never enough
Monk, that is.
“Rhythm-a-Ning,” (T. Monk)
Art Pepper Quartet (AP, alto saxophone; Milcho Leview, piano; Tony Dumas, bass; Carl Burnett, drums), live
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Tom Harrell Quintet (TH, trumpet, flugelhorn; Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophone; Danny Grissett, piano; Ugonna Okegwo, bass; Johnathan Blake, drums), live, Paris, 2008
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Given the number of lives that end in death, the odds of avoiding it seem slim.
alone
Ran Blake (1935-), pianist, composer, teacher, MacArthur “genius” grant winner
Above the Sadness (trailer), 2011
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Live, “Over the Rainbow,” Portugal (Lisbon), 2010
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Live (at home), 2001
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lagniappe
reading table
‘[L]ife holds thee; not thou it.’
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby Dick
sounds of Chicago
Michael Zerang and the Blue Lights (MZ, drums; Mars Williams, alto saxophone; Dave Rempis, baritone saxophone; Josh Berman, cornet; Kent Kessler, bass), live, Chicago (Hideout), 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
Now, in general, Stick to the boat, is your true motto in whaling; but cases will sometimes happen when Leap from the boat, is still better.
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
Thirty-seven years ago, at a church outside Chicago, my wife Suzanne and I were married. Saxophonist Von Freeman and pianist John Young played at the ceremony.* Afterward, at the nearby reception hall, this guy tickled the ivories. All three are now gone.
Blind John Davis (1913-1985), live, Canada, early ’80s
#1
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#2
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#3
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*Here’s how they sounded that night. (Give it a few seconds.)
passings
Roy Campbell Jr., trumpeter, September 29, 1952-January 9, 2014
Live (RC, pocket trumpet; Rasul Siddik, trumpet; Jobic Le Masson, piano; Aldridge Hansberry, drums), Paris, 2006
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lagniappe
reading table
In the dirty city
one rare glimpse—
mountain moon—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694, translated from Japanese by David Young)
Lucid, supple, propulsive: This stuff I could listen to all day.
Steve Lehman Octet (SL, alto saxophone; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; Tim Albright, trombone; Jeremy Viner, tenor saxophone; Jose Avila, tuba; Chris Dingman, vibraphone; Drew Gress, bass; Tyshawn Sorey, drums)
Live, Germany (Moers Festival), 2010
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Live, 2011
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lagniappe
art beat
Lee Friedlander (1934-), Japan (Tokyo), 1981
Last night this woman, who died of cancer in 2006, was very much alive, singing Bach on the radio.*
Johann Sebastian Bach, “Ich Habe Genug” (“I Have Enough,” church cantata), Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954-2006), 2003
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lagniappe
Christmas, 1948
Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Al Haig (piano), Tommy Porter (bass), Max Roach (drums), “White Christmas,” live, New York (Royal Roost), 12/25/48
*****
*WKCR-FM (Columbia University), Bach Festival, through New Year’s Eve.
passings
Larry Lujack, disc jockey, June 6, 1940-December 18, 2013
Live, WCFL-AM (Chicago), 12/23/72 (not ’73)
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lagniappe
Christmas, 1936
Fats Waller, “Swingin’ Them Jingle Bells” (1936)
*****
random thoughts
Sometimes I feel like a TV that works only on certain channels.
sounds of Chicago
Tonight these guys, who play all over the world, will be at a little club on the city’s northwest side, the Hideout, as will I.
DKV Trio (Hamid Drake, drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, reeds), live, Italy (Sant’Anna Arresi Jazz Festival), 2008
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Joy—no one gives me more than Hamid Drake.
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lagniappe
reading table
God keep me from ever completing anything.
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
two takes
This is, to these ears, exhilarating.
Tim Berne’s Snakeoil,* “Cornered (Duck)”
Live, New York (The Stone), 5/8/13
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Live, Washington, D.C (Atlas Performing Arts Center), 10/9/13
*****
lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music should be no more complex than it needs to be. And no matter how complicated it may actually be, it should never seem that way to the listener. If it does, immediacy has deteriorated into abstraction.
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*TB, alto saxophone; Oscar Noriega, bass clarinet, clarinet; Matt Mitchell, piano; Ches Smith, percussion.
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