music clip of the day

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Category: jazz

2013

Thursday, June 20th

In a world this fast what you need, sometimes, is something this slow.

Shirley Horn (1934-2005), “Summer (Estate)” (B. Martino & B. Brighetti), live, Switzerland (Bern), 1990


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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Space is a valuable commodity in music. Too many musicians rush through everything with too many notes. I need time to take the picture. A ballad should be a ballad. It’s important to understand what the song is saying, and learn how to tell the story. It takes time. I can’t rush it. I really can’t rush it.

—Shirley Horn

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art beat: more from the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago 

Statuette of a Female Figure
Cycladic, probably from the island of Keros
Early Bronze Age, 2600/2400 B.C.

184011_1466520

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2013

Tuesday, June 11th

two takes

“Lulu’s Back In Town” (H. Warren & A. Dubin)

Fats Waller, recording, 1935


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Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), live (TV studio), Norway (Oslo), 1960

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world. It depends on your imagination.

—Thelonious Monk

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2013

Monday, June 10th

old stuff

This I could listen to all day.

Fats Waller (1904-1943), “Numb Fumbling,” 1929


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lagniappe

reading table

Two of us
brush painting in turn;
autumn night.

—Ryokan, 1758-1831 (translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi [Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan])

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2013

Wednesday, May 22nd

sounds of Chicago

Want to hear a great solo? You’ve come to the wrong place. This isn’t about solos; it’s about interplay.

The Rempis Percussion Quartet,* live, Chicago (Hideout), 2010

#1

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*Dave Rempis, saxophones; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass; Tim Daisy, drums; Frank Rosaly, drums.

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2013

Monday, May 20th

two takes

“Take Five” (P. Desmond)

Ceramic Dog (Marc Ribot, guitar; Shahzad Ismaily, bass & percussion; Ches Smith, drums), live, Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2013


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Dave Brubeck Quartet (DB, piano; Paul Desmond, alto saxophone; Eugene Wright, bass; Joe Morello, drums), live, Germany, 1966


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lagniappe

art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry Tree, 1834

0032_s

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2013

Thursday, May 16th

keep on dancing

Charlie Parker (alto saxophone) with Ray Malone (tap dance), “Donna Lee,” TV show (Broadway Open House*), 1950

*Broadway Open House is network television’s first late-night comedy-variety series. It was telecast live on NBC from May 29, 1950 to August 24, 1951, airing weeknights from 11pm to midnight. One of the pioneering TV creations of NBC president Pat Weaver, it demonstrated the potential for late-night programming and led to the later development of The Tonight Show.

—Wikipedia

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2013

Wednesday, May 15th

tonight

I’m going, with my son Alex, to hear a quartet led by this Chicago-based saxophonist at the Hideout, a small club on the city’s northwest side.

Nick Mazzarella Trio (NM, alto saxophone; Anton Hatwich, bass; Frank Rosaly, drums), live, “Do Not Disturb,” live, Asheville, N.C., 2011

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Make the drummer sound good.

—Thelonious Monk

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2013

Wednesday, May 8th

Yesterday, listening to WKCR-FM (Columbia University), I bumped into this, a track I never tired of hearing when, in the ’70s, I was in college.

Bill Evans (1929-1980), piano, “Never Let Me Go” (Alone, 1968)

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2013

Wednesday, May 1st


Yeah, I love Mozart and Chopin, but I don’t want to listen to them every day. I don’t want to listen to anything every day. This stuff, to these ears, is utterly exhilarating.

Nels Cline (guitar), Dave Rempis (saxophones), Devin Hoff (bass), Frank Rosaly (drums), live, Chicago (Hideout), 2011

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

I discovered that there’s a kind of a hidden connection between R&B and free jazz: the need for that kind of visceral connection with the audience and for something to happen that moves people. I think that beyond R&B, it’s a feature of black music — the moment the solo builds and builds and at a certain point, it hits that cry. Knowing when that needs to happen is something that players from that tradition seem to have.

—guitarist Marc Ribot

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2013

Thursday, April 25th

Who better to sing about a ghost town than a band that’s survived not only Katrina but three—yes, three—homicides?*

Hot 8 Brass Band, “Ghost Town,” New Orleans, 2012

*As detailed in Wikipedia, in 1996 “seventeen-year-old trumpet player Jacob Johnson was found shot execution-style in his home”; in 2004 “trombone player Joseph ‘Shotgun Joe’ Williams was shot dead by police in controversial circumstances”; and in 2006 “drummer Dinerral “Dick” Shavers was shot and killed while driving with his family,” with a bullet intended for his fifteen-year-old stepson.

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