Saturday, June 25th
Entering his sound-world isn’t hard. What’s hard is leaving.
Tristan Murail (1947-), La Barque mystique, 1993
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: piano
2016
Tuesday, June 21st
never enough
Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), “Rhythm-a-Ning” (T. Monk), live, London, 1966
2016
Friday, June 17th
Feel like floating?
Chick Corea (piano) & Gary Burton (vibraphone)
Live, Washington, D.C., 6/13/16
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
2016
Tuesday, June 14th
More.
Tristan Murail (1947-), Territoires de l’oubli (1977); Lan Cao (1987-, piano), live, Germany (Cologne), 2014
2016
Monday, June 6th
yesterday in Chicago
At the Art Institute—next to Millennium Park, site of Saturday’s Gospel Fest—I heard this piece for the first time, played by three Chicago-based musicians (violinist Yuan-Qing Yu, clarinetist J. Lawrie Bloom, pianist Adam Nieman). It, too, sang.
Charles Ives (1874-1954), Largo for Violin, Clarinet, Piano (1901-02); Lucy Chapman-Stoltzman (violin), Richard Stoltzman (clarinet), Richard Goode (piano), 1990
2016
Tuesday, May 31st
Need a lift?
Angelika Niescier (alto saxophone), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Florian Weber (piano), Chris Tordini (bass), Tyshawn Sorey (drums), “The Barn Thing” (A. Niescier), live, Germany (Krefeld), 2013
**********
lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), Martha’s Vineyard Rocks 127B 1954 (Abstractions, through 8/14/16)
2016
Saturday, May 28th
three takes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor
Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), live
#1
#2
***
Artur Schnabel (1882-1951), 1939
#1
#2
#3
***
Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950), live, France (Besancon), 1950
***
The A minor sonata is the first of only two Mozart piano sonatas in a minor key . . . It was written in one of the most tragic times of his life: his mother had just died.
2016
Wednesday, May 25th
Unfailing clarity, lyricism—how apt to hear him shortly after Mozart.
Sonny Rollins, live (“On Green Dolphin Street,” “St. Thomas,” “Four”), Denmark, 1968*
**********
lagniappe
reading table
dripping from the flower vendor’s
display
morning dew—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1828 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
*****
*With Kenny Drew (piano), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass), Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums).
2016
Monday, May 23rd
I love his approach to Mozart. He’s never fussy or mannered. He plays simply, directly—like a bird flying from tree to tree.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major (:07-), Fantasia in C minor (22:42-), Sonata No. 14 in C minor (39:54-); Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), live, Germany (Munich), 1990
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
Mozart was a kind of idol to me—this rapturous singing . . . that’s always on the edge of sadness and melancholy and disappointment and heartbreak, but always ready for an outburst of the most delicious music.
—Saul Bellow (1915-2005)
***
reading table
If, instead of the words ‘good’ or ‘right’ (or ‘sacred’) we use the words ‘beautiful’ or ‘pleasurable’ or ‘enlivening,’ . . . how would our lives be different?
—Adam Phillips, Unforbidden Pleasures (quoted in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review)
2016
Saturday, May 14th
If I learned I had a week to live, one afternoon, sunlight streaming through the windows, I’d listen to Mozart.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Adagio in B minor, K. 540
Mitsuko Uchida, live
**********
lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Entrance to the Public Gardens at Arles, 1888
(Taking a break—back in a while.)
music clip of the day 