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Tuesday, December 31st

never enough

Johann Sebastian Bach, Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826; Martha Argerich, piano, live, Switzerland (Verbier Festival), 2008

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lagniappe

radio

WKCR’s Bach Festival, now in its tenth day, concludes at midnight.

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reading table

Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. . . . Our noise, our business, our purposes, and all our fatuous statements about our purposes, our business, and our noise: these are the illusion.

—Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island

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no passport needed

This year folks from ninety-five countries stopped by to listen. Welcome, all.

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Sunday, December 29th

One of my favorite live gospel recordings.

Brother Joe May (joined by members of the Sallie Martin Singers), “Move On Up A Little Higher,” live, early 1950s

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lagniappe

radio

Today, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., WKCR-FM (Columbia University), continuing its Bach Festival, features cellist Pablo Casals.

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reading table

Poverty kept me from thinking all was well under the sun and in history; the sun taught me that history is not everything.

—Albert Camus (translated from French by Ellen Conroy Kennedy)

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Saturday, December 28th

never enough

Johann Sebastian Bach, Suite No. 3 in C major for Unaccompanied Cello; Jean-Guihen Queyras, live, c. 2007

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lagniappe

radio

WKCR’s annual Bach Festival continues through New Year’s Eve.

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random thoughts

Life is one long lesson in learning how to breathe.

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Tuesday, December 24th

Last night this woman, who died of cancer in 2006, was very much alive, singing Bach on the radio.*

Johann Sebastian Bach, “Ich Habe Genug” (“I Have Enough,” church cantata), Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954-2006), 2003

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lagniappe

Christmas, 1948

Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Al Haig (piano), Tommy Porter (bass), Max Roach (drums), “White Christmas,” live, New York (Royal Roost), 12/25/48

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*WKCR-FM (Columbia University), Bach Festival, through New Year’s Eve.

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Monday, December 23rd

passings

Larry Lujack, disc jockey, June 6, 1940-December 18, 2013

Live, WCFL-AM (Chicago), 12/23/72 (not ’73)

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lagniappe

Christmas, 1936

Fats Waller, “Swingin’ Them Jingle Bells” (1936)

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random thoughts

Sometimes I feel like a TV that works only on certain channels.

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Saturday, December 21st

never enough

Johann Sebastian Bach, Goldberg Variations (excerpts); Glenn Gould (piano), live, 1964

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lagniappe

radio: Bach Festival 2013

If, like me, you can’t get enough Bach, you’re in luck. Tonight through New Year’s Eve, it’s all Bach all the time at WKCR-FM (Columbia University).

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reading table

One, seven, three, five—
Nothing to rely on in this or any world;
Nighttime falls and the water is flooded with moonlight.
Here in the Dragon’s jaws:
Many exquisite jewels.

—Setcho Juken (980-1052)

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Wednesday, November 27th

serendipity

This I bumped into the other day on the radio.*

Salvatore Sciarrino (1947-), Piano Trio No. 2 (1987); Alter Ego Ensemble, 1999

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art beat

Paul Strand (1890-1976)
Abstraction, Porch Shadows, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, 1916

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*WKCR-FM (Columbia University), Afternoon New Music (11/25/13).

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Thursday, November 21st

spellbinding

Hariprasad Chaurasia (bansuri [bamboo flute]), Raga Bhimpalasi, 1991

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lagniappe

radio

Today, celebrating the jazz saxophonist’s birthday, WKCR-FM (Columbia University) is Coleman Hawkins Radio.

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reading table

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

—Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), The Rambler (#2), 1750

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Monday, October 7th

tonight*

Andrew Hill (1931-2007), “Smoke Stack”

Vijay Iyer Trio (VI, piano; Stephan Crump, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums), Historicity, 2009

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Andrew Hill (with Richard Davis, bass; Eddie Khan, bass; Roy Haynes, drums), Smoke Stack (AKA Smokestack), 1966 (rec. 1963)

This is one of my favorite albums of all time, of any artist, on any instrument.

—Vijay Iyer

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

More and more I find myself seeking sounds that don’t convey a particular feeling or mood but, instead, create a space I can inhabit, physically, emotionally, intellectually, if only for a short while.

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*On WKCR-FM (Columbia University), from 6-9 p.m. (EST), Vijay Iyer, pianist, composer, recent MacArthur “genius” grant winner, future Harvard professor, will be joining host Mitch Goldman “for a deep focus on Andrew Hill.”