tonight in Chicago
These guys are playing at Constellation, a performing-arts center on the northwest side.
Rempis Percussion Quartet (Dave Rempis, alto saxophone; Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten, bass; Frank Rosaly, drums; Tim Daisy, drums), live, Austria (Wels), 2013
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lagniappe
art beat
William Eggleston (1939-)
tonight in Chicago
These guys are playing at the Hideout, a small club on the northwest side.
Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone) & Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), live, Austria (Vienna), 3/8/14
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lagniappe
art beat
William Eggleston (1939-)
passings
Jimmy Scott, singer, July 17, 1925-June 12, 2014
“Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” live, New York (Birdland), 2000
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lagniappe
reading table
If you were to open up Iona’s chest and pour all the grief out of it, you would probably flood the entire planet, yet it is not visible.
—Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), “Grief” (often rendered as “Misery”; translated from Russian by Rosamund Bartlett)
Ornette, at 84, still plays some of the most haunting blues I’ve ever heard.
Ornette Coleman (alto saxophone), with Henry Threadgill (alto saxophone), David Murray (tenor saxophone), Savion Glover (tap dance), et al., live, New York (Prospect Park), 6/12/14
*****
With Don Cherry (trumpet), Charlie Haden (bass), Billy Higgins (drums), The Shape Of Jazz To Come, 1959
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), East 100th St., New York, 1966
sounds of Chicago
One-word review: mesmerizing.
Art Ensemble of Chicago, live, France (Chateauvallon), 1970
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lagniappe
reading table
Despite all my inner crumblings,
I’m still able to recognize a perfect day:
sea without shadow,
sky without wrinkles,
air hovering over me like a blessing.—Nina Cassian (1924-2014), “Summer X-Rays” (fragment)
voices I miss
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 1972
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), New York, 1980s
never enough
John Coltrane Quartet (JC, tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums), “Impressions” (J. Coltrane), live (TV show), 1963
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lagniappe
random thoughts
What did we do to deserve such a beautiful world?
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art beat
Francis Wolff, Blue Trane recording session (JC, tenor saxophone; Lee Morgan, trumpet; Curtis Fuller, trombone), Hackensack, N.J., 1957
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A big birthday shout-out to my oldest listening companion, my brother Don, with whom (as I’ve noted before) I’ve shared more musical experiences than I could ever count: the Beatles (Comiskey Park, 1965), the Velvet Underground (Kinetic Playground, 1968), the MC5 (Lincoln Park, 1968) . . .
more
Sun Ra & His Arkestra (with John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Take the ‘A’ Train” (B. Strayhorn), live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 1976
Happy (100th) Birthday, Sonny!
Sun Ra (AKA Herman “Sonny” Blount), May 22, 1914-May 30, 1993, keyboard player, composer, bandleader, singular spirit
Today, celebrating his centennial, we revisit a few favorites.
Sun Ra All Stars (SR, keyboards; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet, vocals; Lester Bowie, trumpet; Archie Shepp, tenor saxophone, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Marshall Allen, alto saxophone, percussion; Philly Joe Jones, drums; Clifford Jarvis, drums; Famadou Don Moye, drums, percussion), live, Germany (Berlin), 1983
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Sun Ra & His Arkestra, live, Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, 1974
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Sun Ra Arkestra (SR, piano; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again,” live, Rome, 1980
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Sun Ra (piano) & Walt Dickerson (vibraphone), “Astro” (Visions, 1978)
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR (Columbia University): Sun Ra all day—tomorrow, too.
voices I miss
Lester Bowie (1941-1999), trumpet (MCOTD Hall of Famer), with Brazz Brothers, “Summertime” (G. Gershwin), live, Germany (Jazz Baltica), 1993
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lagniappe
art beat: more from last week at the Art Institute of Chicago
Christopher Wool (1955-), Maggie’s Brain (1995)
