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Category: reading table

Monday, May 30th

Vancouver folkie + iconic Memphis rhythm section.

This should never have worked.

But it does, wonderfully.

Frazey Ford, “September Fields” (Indian Ocean), 2014


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lagniappe

reading table

The climate is pretty.
I wrote everything on it.
That’s the activity where it
gets relatively inauspicious.

***

And you were sitting there
in the night of life. It sure was good.
My favorite desserts were there.
And when they invite you, it’s like an important document
goes missing. I’ll give you an example:
a twelve-year struggle upstate, in
the slick atmosphere of the breakfast room.
It might have gotten stuck in her farthingale.

Otherwise no reply.

—John Ashbery (1927-), “As Someone Who Likes Travel,” fragments (New Yorker, 5/30/16)

To read Ashbery is to read English as a foreign language—which I mean as a compliment.

Wednesday, May 25th

Unfailing clarity, lyricism—how apt to hear him shortly after Mozart.

Sonny Rollins, live (“On Green Dolphin Street,” “St. Thomas,” “Four”), Denmark, 1968*


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lagniappe

reading table

dripping from the flower vendor’s
display
morning dew

—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1828 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)

*****

*With Kenny Drew (piano), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass), Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums).

Monday, May 23rd

I love his approach to Mozart. He’s never fussy or mannered. He plays simply, directly—like a bird flying from tree to tree.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major (:07-), Fantasia in C minor (22:42-), Sonata No. 14 in C minor (39:54-); Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), live, Germany (Munich), 1990


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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Mozart was a kind of idol to me—this rapturous singing . . . that’s always on the edge of sadness and melancholy and disappointment and heartbreak, but always ready for an outburst of the most delicious music.

Saul Bellow (1915-2005)

***

reading table

If, instead of the words ‘good’ or ‘right’ (or ‘sacred’) we use the words ‘beautiful’ or ‘pleasurable’ or ‘enlivening,’ . . . how would our lives be different?

—Adam Phillips, Unforbidden Pleasures (quoted in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review)

Sunday, May 22nd

old school

Tommy Ellison & The Singing Stars, “I’m Not the Same Person,” live, Hempstead, N.Y., 2007


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lagniappe

reading table

I hear a river thro’ the valley wander
Whose water runs, the song alone remaining.

—Trumbull Stickney (1874-1904), “Dramatic Fragments,” excerpt

*****

random sights

yesterday morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)

FullSizeRender (78)

Friday, May 13th

more Prince

“I Wanna Be Your Lover,” live, Capitol Theatre (Passaic, N.J.), 1982


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lagniappe

reading table

Whatever we’re dealing with catches us
in mid-reconsideration. It’s beautiful,
my lord, just not made to be repeated,
that’s all.

***

It was a moment, what can I say.

—John Ashbery (1927-), Breezeway (2015), fragments (“A Breakfast Radish,” “Domani, Dopodomani”)

Thursday, May 12th

sounds of New York

Music is, in part, a function of place. Can you imagine these sounds coming out of San Diego?

Charles Gayle Trio (CG, tenor saxophone, piano; Larry Roland, bass; Michael Wimberly, drums), live, Germany (Cologne), 2012


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lagniappe

reading table

It might be lonelier
Without the Loneliness –

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 535 (Franklin), fragment

Tuesday, May 10th

never enough

What do I watch when he’s at the piano? His feet.

Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano, compositions; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), live, France (Amiens), 1966


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lagniappe

reading table

Thought forms in the soul in the same way clouds form in the air.

—Joseph Joubert (1754-1824), 1786 (The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, translated from French by Paul Auster)

(Thanks to Orange Crate Art for introducing me to Joubert.)

Sunday, May 1st

Who needs instruments?

McCauley Spiritual Singers, c. 1960

“Jesus Gave Me Water”


***

“Jesus Said Live Holy”


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lagniappe

reading table

A word that breathes distinctly
Has not the power to die

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 1715 (Franklin), fragment

(Taking a break—back in a while.)

Wednesday, April 27th

sounds of Chicago

Ralph Shapey (1921-2003), Three for Six (1979); Oerknal!, live, Netherlands (The Hague, Amsterdam) 2014


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lagniappe

reading table

He ate and drank the precious Words—
His Spirit grew robust—
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was Dust—
He danced along the dingy Days
And this Bequest of Wings
Was but a Book—What Liberty
A loosened spirit brings—

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 1593 (Franklin)

 

Friday, April 22nd

passings

Prince, singer, songwriter, master of all (musical) trades, June 7, 1958-April 21, 2016

Today, remembering him, we revisit a post from last year.

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With all he does, this can get lost: on guitar, he’s a killer.

Cee Lo Green, “Crazy,” live (with Prince, guitar), New York, 2011


***

Stevie Wonder, “Superstition,” live (with Prince, guitar), Paris, 2010


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lagniappe

reading table

I am alive—I guess—

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #605 (Franklin), first line