –
—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), from 407 (Franklin)
sounds of London
NÉRIJA, “The Fisherman,” live (studio), 2016
**********
lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of London
Yussef Dayes (drums) and Alpha Mist (keyboards), with Mansur Brown (guitar), Rocco Palladino (bass), “Love Is the Message,” live (studio), 2018
**********
lagniappe
reading table
opening the window
I see the butterfly off . . .
into the field—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
more
Heaven: hearing, together, a favorite drummer and a favorite bassist.
Ed Blackwell (drums, 1929-1992) with Malachi Favors (bass, 1927-2004) and Dewey Redman (tenor saxophone, 1931-2006), “Paris? Oui” (Tarik), 1969
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
voices I miss
This drummer never fails to lift my spirits.
Ed Blackwell (drums, 1929-1992) with Mal Waldron (piano), Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone), Woody Shaw (flugelhorn), Reggie Workman (bass), “The Git Go” (M. Waldron), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1985
#1
***
#2
***
#3
what’s new
David Leon (alto saxophone, compositions) & Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone), live, New York, 11/29/18
**********
lagniappe
reading table
The Constructed Space
by W. S. Graham (1918-1986)
Meanwhile surely there must be something to say,
Maybe not suitable but at least happy
In a sense here between us two whoever
We are. Anyhow here we are and never
Before have we two faced each other who face
Each other now across this abstract scene
Stretching between us. This is a public place
Achieved against subjective odds and then
Mainly an obstacle to what I mean.
It is like that, remember. It is like that
Very often at the beginning till we are met
By some intention risen up out of nothing.
And even then we know what we are saying
Only when it is said and fixed and dead.
Or maybe, surely, of course we never know
What we have said, what lonely meanings are read
Into the space we make. And yet I say
This silence here for in it I might hear you.
I say this silence or, better, construct this space
So that somehow something may move across
The caught habits of language to you and me.
From where we are it is not us we see
And times are hastening yet, disguise is mortal.
The times continually disclose our home.
Here in the present tense disguise is mortal.
The trying times are hastening. Yet here I am
More truly now this abstract act become.
music clip of the day 