Sunday, May 30, 2010
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
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: piano
2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
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
*****
Part 2 (“Funnybone”)
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Part 3 (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”)
2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
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
*****
2nd Movement
#1
#2
lagniappe
A fascinating lecture-recital on this sonata, by pianist Andras Schiff, can be heard here.
*****
Speaking of the second movement, pianist Alfred Brendel said:
. . . perhaps nowhere else in piano literature does mystical experience feel so immediately close at hand.
2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
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.
2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
replay: a clip too good for just one day
The world became a less interesting place the day Lester Bowie died.
Digable Planets (with Lester Bowie [trumpet], Joe Sample [keyboard], Melvin “Wah-Wah Watson” Ragin [guitar]), “Flying High in the Brooklyn Sky,” live
Want to hear more of Lester? Here.
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lagniappe
Part of the job of a musician is that of a messenger. If you ain’t ready to be a messenger, forget it. You need to get a job in the post office or somewhere. If you ain’t ready to travel, pack up your family, or pack up yourself and hit the road, you’re in the wrong business. Because that’s what music is about. It’s about spreading knowledge and education, and re-education. It’s about spreading. You have got to travel with it to spread the word. Like all the people in the past that have had to travel to spread the music.
*****
It’s life itself that this [music] is about.
—Lester Bowie (in George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music [2008])
(Originally posted 10/28/09.)
2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
no redeeming value whatsoever
Andre Williams & His Orchestra, “Sweet Little Pussycat” (1966)
lagniappe
Andre Williams, 2010
2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Dear MCOTD,
What would go well with a bottle of sleeping pills?
Chet Baker, “Almost Blue” (Let’s Get Lost [1988])
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lagniappe
Here’s a big birthday shout-out to my 19-year-old son Luke, who’s opened my ears to more things than I could ever count.
2010
Wednesday, 5/12/10
Is the greatest electric guitar player of all time a guy who died in 1942?
Charlie Christian, July 29, 1916-March 2, 1942
“Waiting for Benny” (1941 [recorded at a Benny Goodman session, while the engineers were testing the equipment])
*****
Live, New York (Minton’s), 1941
“Swing To Bop”
***
“Stompin’ at the Savoy”
lagniappe
TV news piece, Oklahoma City, 2007 (following CC’s induction into the Jazz Hall of Fame)
2010
Monday, 5/10/10
YouTube giveth, and YouTube taketh away.
I’ve posted other clips that were subsequently removed by YouTube. But this is the first time where I’ve posted something that was removed the very same day.
Oh, well—more tomorrow.
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When the tempo is perfect, the music unfolds in what seems to be the only way it could. “Fast” and “slow” lose their meaning. Time disappears.
Frederic Chopin, 24 Preludes for Solo Piano, Op. 28/Friedrich Gulda, piano
Nos. 15, 10, 9, 3, 4
*****
Nos. 7, 13, 21, 24
Want more? Here.
2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2010/part 1
Scene 1: Sousaphone Parade
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Scene 2: Brian Blade & The Fellowship
Want more Brian Blade? Here.
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Scene 3: Mardi Gras Indians (Members of the Golden Star Hunters, Carrolton Hunters, et al.), Backstage
Want more Mardi Gras Indians? Here.
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lagniappe
