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.
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])
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
#2
*Dave Rempis, saxophones; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass; Tim Daisy, drums; Frank Rosaly, drums.
two takes
“Take Five” (P. Desmond)
Ceramic Dog (Marc Ribot, guitar; Shahzad Ismaily, bass & percussion; Ches Smith, drums), live, Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2013
***
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
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.
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.
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)
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
#1
#2
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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
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.
He knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement.
Ahmad Jamal Trio (AJ [1930-], piano; Israel Crosby [1919-1962], bass; Vernel Fournier [1928-2000], drums), “Excerpts From The Blues” (not “Ahmad’s Blues”), TV show, 1959
