what’s new
Tim Berne (alto saxophone), Matt Mitchell (piano), Dave King (drums), live, New York, 1/7/19
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lagniappe
reading table
in my thatched hut
even dreaming
the cold—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
Why not begin the week with something beautiful?
Tarkovsky Quartet (François Couturier, piano; Anja Lechner, cello; Jean-Marc Larché, soprano saxophone; Jean-Louis Matinier, accordion), “Nuit blanche,” 2017
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lagniappe
reading table
I prefer winter . . . when you feel the bone structure of the landscape . . . . Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.
—painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), Times Literary Supplement, 11/23/18
Here, rehearsing, is the most influential pianist in jazz of the last fifty years.
Bill Evans (piano, 1929-1980), Eddie Gomez (bass), Alex Riel (drums), live, Denmark (Copenhagen), 1966
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
The ‘open’ voicings that Evans used [i.e., leaving out a chord’s root note] were not new . . . . They had been there in ‘classical’ music since the early part of the century, since Bartok and Stravinsky. But they were new to jazz, and they opened up melody and flow in new ways.
—Martin Williams, The Jazz Tradition (2d ed. 1983)
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Bill had this quiet fire that I loved on piano. The way he approached it, the sound he got was like crystal notes or sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall.
—Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography (with Quincy Troupe, 1989)
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II; András Schiff (piano), live, London, 2018
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s Bach Festival continues through midnight New Year’s Eve.
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musical thoughts
If there is anyone who owes everything to Bach, it is God. Without Bach, God would be a third-rate character.
—Emil Cioran (1911-1995)
more
Erik Satie (1866-1925), Sonneries de la Rose+Croix (No. 2); Reinbert de Leeuw (piano), live, Netherlands (Utrecht), 2011
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lagniappe
random sights
last night, Oak Park, Ill.
more
Erik Satie (1866-1925), Ogives (4) (00:00-), Pieces froides (6) (12:29-), Gnossiennes (6) (25:02-), Sonneries de la Rose+Croix (3) (44:51-), Gymnopedies (3) (58:59-); Reinbert de Leeuw (piano), live, 1982
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lagniappe
reading table
driftwood floating
this way, that way . . .
ends the year—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
sounds of Paris
Erik Satie (1866-1925), Gnossiennes 1-6 (1889-97); Reinbert de Leeuw (piano), live, Netherlands (Utrecht), 2018
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lagniappe
reading table
Silence
of an oak grove
the moon high in the trees—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by W.S. Merwin and Takako Lento)
what’s new
Peter Van Hoesen (electronics) & Gabi Sultana (piano) play John Cage (1912-1992), live, Paris, 10/30/18 (published 12/12/18)
voices I miss
This drummer never fails to lift my spirits.
Ed Blackwell (drums, 1929-1992) with Mal Waldron (piano), Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone), Woody Shaw (flugelhorn), Reggie Workman (bass), “The Git Go” (M. Waldron), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1985
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Every now and then I hear something and wonder: Where has this been all my life?
Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893-1979), 24 Preludes in quarter-tone system (excerpts), 1934/1970
music clip of the day 