Thursday, December 17th
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), The Art of Fugue (excerpts)
Glenn Gould (1932-1982), piano
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: piano
2015
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
#1
#2
**********
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
#2
#3
#4
**********
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
*****
Here’s more of Carey, years later (2000, Switzerland [Bern]).
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
2015
Wednesday, November 25th
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Palais de Mari (1986); Aki Takahashi, piano
Today Feldman enters the MCOTD Hall of Fame, joining saxophonists Von Freeman and Henry Threadgill, trumpeter Lester Bowie, poets John Berryman and William Bronk and Wislawa Szymborska, photographer Helen Levitt, and gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates.
2015
Tuesday, November 24th
More Sergio.
Sergio Fiorentino (1927-1998), live (master class), Italy (Bertinoro)
**********
lagniappe
reading table
This morning I breakfasted sumptuously and with delight, but one ought not to utter statements like this so loudly in an era when delicate persons have the most indelicate heaps of cares piled upon their shoulders.
—Robert Walser (1878-1956), “Hodler’s Beech Forest,” translated from German by Susan Bernofsky (Looking at Pictures, 2015)
2015
Monday, November 23rd
I never tire of these tiny, gemlike pieces.
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), 24 Preludes (1835-1839); Sergio Fiorentino (1927-1998), piano, 1959
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Awake at night—
the sound of the water jar
cracking in the cold.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Robert Hass
2015
Tuesday, November 17th
Where would we be without the tenor saxophone?
David S. Ware Quartet (DSW [1949-2012], tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp, piano; William Parker, bass; Guillermo Brown, drums), live
