voices I miss
Some musicians suck up oxygen; others increase the available supply.
Jaki Byard (piano, 1922-1999), live, Berlin, 1965
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Bullfinch on camellia branch, early 1830s
voices I miss
Ed Blackwell (drums, 1929-1992) with Mal Waldron (piano), Charles Rouse (tenor saxophone, flute), Woody Shaw (trumpet, flugelhorn), Reggie Workman (bass), live (“The Git Go,” “All Alone,” “Fire Waltz”), New York (Village Vanguard), 1985
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Irises at Horikiri, 1857
passings
Geri Allen, pianist, June 12, 1957-June 27, 2017
With Kenny Davis (bass), Kassa Overall (drums), Maurice Chestnut (tap dance), live, South Korea, 2011
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With Charlie Haden (1937-2014, bass), Paul Motian (1931-2011, drums), “Lonely Woman” (O. Coleman), 1988
what’s new
Here’s something from Roscoe Mitchell’s new album, Bells for the South Side (ECM), a 2-CD set recorded in 2015 at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
“Spatial Aspects of the Sound,” Roscoe Mitchell (composition, piccolo), Craig Taborn (piano), Tyshawn Sorey (piano), William Winant (percussion), Kikanju Baku (wrist bells, ankle bells)
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, outside Chicago (Salt Creek Trail)
two takes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Sonata No. 13 in B-flat major
Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), live
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Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989), live
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Whenever life begins to crush me, I know I can rely on Bandol, garlic, and Mozart.
—Jim Harrison (1937-2016), A Really Big Lunch (2017)
I could listen to these two—he’s long been one of my favorite pianists—all day.
Sara Serpa (1979-, vocal), Ran Blake (1935-, piano), “Night and Day” (C. Porter),
live, New York (Kitano), 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
He thought his head would explode, if the forenoon kept burning into the jungle all around him and the gulls kept screaming and the monkey kept regarding its surroundings carefully, moving its head and black eyes from side to side like someone following the progress of some kind of conversation, some kind of debate, some kind of struggle that the jungle—the morning—the moment—was having with itself.
—Denis Johnson (July 1, 1979-May 24, 2017), Tree of Smoke (National Book Award for Fiction, 2007)
How can something so solid make sounds so liquid?
Morton Feldman (1926-1987; MCOTD Hall of Fame), For Bunita Marcus (1985), excerpts; Marc-André Hamelin (piano), 2017
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Japanese white-eyes on a maple branch1854
never enough
Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Butch Warren, bass; Frankie Dunlop, drums), live, Tokyo, 1963
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lagniappe
reading table
Men are children. They must be pardoned for everything, except malice.
—Joseph Joubert, 1754-1824 (The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, translated from French by Paul Auster)
timeless
James P. Johnson (piano), Sidney DeParis (trumpet), Vic Dickenson (trombone), Ben Webster (tenor saxophone), Jimmy Shirley (guitar), John Simmons (bass), Sidney Catlett (drums), “After You’ve Gone” (T. Layton, M. Harris), 1944
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lagniappe
reading table
Your actual experience is a complete flux.
—Robert Lowell (1917-1977)
more
A week ago I hadn’t heard of this guy—now I can’t get enough of him.
Enno Poppe (1969-), Trauben (“Grapes”), (2004); ATOS Trio,* live, Berlin, 2016
*Annette von Hehn, violin; Stefan Heinemeyer, cello; Thomas Hoppe, piano.
music clip of the day 