sounds of India
day one
Nikhil Banerjee (1931-1986), sitar, Raag Jaijaiwanti, live recording
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lagniappe
reading table
Everything only connected by “and” and “and.”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), “Over 2,000 Illustrations and a Complete Concordance”
string festival
day three
Wolfgang Rihm (1952-), String Quartet No. 13
Arditti Quartet, live, London, 2012
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lagniappe
reading table
One peers down into regions where one’s feet would never, never have trod, because in certain regions, indeed in most, one has no purpose whatever.
—Robert Walser (1878-1956), “Balloon Journey,” 1914 (translated from German by Christopher Middleton)
string festival
day one
György Ligeti (1923-2006), Sonata for Solo Cello (1948-53); Matt Allen, live, Westport, N.Y., 2009
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lagniappe
reading table
the butterfly I passed
two miles back
is ahead now—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Rothko Chapel (1971); Seattle Modern Orchestra (with Julia Tai, conductor; Melia Watras, viola; Stephen Olsen, celesta; Brian Yarkovsky, percussion; Sarah Marroquin, soprano), live, Seattle, 2012
Today Morton Feldman enters the MCOTD Hall of Fame, joining saxophonists Von Freeman and Henry Threadgill, trumpeter Lester Bowie, poets William Bronk and Wislawa Szymborska, photographer Helen Levitt, and gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates.
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lagniappe
reading table
This performance reminds me at times of Emily Dickinson:
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air—
Between the Heaves of Storm——No. 591 (Johnson), “I heard a Fly buzz”
*****
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Jean-Luc Mylayne (1946-), No. 560, 2008 (Mutual Regard, through August 23rd)
sounds of Chicago
Here, set to music, is a poem by Dorothy Parker (1893-1967).
Katie Ernst, “Bric-a-Brac” (music by K. Ernst), live (studio performance), Chicago, 2015
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Little things that no one needs—
Little things to joke about—
Little landscapes, done in beads.
Little morals, woven out,
Little wreaths of gilded grass,
Little brigs of whittled oak
Bottled painfully in glass;
These are made by lonely folk.Lonely folk have lines of days
Long and faltering and thin;
Therefore—little wax bouquets,
Prayers cut upon a pin,
Little maps of pinkish lands,
Little charts of curly seas,
Little plats of linen strands,
Little verses, such as these.
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langiappe
random sights and sounds
Last night, while riding my bike in Chicago’s Columbus Park, I bumped into this—a performance by Isabelle Olivier (harp), Larry Gray (bass), and Paul Wertico (drums).
And, too, this great blue heron.
MCOTD Hall of Fame
Henry Threadgill’s Zooid,* live, Washington, D.C., 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
Nothings’s a Gift
by Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012; translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak)Nothing’s a gift, it’s all on loan.
I’m drowning in debts up to my ears.
I’ll have to pay for myself
with my self,
give up my life for my life.Here’s how it’s arranged:
The heart can be repossessed,
the liver, too,
and each single finger and toe.Too late to tear up the terms,
my debts will be repaid,
and I’ll be fleeced,
or, more precisely, flayed.I move about the planet
in a crush of other debtors.
Some are saddled with the burden
of paying off their wings.
Others must, willy-nilly,
account for every leaf.Every tissue in us lies
on the debit side.
Not a tentacle or tendril
is for keeps.The inventory, infinitely detailed,
implies we’ll be left
not just empty-handed
but handless too.I can’t remember
where, when, and why
I let someone open
this account in my name.We call the protest against this
the soul.
And it’s the only item
not included on the list.
*****
the beat goes on
Two thousand posts—and counting.
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*HT (flute, alto saxophone), Liberty Ellman (guitar), Jose Davila (tuba, trombone), Christopher Hoffman (cello), Elliot Humberto Kavee (drums).
sounds of Mali
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba, “Siran Fen,” 2015
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lagniappe
reading table
my rice field too
song by song
is planted—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
*****
The Beatles (Comiskey Park). The Who (Kinetic Playground). The Velvet Underground (Kinetic Playground). The MC5 (Lincoln Park). Bob Marley (Quiet Knight). The list goes on and on. My musical life is unimaginable without the experiences I’ve had with my brother Don, who turns 65 today. Happy Birthday!
sounds of Niger
Mdou Moctar, “à la maison,” live, Niger (Ingall), 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
Neither question nor assertion makes sense / when truth is a tone of voice.
—Karen Solie, “Interior” (The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out)
How about something new?
PRISM Quartet and Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), excerpts from “15 Places at the Same Time” (S. Lehman), live, Philadelphia, 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
There’s a reason it’s called the nervous / system.
—Karen Solie, “Ode” (The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out)
Sit back. Close your eyes. Listen—just listen.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major (“Waldstein”); Emil Gilels (1916-1985), live
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lagniappe
reading table
My boys.
I don’t have them to hold. What do I do with my arms?
—Sonali Deraniyagala, Wave
music clip of the day 