passings
Mose Allison, singer, songwriter, piano player, November 11, 1927-November 15, 2016
Talking, singing, playing (Mississippi Blues Commission, 2015)
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Pete Townsend, Georgie Fame, Elvis Costello talking about “Parchman Farm”
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“Parchman Farm” (M. Allison), 1957
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NEA Jazz Masters Tribute, 2013
never enough
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), 24 Preludes; Ivan Moravec (1930-2015), piano
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday, Art Institute of Chicago
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), The Monkey Bridge in Winter
*****
*Tracklist (courtesy of YouTube):
00:00 1 Agitato – C major
00:53 2 Lento – A minor
02:53 3 Vivace – G major
03:59 4 Largo – E minor
06:36 5 Molto allegro – D major
07:15 6 Lento assai – B minor
09:42 7 Andantino – A major
10:44 8 Molto agitato – F-sharp minor
12:51 9 Largo – E major
14:05 10 Molto allegro – C-sharp minor
14:42 11 Vivace – B major
15:32 12 Presto – G-sharp minor
16:47 13 Lento – F-sharp major
20:23 14 Allegro – E-flat minor
20:47 15 Sostenuto – D-flat major (“Raindrop”)
26:48 16 Presto con fuoco – B-flat minor
27:58 17 Allegretto – A-flat major
31:35 18 Molto allegro – F minor
32:28 19 Vivace – E-flat major
33:51 20 Largo – C minor
35:24 21 Cantabile – B-flat major
37:22 22 Molto agitato – G minor
38:12 23 Moderato – F major
39:10 24 Allegro appassionato – D minor
After such a staggeringly noisy and ugly election season, how about something quiet and beautiful?
Bill Evans Trio (BE [1929-80], piano; Chuck Israels, bass; Larry Bunker, drums), “My Foolish Heart” (V. Young), live, Sweden, 1964
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
never enough
Miles Davis (with Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums), live, Italy (Milan), 1964*
Listening to Tony Williams never fails to leave me feeling lighter.
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), The Plough and the Song, 1946-47
*****
*Setlist (courtesy of YouTube):
1. Autumn Leaves 0:43
2. My Funny Valentine 14:34
3. All Blues 26:22
4. All of You 40:03
5. Joshua 50:41
more
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), Rain Tree Sketch II (1992); Hélène Grimaud (piano), live, Water, 2016
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Landscape with Two Poplars, 1912
like nobody else
Bob Dorough (1923-), “Devil May Care” (B. Dorough), live (studio performance), Newark, N.J., 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
baseball: Chicago Cubs
Whether staring and suffering, or grinning and hugging and high-fiving, fans become generic in every World Series. But I remember Cubs fans differently from my sporadic visits to the sunlit Confines in those lean years. They loved their Cubs and yearned for better times, but cheered without irony for every good or great play by the visiting team. It was the game they loved above all.
We will see these youthful champions in the post-season for years to come, I believe. Their infield has a combined age of ninety-six—my own age, as it happens—as good a young bunch as I can recall. Bryant, the third baseman and coming National League M.V.P., goes six feet five and bats from a spread-legged crouch that expands magically into a sudden tall tree with the skyward bat at its top. He’s also swift. That sprint of his around the bases from first reminded you of a clip from the Olympics. The shortstop, Addison Russell, who is twenty-two, batted in six runs in Game 6. Báez, at second, patrols his environs with a feline muscularity. Twenty-seven-year-old Anthony Rizzo, the first baseman, bats left, and may prove to be the best of the quartet—with any luck, a future Hall of Famer whose best years await us.
—Roger Angell, New Yorker, 11/3/16
Why not begin the week with something beautiful?
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), Rain Tree Sketch (1982); Peter Serkin (piano), live, Tokyo, 2003
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Glencoe, Ill. (Chicago Botanic Garden)
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random thoughts
Time change—all the pleasures of jet lag without ever leaving home.
His sound-world I never tire of entering.
Tristan Murail (1947-), Feuilles à travers les cloches (Leaves through the bells), 1998; Sax Ensemble (José Luis Temes, dir.), live
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
like nobody else
Ran Blake (1935-), “‘Round Midnight” (T. Monk), live, Italy (Milan), 2015
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lagniappe
reading table
Not quite dark yet
and the stars shining
above the withered fields.—Yosa Buson (1716-1783), translated from Japanese by Robert Hass
like nobody else
How about a trip to Paris?
Blossom Dearie (1924-2009), “C’est le Printemps” (“It Might as Well Be Spring”)
(R. Rodgers, O. Hammerstein II; adaptation, J. Sablon), “Plus je t’embrasse” (“Heart of My Heart”) (B. Ryan; adaptation, Max François), live, Paris, 1961
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lagniappe
reading table
Autumn again
getting old is like
a bird flying into a cloud—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by David Young
music clip of the day 