only rock ‘n’ roll
Big Star (with Alex Chilton), “In the Street,” live (TV show), 1994
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Replacements, “Alex Chilton,” live (TV show), 2014
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
[M]y favorite songs . . . make[] me feel more able to go out and live.
—George Saunders, New York Times Magazine, 3/10/16 (on-line)
more
Steve Reich (1936-), Six Marimbas (1986), arranged for gamelan (Iwan Gunawan)
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music is a means of rapid transportation.
—John Cage (1912-1992)
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my back pages
Years ago, at the University of Chicago Law School, I took classes from the late Antonin Scalia. He was one of the first professors I encountered, as I had him for Contracts, a first-year staple. Two-word review: Very funny.
Ashley Fure (1982-), Soma (2012)
Curious Chamber Players, live, Germany (Darmstadt), 2012
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Why shouldn’t our music be as mysterious as our life?
spellbinding
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano (1978); Natalia Gutman (cello), Vassily Lobanov (piano)
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
How sad that some miss out, put off by an unfortunate label – “classical.”
sounds of Chicago and Switzerland
Need a jolt?
Easel (Christoph Erb, tenor saxophone [Switzerland]; Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello, electronics [Chicago]; Michael Zerang, drums [Chicago]), live, Moscow, 2015
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Note to self: Listen, always, as if it was the first time—and the last.
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random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of Kinshasa*
Mbongwana Star, “Kala,” 2015
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Birds, plants, music—one of the most astonishing things about this most astonishing world is its variousness.
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*Democratic Republic of Congo.
sounds of Chicago
Hamid Drake (drums, percussion, voice), live, Sardinia, 2013
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lagniappe
radio
One of the year’s great musical events has begun: the annual Bach Festival on WKCR (Columbia University)—all Bach, all the time, through New Year’s Eve.
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musical thoughts
How lucky to be alive in a world of sound.
old school
Mighty Clouds of Joy, “I’m Glad About It,” live, Houston, 1967
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Sometimes I have good nights, and sometimes I have bad nights. One never knows.
—tenor saxophonist, and MCOTD Hall of Famer, Von Freeman (1923-2012)
sweet soul music
D’Angelo & The Vanguard, “Ain’t That Easy”
Live, Netherlands (Rotterdam), 2015
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Like music, baseball is the universal language.
Thurston Moore (guitar), Okkyung Lee (cello), Ikue Mori (laptop)
Live, New York, 2009
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music, too, is a continually expanding universe.
music clip of the day 