No background. No foreground. Three lines, intertwining.
Dewey Redman (1931-2006), tenor saxphone; Malachi Favors (1927-2004), bass; Ed Blackwell (1929-1992), drums; “Paris? Oui!,” 1969
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), Duffy Circus, Ireland, 1967
Why not start the week with a parade?
Divine Ladies Social Aid and Pleasure Club Parade (with Stooges Brass Band), New Orleans, 2009
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lagniappe
art beat
Lee Friedlander (1934-), Second Liners, New Orleans, 1961
Happy Birthday, Thelonious!
Thelonious Monk, October 10, 1917-February 17, 1982, pianist, composer, bandleader
Live (TV studio),* Paris, 1969
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
A note can be as big as a mountain, or small as a pin. It only depends on a musician’s imagination.
—Thelonious Monk (Robin D. G. Kelley, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original)
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radio
WKCR-FM (Columbia University): all Monk, all day.
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*Set list:
1. Dreamland
2. Monk’s Mood (Version 1)
3. Thelonious
4. Reflections
5. Epistrophy
6. Round Midnight
7. Crepuscule With Nellie
8. Ugly Beauty
9. Monk’s Mood (Version 2)
10. Don’t Blame Me
11. Coming On The Hudson
12. Nice Work If You Can Get It
more Miles
Miles Davis Septet,* “Yesternow,” live, Norway (Oslo), 1971
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lagniappe
art beat
Lee Friedlander (1934-), Japan (Hiroshima), 1984
*MD (trumpet), Gary Bartz (alto saxophone), Keith Jarrett (keyboards), Michael Henderson (bass), Leon Chandler (drums), Don Alias (percussion), James “Mtume” Forman (percussion).
Passed over, again, for a MacArthur “genius” grant? Me, too. This guy, though, has reason—625,000 reasons—to celebrate.
Steve Coleman and Five Elements,* live, Switzerland (Cully Jazz Festival), 2013
Steve Coleman took up the alto saxophone when he was a freshman at South Shore High School and within a few years inevitably was drawn into the orbit of one of Chicago’s greatest jazzmen: Von Freeman.
It was Freeman, a tenor saxophone giant who died two years ago at age 88, who welcomed Coleman into the rigors of the jazz life, setting him on a course that has led to Coleman winning one of America’s most prestigious and lucrative arts awards, a MacArthur Fellowship. Like each recipient, Coleman will receive a total of $625,000, dispensed quarterly over the next five years, from the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
“I realized that (Freeman) is a major player, and he’s right here in the neighborhood,” recalls Coleman, who lives in Allentown, Pa., but always has considered himself a product of musical Chicago.
“He’s somebody I consider one of my mentors, but the rest of the city too. There were a lot of local players I was into,” adds Coleman, citing especially altoist Bunky Green. “Even the blues scene. I’d go to Theresa’s and the Checkerboard — everything about the city influenced me, but mainly the South Side.”
*SC (1957-), alto saxophone; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; Anthony Tidd, bass; Sean Rickman, drums.
tonight in Chicago
These guys will be at the Hideout, as will I.
Survival Unit III (Joe McPhee, tenor saxophone, pocket trumpet; Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello; Michael Zerang, drums), live, Denmark (Copenhagen), 2013
I could live a thousand years and never tire of going out in the dark to hear music.
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lagniappe
art beat: Monday at the Art Institute of Chicago (brief stop after lunch)
Josef Koudelka (1938-), Slovakia, 1963 (from Gypsies)
Nationality Doubtful, through September 21st
Following up on Friday’s post, here are a couple more early favorites.
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October 15, 2009
How to be both solid and fluid, both fat and delicate. How to make the beat breathe. These are things that, as a child, Philly Joe Jones began to learn while dancing—tap-dancing. Just watch the way Thelonious Monk, listening to this solo, rocks back and forth (1:25-1:50), as if he’s about to break into a little dance himself.
Philly Joe Jones, live (with Thelonious Monk), 1959
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October 3, 2009
Here are two New Orleans drummers who embrace the Muhammad Ali aesthetic: float like a butterfly (0:56-1:58, etc.), sting like a bee (1:59, etc.).
Dwayne Williams (bass drum) and Jason Slack (snare), live (before a gig), Hudson, New York, 2007
alone
One-word review: Wow!
Matthew Shipp (piano), live (music starts at 5:00), Chicago, 8/27/14
Today, MCOTD‘s fifth anniversary, we revisit a few early favorites.
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September 5, 2009
One left Cuba after the revolution, the other stayed. Here they play together: pianists—father and son—Bebo (1918-2013) and Chucho (1941-) Valdes.
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September 11, 2009
If spirit could be sold, New Orleans would be rich.
Rebirth Brass Band, live, New Orleans, 2009
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September 23, 2009
May, 2012
Nobel-Prize-winning economist devises a way to turn faces—images of them, that is—into marketable commodities: the more expressive the face, the greater the value.
March, 2013
Haiti is named one of the world’s wealthiest countries.
Arcade Fire, “Haiti”
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Without music where would we be?
summer in the (small) city
Tom Harrell Colors of a Dream,* live, Iowa City, 7/5/14
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*Tom Harrell, trumpet; Jaleel Shaw, alto saxophone; Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophone; Esperanza Spalding, bass, vocals; Uganna Okegwo, bass; Jonathan Blake, drums.
