music clip of the day

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Category: jazz

2013

Tuesday, November 12th

Muhal Richard Abrams’ Experimental Band,* live, Austria (Saalfelden Jazz Festival), 2012

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Music, like conversation, war, baseball, and sex, gives us a way to interact.

*****

random thoughts

Every year it comes as a surprise—first snow.

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*Muhal Richard Abrams, piano; Henry Threadgill, alto saxophone; Roscoe Mitchell, alto & soprano saxophone; Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet; Amina Claudine Myers, piano; George Lewis, trombone; Leonard Jones, bass; Thurman Barker, vibes, percussion; Reggie Nicholson, drums.

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2013

Monday, November 4th

three takes

This guy, like Monk, could take a familiar form, open it up, and create something both old and new.

Julius Hemphill (1938-1995), “The Hard Blues”

Live (with members of the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra and the Either/Orchestra),  Boston, 1989


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Recording (JH, alto saxophone, flute; Baikida E.J. Carroll, trumpet; Hamiet Bluiett, baritone saxophone; Abdul Wadud, cello; Philip Wilson, drums), recorded 1972 (first released on Coon Bid’ness, 1975)

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Recording (Julius Hemphill, alto saxophone; Marty Ehrlich, soprano and alto saxophone, flute; Carl Grubbs, soprano and alto saxophone; James Carter, tenor saxophone; Andrew White. tenor saxophone; Sam Furnace, baritone saxophone, flute), 1991

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lagniappe 

art beat

Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, c. 1940

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2013

Tuesday, October 22nd

two takes

“I Thought About You” (J. Van Heusen & J. Mercer)

Jeanne Lee (vocals) with Mal Waldron (piano), et al.
Live, France (Marciac), 2000

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Mildred Bailey (vocals) with Benny Goodman (clarinet), et al.
Recording, 1939


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lagniappe

art beat

Garry Winogrand (1928-1984)

GarryW

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2013

Monday, October 21st

sounds of Chicago

Art Ensemble of Chicago (Roscoe Mitchell, saxophones, percussion; Joseph Jarman, saxophones, percussion, electric guitar; Lester Bowie [MCOTD Hall of Famer], trumpet, percussion; Malachi Favors, bass, percussion; Don Moye, drums, percussion [first clip])

Live, Chicago (Jazz Showcase), 1981


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Recording (“Rock Out”), 1969

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2013

Monday, October 14th

less is more*

Rashied Ali (drums), Leroy Jenkins (violin), “Swift Are the Winds of Life,” 1975


*****

*Sometimes, anyway.

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2013

Thursday, October 10th

alone

Need a jump-start?

Cecil Taylor (1929-), piano, “Looking (Berlin Version) Solo,” live, Berlin, 1989


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lagniappe

musical thoughts

When you are playing, whether you know it or not, you are dancing.

—Cecil Taylor

*****

art beat

Lee Friedlander (1934-)

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2013

Monday, October 7th

tonight*

Andrew Hill (1931-2007), “Smoke Stack”

Vijay Iyer Trio (VI, piano; Stephan Crump, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums), Historicity, 2009

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Andrew Hill (with Richard Davis, bass; Eddie Khan, bass; Roy Haynes, drums), Smoke Stack (AKA Smokestack), 1966 (rec. 1963)

This is one of my favorite albums of all time, of any artist, on any instrument.

—Vijay Iyer

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

More and more I find myself seeking sounds that don’t convey a particular feeling or mood but, instead, create a space I can inhabit, physically, emotionally, intellectually, if only for a short while.

*****

*On WKCR-FM (Columbia University), from 6-9 p.m. (EST), Vijay Iyer, pianist, composer, recent MacArthur “genius” grant winner, future Harvard professor, will be joining host Mitch Goldman “for a deep focus on Andrew Hill.”

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2013

Monday, September 30th

never enough

Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano, compositions; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), “Epistrophy,” “Straight, No Chaser,” “Hackensack,” “Rhythm-a-Ning,” “Epistrophy,” live (TV show, Jazz 625 [BBC]), England, mid-’60s

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2013

Saturday, September 28th

good news, bad news

24 Recipients of MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant Named

—New York Times, 9/24/13

First the bad news: MCOTD was passed over, again. The good news? This guy, often featured here, wasn’t.

Vijay Iyer (1971-), pianist, composer, soon-to-be Harvard professor

“Imagine” (J. Lennon), live, Germany (Leverkusen), 2011

*****

“Actions Speak” (V. Iyer), live (Stephan Crump, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums), New York, 2012

*****

“Somewhere” (L. Bernstein), recording (Stephan Crump, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums), Historicity, 2009

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

the stillness of the valley
is itself a kind of music

—Du Fu (AKA Tu Fu; 712-770; “Visting the Fengxian Monastery” [excerpt]; translated from Chinese by David Young)

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2013

Wednesday, September 18th

serendipity

Yesterday. Late afternoon, working on an old murder case. Happen upon this: windows open, letting in a breeze.

Mary Halvorson Quintet (MH, guitar, compositions; Jon Irabagon, alto saxophone; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; John Hebert, bass; Ches Smith, drums), “Love in Eight Colors,” “Hemorrhaging Smiles,” live, Washington, D.C., 2013

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lagniappe

reading table

From now on
it’s all clear profit,
every sky.

—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), on his fiftieth birthday (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)

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