Wednesday, February 6th
timeless
Fats Waller (1904-1943, piano, vocals), “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” (F. E. Ahlert, J. Young), 1935
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Monadnock Building, 1891-93)
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: piano
2019
Monday, February 4th
If told you had a week to live, what recordings would you want to listen to in your waning days? This, for me, would be one.
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), 24 Preludes (Op. 28); Alfred Cortot (1877-1962), piano, 1933/34
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Saturday, February 2nd
what’s new
Quinsin Nachoff’s Flux (QN, tenor saxophone, composition; David Binney, alto saxophone; Matt Mitchell, piano, keyboards, modular synthesizer; Nat Wood, drums; with guest Jason Barnsely, 1924 Kimball theatre organ), “Bounce,” video by Lee Hutzulak, 1/14/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Saturday, January 26th
timeless
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Prelude in C-sharp minor (Op. 45); Alfred Cortot (1877-1962), piano, 1949
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lagniappe
random sights
today, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Thursday, January 24th
This I could listen to all day.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Palais de Mari (1986); Blair McMillen (piano) and Ryan Olivier (video processing), live, Philadelphia, 2014
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
My obsession with surface is the subject of my music. In that sense, my compositions are really not ‘compositions’ at all. One might call them time canvases in which I more or less prime the canvas with an overall hue of the music.
—Morton Feldman, “Between Categories” (Give My Regards to Eighth Street)
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random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Wednesday, January 16th
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)
2019
Monday, January 14th
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
2019
Wednesday, January 9th
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)
2018
Wednesday, December 26th
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)
2018
Saturday, December 22nd
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.
