Saturday, June 6th
sounds of New Orleans
Why would anyone want to live anywhere else?
To Be Continued (TBC) Brass Band, live, New Orleans, 2012
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: miscellaneous percussion
2015
Tuesday, June 2nd
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!
2015
Sunday, May 31st
testify!
Anointed Brown Sisters, “Hold On,” live, LaFayette, Alabama (Mt. Sellers Baptist Church), 2011
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Each day I know less.
2015
Thursday, May 14th
Whether you live for 50 years, 500 years, or 5,000 years, it makes no difference: always there are new things to hear.
Dieter Ammann (1962-), Violation (1999); Lemanic Modern Ensemble (William Blank, cond.) with Karolina Öhman, cello; live, Russia (St. Petersburg), 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
The old pond—
a frog jumps in,
sound of water.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
2015
Monday, May 11th
career plans for the next life
Maybe, instead of those other things (tap dancer, rubboard player in a zydeco band, bass player in a reggae band, guitar player in a Malian band, cellist in a string quartet), I’ll be a bird.
John Luther Adams (1953-), songbirdsongs (1974-80), Callithumpian Consort (Stephen Drury, dir.), recording (2012)
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art beat
Tony Fitzpatrick (1958-), Lunch Drawing #48: A Bird for Bruce Lee
2015
Monday, April 27th
Of sounds there is no end.
Harry Bertoia (1915-1978), sound sculptures, Bally, Pennsylvania
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lagniappe
reading table
I found a bird this morning, down—down—on a little bush at the foot of the garden, and wherefore sing, I said, since nobody hears?
One sob in the throat, one flutter of bosom—’My business is to sing‘—and away she rose!
—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), letter to Dr. and Mrs. J. G. Holland, c. 1862
2015
Saturday, April 25th
Sometimes nothing is more enlivening than to hear something that sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before.
Rebecca Saunders (1967-), Fury II (2009); Remix Ensemble (Emilio Pomarico, cond.; Antonio Augusto Aguiar, bass), live, Portugal (Porto), 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
after the dance
right away, cutting
the morning grass—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2015
Tuesday, April 14th
yesterday in Chicago
He played a version of this, wonderfully, along with Steve Reich’s “New York Counterpoint” and Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” at the Chicago Cultural Center.
James Falzone, “Sighs Too Deep For Words,” live (studio performance), 2011
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Why settle for a mirror when you could have a window?
2015
Wednesday, March 25th
sounds of Chicago
Dave Rempis (tenor saxophone) & Tim Daisy (percussion), live, Chicago, 2013
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Sometimes it seems surprising that any of us survives even a single day in a world so sad.
2015
Friday, February 27th
sounds of Chicago
Goofiness is a much underrated virtue.
Mucca Pazza, live, Washington, D.C., 2015
music clip of the day 