sounds of joy
Bela Bartok, Thelonious Monk, African polyrhythms—he listened to everything.
Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006), Piano Concerto (1985-88), excerpts; Ensemble Dal Niente (William Choi, piano; Michael Lewanski, cond.), live, Evanston, Ill., 2011
1st movement
***
5th movement
like nobody else
Nina Simone (“Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” [Trad.], “To Love Somebody” [B. Gibb, R. Gibb], “Suzanne” [L. Cohen], “Save Me” [A. Franklin], “Porgy, I Is Your Woman Now”/”Today Is A Killer”/”I Loves You Porgy” [G. Gershwin, D. Heyward]), live, Rome, 1969
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, 1940s
spring!
Bob Dorough (1923-; vocals, piano), “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” (T. Wolf, F. Landesman), 1997
*****
Blossom Dearie (1924-2009; vocals, piano), “They Say It’s Spring” (M. Clark, B. Haymes), 1958
*****
Sun Ra Arkestra (SR [1914-1993], piano; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again” (S. Ra), live, Rome, 1980
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lagniappe
reading table
A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown—
Who ponders this tremendous scene—
This whole Experiment of Green—
As if it were his own!—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886; Franklin #1356)
***
spring rain—
the uneaten ducks
are quacking—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
sleepless in Chicago
Some folks sleep all night, or so I’ve heard. Maybe you’re one of them. If not, here’s a mix you might try—a sonic tonic.
1. Play this on repeat.
John Luther Adams (1953-), “The Farthest Place” (2001); piano (Clint Davis), vibraphone (Brian Archinal & Andy Bliss), bass (Satoru Tagawa), violin (Lydia Kabalen); University of Kentucky (Lexington), 2008
2. Ditto.
Waterfall Sounds, Cow Creek
3. Adjust volume levels to taste.
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lagniappe
reading table
For you fleas too
the nights must be long,
they must be lonely.—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
never enough
Monk, that is.
“Rhythm-a-Ning,” (T. Monk)
Art Pepper Quartet (AP, alto saxophone; Milcho Leview, piano; Tony Dumas, bass; Carl Burnett, drums), live
***
Tom Harrell Quintet (TH, trumpet, flugelhorn; Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophone; Danny Grissett, piano; Ugonna Okegwo, bass; Johnathan Blake, drums), live, Paris, 2008
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Given the number of lives that end in death, the odds of avoiding it seem slim.
alone
Ran Blake (1935-), pianist, composer, teacher, MacArthur “genius” grant winner
Above the Sadness (trailer), 2011
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Live, “Over the Rainbow,” Portugal (Lisbon), 2010
***
Live (at home), 2001
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lagniappe
reading table
‘[L]ife holds thee; not thou it.’
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby Dick
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Why Patterns?; California EAR Unit (Dorothy Stone, flute; Arthur Jarvinen, glockenspiel; Gaylord Mowrey, piano), 1991
His music makes so much use of space it seems to keep going even after the sounds have stopped.
Little Richard, Jerry Lee—they’ve got nothing on this gal.
Rev. Julius Cheeks (lead vocals), Marge Cheeks (piano), Knights of Washington, D.C., “Morning Train,” TV show (TV Gospel Time), early 1960s
music clip of the day 