like nobody else
Anthony Braxton ZIM Sextet (AB, 1945-, reeds, composition; Taylor Ho Bynum, cornet, flugelhorn, trombone; Ingrid Laubrock, reeds; Tomeka Reid, cello; Shelley Burgon, harp; Jacqueline Kerrod, harp; Dan Peck, tuba), live, Germany (Moers), 2017
sounds of Chicago
Listen to this guitarist (2:47-), who just celebrated his 92nd birthday with a gig at Chicago’s Green Mill. Even at twenty-three he was utterly original.
Charlie Parker (1920-1955, alto saxophone) with George Freeman (1927-, guitar), et al., “Keen and Peachy” (C. Parker), live, Chicago, 1950
sounds of New York
Right now, in the midst of a noisy criminal trial, nothing seems more appealing than something peaceful, something quiet.
Jürg Frey (1953-), Extended Circular Music No. 7; Singularity, live, New York, 2018
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lagniappe
reading table
I don’t know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing.
what’s new
More from this new album.
Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone, percussion), “One Time In,” published 2/11/19 (Trio Tapestry with Marilyn Crispell [piano], Carmen Castaldi [drums], 2019)
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reading table
Emily Dickinson, writing to her cousins (Louise and Frances Norcross) after the death of their father, closes with this (letter #278, poem #528 [Franklin], 1863):
Let Emily sing for you because she cannot pray.
‘Tis not that Dying hurts us so –
‘Tis Living – hurts us more –
But Dying – is a different way –
A kind behind the Door –The Southern Custom – of the Bird –
That ere the Frosts are due –
Accepts a better Latitude –
We – are the Birds – that stay.The Shiverers round Farmer’s doors –
For whose reluctant Crumb –
We stipulate – till pitying Snows
Persuade our Feathers Home
what’s new
Sun of Goldfinger (David Torn, electric guitar, live-looping, electronics; Tim Berne, alto saxophone; Ches Smith, drums, electronics); video, 2/6/19; album, 3/1/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
what’s new
Quinsin Nachoff’s Flux (QN, tenor saxophone, composition; David Binney, alto saxophone; Matt Mitchell, piano, keyboards, modular synthesizer; Nat Wood, drums; with guest Jason Barnsely, 1924 Kimball theatre organ), “Bounce,” video by Lee Hutzulak, 1/14/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of New York
Zs, live, New York, 2015
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reading table
cold winter sky—
where will this wandering beggar
grow old?—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
voices I miss
Von Freeman (1923-2012), tenor saxophonist, MCOTD Hall of Fame
“Oleo” (S. Rollins) with Clifford Jordan (tenor saxophone), Willie Pickens (piano), Dan Shapera (bass), Robert Shy (drums), Chicago (Chicago Jazz Festival), 1988
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With John Young (1922-2008, piano), et al., live (radio broadcast), late 1970s
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“A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” (E. Maschwitz & M. Sherwin) with Jodie Christian (piano), Rufus Reid (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), live, Harrisburg, Penn., 1994
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“I Can’t Get Started” (V. Duke, I. Gershwin), live, Belgium, 1992
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“Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” (R. Rodgers, L. Hart) with Mike Allemena (guitar), Matt Ferguson (bass), Michael Raynor (drums), live, Chicago (Mandel Hall, University of Chicago), 2011
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lagniappe
my back pages
On this night forty-two years ago, at a church thirty miles north of Chicago, my wife, Suzanne, and I were married. Outside the church it was cold and snowy. Inside Von Freeman was playing, along with pianist John Young. All of what they played that night, before, during, and after the ceremony, can be heard here (0:15-) (“Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “More” [before]; “In a Sentimental Mood” [when Suzanne walked down the aisle]; “My Favorite Things,” “Song for My Father” [after]) .
what’s new
Miguel Zenón (alto saxophone, compositions) featuring Spektral Quartet, live (“Rosario,” “Milagrosa,” “Villabeño”), Washington, D.C., 1/4/19
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lagniappe
reading table
thin wall—
from the mouse’s hole
the cold—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
