Why not begin the week with something beautiful?
Julia Hülsmann Quartet (Julia Hülsmann, piano; Uli Kempendorff, tenor saxophone; Marc Muellbauer, bass; Heinrich Köbberling, drums), “This Is Not America” (D. Bowie), live (studio), 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
what’s new
Brian Blade & Life Cycles (BB, drums; Myron Walden, woodwinds; John Hart, guitar; Jon Cowherd, piano; Doug Weiss, bass; Monte Croft, vibraphone, voice; Rogerio Boccato, percussion), “My Joy,” “Slow Change,” “Hello to the Wind,” “The Final Four,” live (studio), Seattle, published 1/10/20 (recorded 9/27/19)
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lagniappe
random sights
other morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
The moon disappears
into darkening treetops
collecting the rain—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
what’s new
One-word review: Wow!
Fay Victor (vocals), Baba Israel (vocals), Marc Ribot (guitar), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone), Kris Davis (piano), live (Celebration of the Life of Steve Dalachinsky), New York (Winter Jazz Fest), 1/11/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
*****
reading table
I speak across the vast
Dialogues in which we go
To clench my words against
Time or the lack of time
Hoping that for a moment
They will become for me
A place I can think in
And think anything in,
An aside from the monstrous.***
This is no other place
Than where I am, between
This word and the next.—W. S. Graham (1918-1986), from “The Dark Dialogues”
timeless
This I could listen to all day.
Erik Satie (1866-1925), Gnossiennes 1-6 (1889-97); Reinbert de Leeuw (piano), live, Netherlands (Utrecht), 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
never enough
I could listen to him play Bach all day, all week, all month.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, excerpt (Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major); Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997, piano), live, Austria (Innsbruck), 1974
(This recording—all four-plus glorious hours—is available on Spotify: search “Richter, Bach, Innsbruck.”)
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lagniappe
other morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), French Suites (Nos. 1-6); András Schiff (piano), live, Germany (Leipzig), 2010
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lagniappe
radio
The annual Bachfest on WKCR (Columbia University) continues through midnight New Year’s Eve.
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random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of New York
More of one of my favorite drummers—again at the Village Vanguard.
Ed Blackwell (drums, 1929-1992) with Mal Waldron (1925-2002, piano), Charles Rouse (1924-1988, tenor saxophone), Woody Shaw (1944-1989, flugelhorn), Reggie Workman (1937-, bass), “Git Go” (M. Waldron, excerpt), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1985
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
Do you imagine that writers speak ‘as themselves’? No such selves exist.
—Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying,” New Yorker, 12/23/19
sounds of New York
David Murray Quartet (DM, 1955-, tenor saxophone; John Hicks, 1941-2006, piano; Fred Hopkins, 1947-1999, bass; Ed Blackwell, 1929-1992, drums), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1986
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
Playing, and talking, Monk.
Jason Moran (piano), Frank Lacy (trombone), Bob Stewart (tuba), Nasheet Waits (drums), et al., live, Washington, D.C., 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
sounds of Chicago
Big Maceo (AKA Major Merriweather, Big Maceo Merriweather, 1905-1953, piano), “Chicago Breakdown” (M. Merriweather), 1945
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
music clip of the day 