Monday, June 11th
what’s new
One-word review: Wow!
Cooper-Moore (piano), live, New York (Vision Festival), 5/28/18
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Maywood, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: jazz
2018
Thursday, May 10th
MCOTD Hall of Fame
Hamid Drake (drums; MCOTD Hall of Fame), David Murray (tenor saxophone), live, 2017
(Taking a break—back in a while.)
2018
Thursday, April 26th
How many bands have not one but two MacArthur-certified “geniuses”?
Vijay Iyer Sextet (Vijay Iyer, keyboards, compositions [2013 MacArthur Fellow]; Tyshawn Sorey, drums [2017 MacArthur Fellow]; Stephan Crump, bass; Steve Lehman, alto saxophone; Graham Haynes, cornet and flugelhorn; Mark Shim, tenor saxophone), live, Ojai, Calif., 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2018
Wednesday, April 25th
passings
Bob Dorough, singer, songwriter, piano player, December 12, 1923-April 23, 2018
“Devil May Care” (B. Dorough, T. Kirk), live (studio), New York, 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2018
Tuesday, April 17th
serendipity
Last night I bumped into these guys via a live webcast from Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio. As here, their performance had what a friend calls “gather.”
Aram Shelton (alto saxophone), Håkon Berre (drums), live, Copenhagen, 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
cherry blossoms—
to my lowly sleeve
they cling—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2018
Wednesday, April 11th
what’s new
Dafnis Prieto Big Band (DP [drums, compositions], Peter Apfelbaum [saxophones, melodica], et al.), Back to the Sunset (with guests Henry Threadgill [alto saxophone; MCOTD Hall of Fame], Steve Coleman [alto saxophone], Brian Lynch [trumpet]), released 4/6/18
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2018
Saturday, April 7th
passings
Cecil Taylor, pianist, composer, bandleader, April 25, 1929-April 5, 2018
Today we celebrate his singular musical presence by revisiting a few favorites.
Live, 1981 (Imagine the Sound)
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With Max Roach (drums), live, New York (Columbia University), 2000
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With Harri Sjostrom (soprano saxophone), Tristan Honsinger (cello), Thurman Barker (marimba), Paul Lovens (drums), live, Germany (Hamburg), 1995
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I try to imitate on the piano the leaps in space a dancer makes.
—Cecil Taylor
2018
Thursday, April 5th
timeless
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (AB, drums; Lee Morgan, trumpet; Benny Golson, tenor saxophone; Bobby Timmons, piano; Jymie Merritt, bass), “Moanin'” (B. Timmons), live, Belgium (Brussels), 1959
2018
Tuesday, March 27th
How about two minutes of joy?
Felix Quartet (Michael Moore, alto saxophone; Wolter Weirbos, trombone; Wilbert de Joode, bass; Michael Vatcher, drums), live, 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
That gorgeous kite
rising
from the beggar’s shack.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
2018
Wednesday, March 21st
tonight in Chicago
They’ll be playing at Constellation.
The Thing (Mats Gustafsson, baritone saxophone; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass; Paal Nilssen-Love, drums), live, London, 2010
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music clip of the day 