Sunday, March 8th
testify!
Vernard Johnson (alto saxophone, vocals), live, Fort Worth, Tx.
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: saxophone
2020
Tuesday, March 3rd
two takes
“Stars Fell on Alabama” (F. Perkins, M. Parish), 1934
Jack Teagarden (1905-1964, with Frankie Trumbauer [C-melody saxophone], et al.), 1934
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Billie Holiday (1915-1959, with Ben Webster [tenor saxophone], et al.), 1957
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
2020
Wednesday, February 5th
sounds of Chicago and Wuppertal (Germany)
Peter Brötzmann (1941-, saxophone) and Hamid Drake (1955-, MCOTD Hall of Fame, drums), live, Chicago (Hideout)
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lagniappe
random sights
other morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
2020
Monday, February 3rd
sounds of New York
Sam Newsome Quartet (SN, soprano saxophone, preparations, compositions; Angelica Sanchez, piano; Luke Stewart, bass; Reggie Nicholson, drums), live, New York (Smalls), 1/20/20
#1
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#2
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Saturday, January 25th
what’s new
Brian Blade & Life Cycles (BB, drums; Myron Walden, woodwinds; John Hart, guitar; Jon Cowherd, piano; Doug Weiss, bass; Monte Croft, vibraphone, voice; Rogerio Boccato, percussion), “My Joy,” “Slow Change,” “Hello to the Wind,” “The Final Four,” live (studio), Seattle, published 1/10/20 (recorded 9/27/19)
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lagniappe
random sights
other morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
The moon disappears
into darkening treetops
collecting the rain—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
2020
Wednesday, January 22nd
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-three years ago, at a church thirty miles north of Chicago, my wife, Suzanne, and I were married. Outside it was cold and snowy; inside Von Freeman was playing, with pianist John Young. All of what they played that night, before, during, and after the ceremony, can be heard here (0:15-) (before: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “More”; during [as Suzanne walked down the aisle]: “In a Sentimental Mood”; after: “My Favorite Things,” “Song for My Father”).
2020
Tuesday, January 14th
what’s new
One-word review: Wow!
Fay Victor (vocals), Baba Israel (vocals), Marc Ribot (guitar), Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone), Kris Davis (piano), live (Celebration of the Life of Steve Dalachinsky), New York (Winter Jazz Fest), 1/11/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
*****
reading table
I speak across the vast
Dialogues in which we go
To clench my words against
Time or the lack of time
Hoping that for a moment
They will become for me
A place I can think in
And think anything in,
An aside from the monstrous.***
This is no other place
Than where I am, between
This word and the next.—W. S. Graham (1918-1986), from “The Dark Dialogues”
2020
Thursday, January 9th
27 years later
Art Ensemble of Chicago (Roscoe Mitchell, 1940-, reeds, flute, percussion; Famadou Don Moye, 1946-, drums, percussion) and Guests (Hugh Ragin, trumpets, flugelhorn; Tomeika Reed, cello; Silvia Bolognesi, bass; Jaribu Shahid, bass; Dudu Kouate, percussion), live, Italy (Cormòns), 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
2020
Monday, January 6th
like nobody else
Art Ensemble of Chicago (Roscoe Mitchell, 1940-, reeds, flute, percussion; Joseph Jarman, 1937-2019, reeds, flute, percussion; Lester Bowie, 1941-1999, trumpet, flugelhorn, MCOTD Hall of Fame; Malachi Favors, 1927-2004, bass, percussion, vocals; Don Moye, 1946-, drums, percussion), live, Germany (Hamburg), 1991
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Culture’s beginnings:
from the heart of the country
rice-planting songs—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), from Narrow Road to the Interior (translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill)
2019
Tuesday, December 17th
sounds of New York
More of one of my favorite drummers—again at the Village Vanguard.
Ed Blackwell (drums, 1929-1992) with Mal Waldron (1925-2002, piano), Charles Rouse (1924-1988, tenor saxophone), Woody Shaw (1944-1989, flugelhorn), Reggie Workman (1937-, bass), “Git Go” (M. Waldron, excerpt), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1985
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
Do you imagine that writers speak ‘as themselves’? No such selves exist.
—Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying,” New Yorker, 12/23/19
music clip of the day 