music clip of the day

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Category: jazz

Wednesday, January 30th

Old?

New?

Both?

Neither?

Bobby Bradford (cornet), Glenn Ferris (trombone), Mark Dresser (bass), “Purge” (G. Ferris), Los Angeles, 2009


A mathematician could, I’m sure, estimate how many different instrumental combinations you could expect to hear in your lifetime. What that number would be I have no idea. What I do know is that this particular combination—cornet, trombone, bass—is one that, in over fifty years of listening, I’ve never heard before.

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lagniappe

radio

Today the folks at WKCR-FM (Columbia University) are remembering trumpeter Roy Eldridge, who was born on this date in 1911 and lived until 1987, in the best possible way—they’re playing his music all day.

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reading table

[W]hen, in a simple case, one sees the barrister step forward, raise a robed arm and begin declaiming in an ominous voice, nobody dares look at their neighbors. Because to begin with one thinks it is grotesque, but then it seems it might be wonderful, and one waits to make up one’s mind.

—Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again (translated from French by Ian Patterson)

Tuesday, 1/22/13

soundtrack of a marriage

On my first date with Suzanne, in 1974, we went to Chicago’s Jazz Showcase (then upstairs on Lincoln, just south of Fullerton), where we saw Sun Ra & His Arkestra. With a start like that, how could one ever go wrong? When we got married, on this date in 1977, Von Freeman played at the wedding, with pianist John Young. Years later John told me: “When I marry ’em, they stay married.”

Sun Ra & His Arkestra, live, Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, 1974

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Von Freeman, live (with John Young, piano), “Remember,” Chicago (Jazz Showcase), New Year’s Eve 1983 (according to the clip) or 1979 (according to NPR)

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lagniappe

Want to hear what Von and John sounded like on that cold, snowy night thirty-six years ago, at a church north of Chicago? Here (give it a few seconds). As you’ll hear, they played before, during (the processional was Ellington’s “In A Sentimental Mood”), and after the ceremony.

Tuesday, 1/15/13

Listening to his stuff, which I’ve been doing for over thirty years, is like eating a particular fruit, a strawberry, say, or a plum—there’s nothing else like it.

Henry Threadgill’s Society Situation Dance Band
Live, Germany (Hamburg), 1988

#1

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#2

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#3

Wednesday, 1/9/2013

This I could listen to all day.

Neneh Cherry & The Thing (Mats Gustafsson, baritone saxophone; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass; Paal Nilssen-Love, drums), “Dream Baby Dream,” live, Spain (San Sebastian), 2012

Tuesday, 1/8/13

With just one horn, there’s a lot of space for the other players—the so-called “rhythm section”—to fill, which these guys do as well as anyone I’ve heard in a long time.

David Murray’s Black Saint Quartet (DM, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Lafayette Gilchrist, piano; Jaribu Shahid, bass; Hamid Drake, drums), live, Berlin, 2007

Wednesday, 1/2/13

Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble (ED, alto saxophone; Steve Berry, trombone; Darius Savage, bass; Isaiah Spencer, drums), live, Chicago, 2005

Saturday, 12/29/12

passings

Fontella Bass, singer, July 3, 1940-December 26, 2012

“Rescue Me,” TV Show (Shindig), 1965

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“Theme De Yoyo,” with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, 1970

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“God Has Smiled On Me,” with mother Martha Bass, brother David Peaston, Amina Claudine Myers (piano), Malachi Favors (bass), Phillip Wilson (drums), 1980

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“All That You Give,” with The Cinematic Orchestra, 2002

Wednesday, 12/26/12

tonight

These guys will be playing at the Hideout, a small club on Chicago’s near northwest side, which is where I’ll be too.

DKV Trio (Hamid Drake, drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, reeds), live, Italy (Sant’Anna Arresi Jazz Festival), 2008

Thursday, 12/20/12

what’s new

Bryan Ferry’s new album, The Jazz Age, which features songs from Roxy Music, as well as his solo career, refashioned as 1920s-style jazz instrumentals, is one of the stranger concept albums I’ve encountered in a long time—which I mean as a compliment.

Bryan Ferry, “Don’t Stop the Dance,” The Jazz Age
U.K. release, 11/26/12; U.S. release, 2/12/13

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lagniappe

Here’s the original (Boys and Girls, 1985).

Saturday, 12/8/12

 passings

Dave Brubeck, pianist, composer, bandleader
December 6, 1920-December 5, 2012

Dave Brubeck Quartet (DB, piano; Paul Desmond, alto saxophone; Gene Wright, bass; Joe Morello, drums), TV show (Jazz Casual with Ralph J. Gleason*), 1961 (followed by other clips)

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lagniappe

found words

japanese punk band with sousaphone

—Web search that brought someone here

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*Gleason, who died in 1975, had a hand in a lot of different things, including the Monterey Jazz Festival (cofounder, 1958) and Rolling Stone (cofounder, 1967).