timeless
David S. Ware Quartet (DSW, 1949-2012, tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp, piano; William Parker, bass; Guillermo E. Brown, drums), live (Vilnius, Lithuania), 2007
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of Chicago
Otis Spann (1924, or 1930, to 1970; piano, vocals), “Ain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do,” live, 1966
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
timeless
Art Blakey & The New Jazzmen (AB, drums; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Nathan Davis, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Reggie Workman, bass), “Crisis” (F. Hubbard), live, Paris, 1965
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, outside Chicago
Happy (124th) Birthday, Duke!
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, April 29, 1899-May 24, 1974, pianist, composer, bandleader
“Black Beauty” (D. Ellington), two takes
Solo piano, rec. 1928 (New York)
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With his orchestra, rec. 1960 (Los Angeles)
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lagniappe
radio
All Duke, all day: WKCR-FM (Columbia University).
Happy (101st) Birthday, Charles!
Charles Mingus Sextet (CM, 4/22/1922–1/5/1979, bass, compositions; Eric Dolphy, 1928-1964, alto saxophone; Clifford Jordan, 1931-1993, tenor saxophone; Johnny Coles, 1925-1987, trumpet; Jaki Byard, 1922-1999, piano; Dannie Richmond, 1931-1988, drums), live, Belgium,* Norway,** Sweden,*** 1964
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lagniappe
radio
All Mingus, all day: WKCR-FM (Columbia University).
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reading table
This poem is not addressed to you.
You may come into it briefly,
But no one will find you here, no one.
You will have changed before the poem will.—Donald Justice (1925-2004), from “Poem”
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* “So Long Eric,” “Peggy’s Blue Skylight,” “Meditations on Integration”
** “So Long Eric,” “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk,” “Parkeriana,” “Take The ‘A’ Train”
*** “So Long Eric” (performance and rehearsal), “Meditations on Integration” (performance and rehearsal)
this week in Chicago
They’re playing through Sunday at the Jazz Showcase.
Miguel Zenón (1976-, alto saxophone, composition) with Luis Perdomo (piano), Hans Glawischnig (bass), Henry Cole, (drums), “Taínos y Caribes” (M. Zenón), live (studio), 2022
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
passings
Ahmad Jamal, pianist, composer, July 2, 1930-April 18, 2023
With Israel Crosby (1919-1962, bass), Vernel Fournier (1928-2000, drums), live (TV show), 1959
“Darn That Dream” (J. Van Heusen, E. DeLange)
***
“Ahmad’s Blues” (A. Jamal)
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From the New York Times obituary (4/16/23):
Bebop pianists, following the lead of Bud Powell, became known for their virtuosic flurries of notes. Mr. Jamal chose a different path, which proved equally influential.
The critic Stanley Crouch wrote that bebop’s founding father, Charlie Parker, was the only musician “more important to the development of fresh form in jazz than Ahmad Jamal.”
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In his early years, Mr. Jamal listened not just to jazz, which he preferred to call “American classical music,” but also to classical music of the non-American variety.
“We didn’t separate the two schools,” he told The New York Times in 2001. “We studied Bach and Ellington, Mozart and Art Tatum. When you start at 3, what you hear you play. I heard all these things.”
***
Probably the best-known musician to cite Mr. Jamal as an influence was not a pianist but a trumpeter and bandleader: Miles Davis, who became close friends with Mr. Jamal, recorded his compositions and arrangements and would bring his sidemen to see Mr. Jamal perform. He once said, “All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal.”
never enough
Hearing the right music at the right time can alter the trajectory of your day, as I found, again, yesterday, listening to this.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I: Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), piano
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
sound . . . by . . . sound . . . by . . .
AMM (Eddie Prévost, percussion; Keith Rowe, electric guitar, electronics; John Tilbury, piano), live, Berlin, 2019
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lagniappe
reading table
The old pond—
a frog jumps in,
sound of water.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from the Japanese by Robert Hass)
tonight in Chicago
They’re playing at Constellation.
Dave Douglas (trumpet) and Elan Mehler (piano) with Dominique Eade (vocals), John Gunther (reeds), et al: “If There Are Mountains” (D. Douglas with words by Santoka Taneda [1882-1950], translated from the Japanese by John Stevens: “If there are mountains, I look at the mountains; / On rainy days I listen to the rain. / Spring, summer, autumn, winter. / Tomorrow too will be good. / Tonight too will be good.”), studio, 2020
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day 