miscellaneous percussion | music clip of the day

Category: miscellaneous percussion

Tuesday, November 12th

Muhal Richard Abrams’ Experimental Band,* live, Austria (Saalfelden Jazz Festival), 2012

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Music, like conversation, war, baseball, and sex, gives us a way to interact.

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random thoughts

Every year it comes as a surprise—first snow.

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*Muhal Richard Abrams, piano; Henry Threadgill, alto saxophone; Roscoe Mitchell, alto & soprano saxophone; Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet; Amina Claudine Myers, piano; George Lewis, trombone; Leonard Jones, bass; Thurman Barker, vibes, percussion; Reggie Nicholson, drums.

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2013

Monday, November 11th

People talk about getting enough of this or that in their daily diet. But what about beauty? There’s an epidemic, unreported by TV, radio, newspapers, of beauty malnutrition.

Lou Harrison (1917-2003), Threnody for Carlos Chavez (1978); William Winant Percussion Group with David Abel (viola), live, Berkeley, Calif., 2010

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lagniappe

art beat: Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago (while waiting for the jury to return a verdict in a trial involving an alleged conspiracy to steal millions of dollars of diamonds)

Paul Cezanne, The Bay of Marseilles, Seen From L’Estaque, c. 1885

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2013

Thursday, November 7th

Feel like floating?

Morton Feldman (1926-1987), For Philip Guston (1984)
S.E.M. Ensemble, 2000

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2013

Monday, October 21st

sounds of Chicago

Art Ensemble of Chicago (Roscoe Mitchell, saxophones, percussion; Joseph Jarman, saxophones, percussion, electric guitar; Lester Bowie [MCOTD Hall of Famer], trumpet, percussion; Malachi Favors, bass, percussion; Don Moye, drums, percussion [first clip])

Live, Chicago (Jazz Showcase), 1981

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Recording (“Rock Out”), 1969

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2013

Wednesday, October 2nd

love it or hate it

Anthony Braxton 12+1tet, Composition 355, live, Italy (Venice), 2012

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Anthony, a MacArthur “genius” award winner (1994) and professor at Wesleyan University, talks about this and that:

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Music can take us places we’ve never been before, if we’re willing to listen to sounds we’ve never heard before.

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2013

Friday, August 23rd

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

Not many stars would handle this the way Prince does. Actually, what’s most impressive is what he doesn’t do. Given a guitar solo, he doesn’t try to steal the show—or even draw attention. Instead, he feeds the groove.

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lagniappe

reading table

Sophistication is upscale conformity.

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What is more yours than what always holds you back?

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The heart is a small, cracked cup, easy to fill, impossible to keep full.

—James Richardson, “Even More Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays from Vectors 3.0” (excerpts)

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2013

Friday, August 16th

sounds of Mali

Tired of having your feet on the ground?

Salif Keita, live, Netherlands (Hertme), July 6th

“A Demain”

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“Yamore”

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“Madan”

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2013

Thursday, August 15th

Strangeness, in today’s musical world, is sadly undervalued.

Daniel Higgs (vocals, banjo), live, London (Cafe Oto), 2011

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lagniappe

art beat: Tuesday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building)

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Cranes at Umezawa Manor in Sagami Province (from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji)

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reading table

Speaking of insomnia, last night I came upon this.

Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.

—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick

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2013

Friday, July 12th

D’Angelo (with Questlove, drums; Pino Palladino, bass; Kuumba Frank Lacy, trombone, trumpet; Chalmers “Spanky” Alford, guitar; Anthony Hamilton, vocals, et al.), live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 2000

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

No stage anywhere in the world can compare with the one that exists in the imagination. Where else can you find Jimi Hendrix jamming with Miles Davis? Sam Cooke singing with Smokey Robinson? Sly Stone taking everybody higher with Sun Ra?

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Happy Birthday, Suzanne!