alone
Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major (2nd movt., Andantino), Paul Lewis (1972-), live, Boston, 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
During Wind and Rain
by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)They sing their dearest songs—
He, she, all of them—yea,
Treble and tenor and bass,
And one to play;
With the candles mooning each face. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
How the sick leaves reel down in throngs!They clear the creeping moss—
Elders and juniors—aye,
Making the pathways neat
And the garden gay;
And they build a shady seat. . . .
Ah, no; the years, the years;
See the white storm-birds wing across!They are blithely breakfasting all—
Men and maidens—yea,
Under the summer tree,
With a glimpse of the bay,
While pet fowl come to the knee. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
And the rotten rose is ript from the wall.They change to a high new house,
He, she, all of them—aye,
Clocks and carpets and chairs
On the lawn all day,
And brightest things that are theirs. . . .
Ah, no; the years, the years;
Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs.
Happy 4th of July!
This country has gotten many things wrong—music it got right.
The Blasters, “American Music,” live, Champaign, Ill., 1985
passings
Horace Silver, pianist, composer, bandleader, September 2, 1928-June 18, 2014
Horace Silver Quintet,* “Song for My Father,” live (TV show), Denmark, 1968
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lagniappe
art beat
William Eggleston (1939-)
*****
*HS, piano; Bill Hardman, trumpet; Bennie Maupin, tenor saxophone; John Williams, bass; Billy Cobham, drums.
never enough
Same composer, same pianist—23 years earlier.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major (“Hammerklavier”), Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), live, Germany (Bonn), 1970
1st & 2nd movements
3rd movement (beginning)
3rd movement (end), 4th movement
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lagniappe
art beat
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), Seville, Spain, 1933
alone
Searching, searching—never finding.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major (Third Movt.), Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), live, Japan, 1993
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lagniappe
reading table
Imaginary Number
by Vijay Seshadri (1954-)The mountain that remains when the universe is destroyed
is not big and is not small.
Big and small arecomparative categories, and to what
could the mountain that remains when the universe is destroyed
be compared?Consciousness observes and is appeased.
The soul scrambles across the screes.
The soul,like the square root of minus 1,
is an impossibility that has its uses.
two takes
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), Prelude in C-sharp minor
Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano roll
***
Sun Ra (1914-1993), recording, 1980
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lagniappe
found words
Potentially fatal
dangers lurk in
your backyard—AOL
*****
taking a break
I’m taking some time off—back in a while.
never enough
John Coltrane Quartet (JC, tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums), “Impressions” (J. Coltrane), live (TV show), 1963
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lagniappe
random thoughts
What did we do to deserve such a beautiful world?
*****
art beat
Francis Wolff, Blue Trane recording session (JC, tenor saxophone; Lee Morgan, trumpet; Curtis Fuller, trombone), Hackensack, N.J., 1957
*****
A big birthday shout-out to my oldest listening companion, my brother Don, with whom (as I’ve noted before) I’ve shared more musical experiences than I could ever count: the Beatles (Comiskey Park, 1965), the Velvet Underground (Kinetic Playground, 1968), the MC5 (Lincoln Park, 1968) . . .
the other night
The sky’s all thunder and lightning, and it’s almost midnight, and I’m sitting in a Walgreens parking lot near Midway Airport, waiting for my son Alex’s long-delayed flight to arrive, and if it weren’t for Rubinstein’s recordings of Chopin’s nocturnes, which I keep playing over and over amidst the rain and the neon, I’d be going absolutely bonkers.
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 1; Arthur [Artur] Rubinstein (1887-1982), piano
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Listening to Chopin, reading Chekhov: if I ever retire, maybe I’ll relocate to the 19th century.