Saturday, January 11th
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
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: piano
2020
Friday, January 3rd
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)
2019
Monday, December 30th
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.
*****
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Tuesday, December 17th
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
2019
Monday, December 16th
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.
2019
Wednesday, December 11th
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
2019
Wednesday, December 3rd
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
2019
Tuesday, December 3rd
sounds of New York
Cooper-Moore (piano), live, New York, 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
2019
Monday, December 2nd
Why not begin the week with something that slows time?
James Romig (1971-), Still (2016); Ashlee Mack (piano), live, Macomb, Ill. (Western Illinois University), 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Saturday, November 30th
like nobody else
Nina Simone (1933-2003, vocals, piano), “Wild Is the Wind” (D. Tiomkin, N. Washington), live, New York, 1964
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
The challenge: balance. Keep it steady,
now sniffing daffodils’ aroma,
now Googling a rare sarcoma.—Rachel Hadas (1948-), from “Love and Dread” (New Yorker, 11/18/19)
music clip of the day 