The last time I heard a trumpeter this quiet, this subtle, this interesting was . . . hmmm . . .
Ambrose Akinmusire (ah-kin-MOO-sir-ee) Quintet,* live, Luxembourg (Dudelange), 2014
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*AM, trumpet; Charles Atura, guitar; Sam Harris, piano; Harish Raghavan, bass; Justin Brown, drums.
testify!
Inez Andrews (1929-2012), James Cleveland (1931-1991), “I Appreciate,” live
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lagniappe
reading table
Don’t you love the Oxford dictionary? When I first read it I thought it was a really really long poem about everything.
—David Bowie (1947-2016)
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random thoughts
Note to self: Incline, always, toward the light.
only rock ‘n’ roll
More of Tenement.
Live, Madison, Wis., 1/15/16
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lagniappe
my back pages
On a cold, snowy night thirty-nine years ago, at a church outside Chicago, tenor saxophonist Von Freeman (MCOTD Hall of Fame) and pianist John Young performed at a wedding ceremony. Both are now gone. All of what they played that night – “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “More” (before); “In a Sentimental Mood” (unaccompanied saxophone, as the bride walked down the aisle); “My Favorite Things,” “Song for My Father” (after) – may be heard here (0:15-).
Ashley Fure (1982-), Soma (2012)
Curious Chamber Players, live, Germany (Darmstadt), 2012
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Why shouldn’t our music be as mysterious as our life?
spellbinding
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano (1978); Natalia Gutman (cello), Vassily Lobanov (piano)
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
How sad that some miss out, put off by an unfortunate label – “classical.”
generous-souled
Salim Washington/Darius Jones Quintet (SW, tenor saxophone; DJ, alto saxophone; Yayoi Ikawa, piano; Mark Helias, bass; Tyshawn Sorey, drums), live, New York, 2012
sounds of Chicago
Still fresh after seventy years.
John Cage (1912-1992), Credo in Us (1942)
Third Coast Percussion, live, Chicago, 2011
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.
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
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.
music clip of the day 