passings
Joe Sample, keyboard player, composer, February 1, 1939-September 12, 2014
Digable Planets with guests Lester Bowie (trumpet), Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin (guitar), Joe Sample (keyboards), “Flyin’ High in the Brooklyn Sky,” live, New York, 1990s
As much as I love Lester, a MCOTD Hall-of-Famer, this performance could get along without him. Same with Wah Wah Watson. Not Joe—he makes everybody sound better.
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Life doesn’t end; it stops.
composer, n. somebody who wants to hear sounds nobody’s ever heard before.
Mario Diaz de León (1979-), Prism Path; International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE),* live, New York, 2011
*****
*Claire Chase, flutes; Eric Lamb, flutes; Joshua Rubin, clarinets; Cory Smythe, piano; Nathan Davis, percussion; Mario Diaz de León, electronics.
Let’s return to New York for another take on piano and string quartet.
Vijay Iyer (piano) and the Brentano String Quartet, from “Time, Place, Action” (V. Iyer), live, New York, 2014
*****
Happy (88th) birthday to my mother, who’s been dead almost two decades. When it comes to longevity, my genes are lousy. But, always, there’s today.
Let’s start the week with something that jumps.
Dirty Projectors, “Imagine It,” live, New York (Silent Barn, Brooklyn), 2007
tonight in Chicago
This guy will be playing at the Hideout.
Daniel Levin, cello
With JP Carletti (drums), live, New Haven, Conn., 2013
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With his trio, live, Jersey City, N.J., 2008
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Solo, live, New York, 2009
voices I miss
Drums, too, can breathe.
Mal Waldron Quintet (MW, piano; Charles Rouse, saxophone, flute; Woody Shaw, trumpet, flugelhorn; Reggie Workman, bass; Ed Blackwell [1929-1992], drums), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1985
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), New York, 1980
Ornette, at 84, still plays some of the most haunting blues I’ve ever heard.
Ornette Coleman (alto saxophone), with Henry Threadgill (alto saxophone), David Murray (tenor saxophone), Savion Glover (tap dance), et al., live, New York (Prospect Park), 6/12/14
*****
With Don Cherry (trumpet), Charlie Haden (bass), Billy Higgins (drums), The Shape Of Jazz To Come, 1959
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), East 100th St., New York, 1966
sounds of New York
Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain,* live, New York, 2014
#1
#2
#3
#4
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lagniappe
art beat: more from Thursday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Christopher Wool (1955-)
*****
*Nate Wooley, trumpet; Chris Dingman, vibraphone; Matt Moran, vibraphone; C. Spencer Yeh, violin; Ben Vida, electronics; Chris Corsano and Ryan Sawyer, drums; Gareth Flowers, Tim Leopold, and Chris DeMeglio, trumpets; Chris McIntyre, Jen Baker, and Will Baker, trombones.