Thursday, January 14th
sounds of Chicago
Still fresh after seventy years.
John Cage (1912-1992), Credo in Us (1942)
Third Coast Percussion, live, Chicago, 2011
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: piano
2016
2015
Thursday, December 31st
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Goldberg Variations
Andras Schiff (piano), live
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR‘s Bach Festival concludes at midnight.
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reading table
Nobody does letters to the editor like the Brits. Here, for instance, is how one begins in the December 17th issue of the London Review of Books:
I hesitate to disagree with my brother, David Matthews, about the order of the middle movements of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, but we have long held opposing views, mine being that the scherzo should come third (Letters, 3 December). . . .
Colin Matthews
London SW 11
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random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
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To all who’ve dropped by this year (from, I’m told, 120 countries): May you have a happy and peaceful new year.
2015
Tuesday, December 29th
This guy takes me places no one else does.
Tim Berne’s Snakeoil (TB, alto saxophone; Oscar Noriega, clarinet; Matt Mitchell, piano; Ches Smith, drums, vibraphone), “Small World in a Small Town” (T. Berne), live, Brazil (Sao Paulo), 2015
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), City Landscape, 1955
2015
Saturday, December 20th
alone
Georg Friedrich Haas (1953-), Hommage a Steve Reich (1982)
Hans Ludemann (piano), live, Germany (Cologne), 2012
Each time I listen to this, it sounds different.
2015
Friday, December 18th
lucid, adj. translucent, pellucid, clear. E.g., Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians.
Steve Reich (1936-), Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76)
Ensemble Intercontemporain with Synergy Vocals, live, Paris, 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
the door latch
rusting scarlet . . .
winter rain—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue
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random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
2015
Thursday, December 17th
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), The Art of Fugue (excerpts)
Glenn Gould (1932-1982), piano
2015
Tuesday, December 15th
Has anyone played Bach—or anything else—more searchingly?
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita No. 4 in D major
Glenn Gould (1932-1982), piano
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#2
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lagniappe
reading table
Musicians wrestle everywhere –
—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #229 (Franklin)
2015
Tuesday, December 8th
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Nocturne in E flat (Op. 55, No. 2); Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948), piano, 1936
The Friedman performance of Chopin’s E flat Nocturne (Op. 55, No. 2) is considered by many to be the greatest single recorded performance of any Chopin nocturne.
2015
Monday, December 7th
The more kinds of music you love, the more chances you have to make wonderful discoveries, as happened yesterday when I heard this for the first time (Oberon Ensemble, Art Institute of Chicago).
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor; Martha Argerich (piano); Gidon Kremer (violin), Yuri Bashmet (viola), Mischa Maisky (cello), 2001
#1
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#3
#4
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lagniappe
reading table
You don’t hear the sound; you go into the sound—you and the sound become one.
—Seung Sahn, Only Don’t Know
2015
Friday, November 27th
sounds of Chicago
Some things last. Nearly forty years ago, I co-produced this track, while working at Alligator Records. It remains one of my favorites. The hour was late. The lights had been turned down. But the tape kept rolling.
Carey Bell’s Blues Harp Band, “Woman In Trouble”
Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1, 1978
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Here’s more of Carey, years later (2000, Switzerland [Bern]).
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
music clip of the day 