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Category: musical thoughts

2015

Thursday, November 12th

Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Preludes, Book 1, Nos. 1-7, 9-11; Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), piano, live

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I am not a complete idiot, but whether from weakness or laziness have no talent for thinking. I know only how to reflect: I am a mirror . . . Logic does not exist for me. I float on the waves of art and life and never really know how to distinguish what belongs to the one or the other or what is common to both. Life unfolds for me like a theatre presenting a sequence of somewhat unreal sentiments; while the things of art are real to me and go straight to my heart.

—Sviatoslav Richter

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2015

Wednesday, November 4th

two takes

“I Never Learnt to Share” (J. Blake)

Spektral Quartet (arr. Chris Fisher-Lochhead), live, Chicago, 2015

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James Blake, live, Berlin, 2011

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

When we’re full of music, we’re free of everything else.

*****

random sights

yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)

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2015

Tuesday, October 27th

More Wadada.

Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet), Louis Moholo (percussion), Steve Noble (percussion), live, London, 2010

#1

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#2

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Listening to live music, as I was over the weekend (hearing this guy with a quartet Saturday night, then by himself Sunday afternoon), reminds one, repeatedly, that this moment is irretrievable.

*****

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

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2015

Sunday, October 25th

old school

Blind Mamie Forehand (1895[?]-c. 1936), “Wouldn’t Mind Dying, If Dying Was All,” 1927

lagniappe

musical thoughts

If one part doesn’t work, that gives us more confidence the next part will.

—Wadada Leo Smith, last night, University of Chicago

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random sights

other day, Chicago

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2015

Monday, October 19th

Why not begin the week with something beautiful?

Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Preludes, Book 1, No. 2 (“Voiles”); Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995), piano, live (studio performance)

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

When he plays something it sounds like he’ll never play it again.

—Miles Davis, speaking of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

(I’m taking a break—back in a while.)

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2015

Thursday, September 24th

drum fest
day four

Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophone), Dave Burrell (piano), William Parker (bass), Hamid Drake (drums), live, New York, 2014

#1

#2

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Imagine living in a drumless world.

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2015

Tuesday, September 22nd

drum fest
day two

Donald Edwards, live, Israel (Tel Aviv)

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Listening to drums makes it easier to believe: maybe things will be all right after all.

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2015

Sunday, September 20th

never enough

Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945), “Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed,” 1927

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

How many of this year’s recordings will be played in 2103?

*****

random sights

this morning, outside Chicago (Salt Creek Trail)

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2015

Tuesday, August 11th

sounds of Argentina

Chango Spasiuk, live, 2009

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

What would it be like to live in a world with just one kind of music?

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2015

Saturday, July 25th

Back to Brooklyn.

Trio Caveat (James Ilgenfritz, bass; Chris Welcome, guitar; Jonathan Moritz, saxophone) with Mat Maneri (viola), live, New York (Barbes), 2012

#1

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#2

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Too much music suffers from too little mystery.

*****

reading table

[T]hose who know her [nature], know her less / The nearer her they get.

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #1433 (Franklin)

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