Happy 4th of July!
This country has gotten a lot of things wrong—music it got right.
The Blasters, “American Music,” live, Champaign, Ill., 1985
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), Chicago (south side blues bar), 1962
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radio: WKCR (Columbia University)
What better way to celebrate Louis Armstrong’s adopted birthday than to play his music around the clock?
More of Ornette.
Ornette Coleman (alto saxophone) with Don Cherry (cornet), Charlie Haden (bass), and Billy Higgins (drums), The Shape of Jazz to Come, 1959*
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s memorial broadcast continues until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.
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*Track list (courtesy of YouTube):
00:00 Lonely Woman
05:01 Eventually
09:24 Peace
18:25 Focus on Sanity
25:18 Congeniality
32:07 Chronology
only rock ‘n’ roll
MC5, “Looking at You,” live, Detroit, 1970
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lagniappe
radio
As you may have heard, Ornette Coleman died yesterday; WKCR (Columbia University) will be playing his music around the clock today, tomorrow, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, wrapping up its memorial broadcast Wednesday morning.
Need a jolt?
Felipe Lara (1979-), Corde Vocale (2006)
Mivos Quartet, live (studio performance), New York, 2013
This I listened to for the first time yesterday. Then I listened again. And again.
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lagniappe
radio
Tuesday is the centennial of Billie Holiday’s birth and WKCR (Columbia University) is celebrating in the best possible way, featuring her music all day tomorrow and, because twenty-four hours just aren’t enough, the next day too.
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taking a break
I’m taking some time off—back in a while.
genius at play
Henry Threadgill (alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader) leading a master class (excerpt), Big Indian, N.Y. (Creative Music Studio), 2014
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More.
Henry Threadgill and His Very Very Circus, “Too Much Sugar for a Dime,” live, New York, c. 1993
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Today Henry, who’s been lifting my spirits for over three decades, enters the MCOTD Hall of Fame, joining tenor saxophonist Von Freeman, trumpeter Lester Bowie, poets John Berryman, William Bronk, and Wislawa Szymborska, and gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates.
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lagniappe
art beat: more from Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Claude Monet (1840-1926), Irises (1914/17)
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radio
One of my favorite musical events begins tonight: the annual Bach Festival on WKCR (Columbia University), which runs through midnight New Year’s Eve.
Happy Birthday, Thelonious!
Thelonious Monk, October 10, 1917-February 17, 1982, pianist, composer, bandleader
Live (TV studio),* Paris, 1969
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
A note can be as big as a mountain, or small as a pin. It only depends on a musician’s imagination.
—Thelonious Monk (Robin D. G. Kelley, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original)
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radio
WKCR-FM (Columbia University): all Monk, all day.
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*Set list:
1. Dreamland
2. Monk’s Mood (Version 1)
3. Thelonious
4. Reflections
5. Epistrophy
6. Round Midnight
7. Crepuscule With Nellie
8. Ugly Beauty
9. Monk’s Mood (Version 2)
10. Don’t Blame Me
11. Coming On The Hudson
12. Nice Work If You Can Get It
passings
Charlie Haden, bassist, composer, bandleader, August 6, 1937-July 11, 2014
Old and New Dreams (Charlie Haden, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums; Dewey Redman, tenor saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet), “Happy House” (O. Coleman), live, Norway (Molde Jazz Festival), 1979
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lagniappe
radio
Thank God, once again, for college radio. Beginning tomorrow at 2 p.m. (EST), WKCR (Columbia University) will air a memorial broadcast. Two hours? Three? Nope. They’ll be playing Haden’s music, continuously, until 9 p.m.—Monday.
Ernst Reijseger (cello) with Harmen Fraanje (organ), “Shadow” (Cave of Forgotten Dreams), live
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lagniappe
art beat
Timothy H. O’Sullivan (1840-1882), Pyramid Lake, Nevada, 1867
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Each week brings new discoveries. Yesterday, on the radio (WFMU, Give the Drummer Some), I heard this cellist for the first time. This photographer I bumped into Wednesday at the Art Institute of Chicago. Next week?
sounds of Chile
Ana Tijoux, “Vengo,” live (studio performance), Santa Monica, 2014
Listening to a language I know not at all—pure sound.
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), New York, 1980s
passings
Bob Abrahamian, soul music DJ (WHPK, Sitting in the Park), historian, archivist, September 25, 1978-June 5, 2014
Dolores Gibson, “I Got A Feeling,” 1960
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Byrdie Green, “Tremblin’,” 1962
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Deanie Parker, “Each Step I Take,” 1964
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These tracks opened his last radio show (5/4/14).
music clip of the day 