movies/part 2
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Stormy Weather (1943)
Cab Calloway and His Orchestra; Nicholas Brothers, dancers; “Jumpin’ Jive”
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lagniappe
Fred Astaire told the [Nicholas] brothers that the “Jumpin’ Jive” number in Stormy Weather was the greatest number he had ever seen on film. He would have been more impressed had he known that the choreography was filmed all in one take.
—Constance Valis Hill, Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History (2010)
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Want more tap-dancing?
movies/part 1
I feel a rhythmic brainstorm comin’ on . . .
—Slim Gaillard
Hellzapoppin’ (1941)
Slim Gaillard, piano, guitar; Slam Stewart, bass; Rex Stewart, drums; Elmer Fane, clarinet; Jap Jones, trombone; C.P. Johnston, drums; Harlem Congeroos, dancers
music to levitate by
Dizzy Gillespie & Louis Armstrong, “Umbrella Man,” live (TV broadcast), 1959
replay: a clip too good for just one day
If you want to stay right where you are, don’t even bother with this clip. But if, instead, you’d like to go somewhere you may never have been before, well, this might be just the ticket.
Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006), Three Etudes, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
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lagniappe
I listen to all kinds of music—new music, old music, music of my colleagues, everything.
—Gyorgy Ligeti (whose influences included not only the usual suspects [Chopin, Debussy, et al.] but also Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans and the Rainforest Pygmies and fractal geometry)
(Originally posted 10/6/09.)
The rock & roll mansion boasts a particularly spacious lunatic wing.
Jerry Lee Lewis, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” live (TV broadcast), 1957
impeccable, adj. faultless, flawless; irreproachable. E.g., Hank Jones.
Hank Jones, July 31, 1918-May 16, 2010
“Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’,” live, Paris, 2009
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“This Is This” (with Joe Lovano, saxophone), live
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“Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” (with Charlie Haden, bass), 1995
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lagniappe
When you listen to a pianist, each note should have an identity, each note should have a soul of its own.—Hank Jones
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Really dumb!
You’re sitting, in 1926, in the back of a little church in Dallas. It’s hot and the windows are open. This woman, who’s been at the piano since you walked in, begins to play.
Arizona Dranes, piano, “Crucifixion,” 1926
Chicago, Texas, Louisiana, West Coast—blues comes in lots of different shades.
Freddie King, with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown; live (TV broadcast [The !!!! Beat]), 1966
Part 1
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Part 2 (“Funnybone”)
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Part 3 (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”)
Funeral last week.
Ill this week.
What to listen to?
Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111/Claudio Arrau, piano (1970)
1st Movement
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2nd Movement
#1
#2
lagniappe
A fascinating lecture-recital on this sonata, by pianist Andras Schiff, can be heard here.
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Speaking of the second movement, pianist Alfred Brendel said:
. . . perhaps nowhere else in piano literature does mystical experience feel so immediately close at hand.
Here’s a piece that sounds different every time you hear it.
John Cage, 4’ 33” (1952)/David Tudor, piano
lagniappe
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I didn’t wish it [4′ 33″] to appear, even to me, as something easy to do or as a joke. I wanted to mean it utterly and be able to live with it.
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Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music.
—John Cage
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Thank you so much for this.
—Robert Ambrose (in response to an email letting him know that he and Bent Frequency were featured here)
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art beat
Tomorrow’s the last day to see the William Eggleston exhibit at Chicago’s Art Institute.
music clip of the day 
