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Category: saxophone

Thursday, April 23rd

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Mingus!

Charles Mingus, composer, bandleader, bassist
April 22, 1922-January 5, 1979

Better late than never for someone who, like Miles and Monk, Bach and Beethoven, I couldn’t live without.

Charles Mingus (bass) with Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute), Clifford Jordan (tenor saxophone), Johnny Coles (trumpet), Jaki Byard (piano), Dannie Richmond (drums), live, Belgium, Norway, and Sweden, 1964*


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lagniappe

musical thoughts

There’s something about listening to Eric Dolphy that makes you feel glad to be alive.

—Cliff Preiss, DJ, WKCR (Columbia University), yesterday (Mingus birthday broadcast)

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*Set lists (courtesy of YouTube):

Belgium
00:00-00:45 Intro
00:46-05:33 So Long Eric
05:35-11:20 Peggy’s Blue Skylight
11:23-32:03 Meditations On Integration

Norway
32:30-54:46 So Long Eric
56:30-1:11:40 Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk
1:13:53-1:16:20 Parkeriana
1:16:22-1:29:05 Take The “A” Train

Sweden
1:30:05-1:33:55 So Long Eric
1:34:02-1:52:35 Meditations On Integration
1:52:40- 1:59:50 So Long Eric

Sunday, April 19th

In forty years this guy has let me down not once.

Vernard Johnson, “Only What You Do for Christ Will Last,” live


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lagniappe

random thoughts

Blessed to be awakened, again, by birds.

Friday, April 3rd

There are all kinds of grooves.

Dengue Fever, “Ghost Voice,” “Tokay,” “Girl from the North,” “No Sudden Moves,” live (studio performance), Seattle, 2/10/15

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lagniappe

reading table

Life is full of uncertainties and evil, but sometimes a good meal is enough to get you through even the worst of it.

—Melanie Rehak, Bookforum, April-May, 2015 (reviewing Mystery Writers of America Cookbook: Wickedly Good Meals and Desserts to Die for)

Thursday, March 26th

These guys I could listen to all day.

Kelin-Kelin’ Orchestra (with Brice Wassy, drums, vocals), “Me Feeh” (B. Wassy), live, Paris, 2013

Wednesday, March 25th

sounds of Chicago

Dave Rempis (tenor saxophone) & Tim Daisy (percussion), live, Chicago, 2013


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lagniappe

random thoughts

Sometimes it seems surprising that any of us survives even a single day in a world so sad.

Monday, March 16th

sounds of Chicago

Jack DeJohnette (drums) with MCOTD Hall-of-Famer Henry Threadgill (reeds), Roscoe Mitchell (reeds), Muhal Richard Abrams (piano), and Larry Gray (bass), Made in Chicago, 2015

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lagniappe

art beat: more from the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago

This, too, I never tire of.

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Greyed Rainbow, 1953

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Saturday, March 14th

sounds of Detroit

Don Was/Sweet Pea Atkinson, “Slow Down,” recording session, 2007

 

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lagniappe

art beat: more from the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago

This I never tire of.

Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), City Landscape, 1955

Joan_Mitchell_City_Landscape

Tuesday, March 3rd

never enough

Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; John Ore, bass; Frankie Dunlop, drums), “Nutty,” “Bemsha Swing,” “Epistrophy,” “Crepuscule with Nellie,” “I Mean You,” live (TV show), Netherlands, 1961

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lagniappe

art beat

William Klein (1928-), Baseball Cards, New York 1955

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Saturday, February 28th

last night in Chicago

These guys played at Constellation.

James Falzone’s Renga Ensemble,* “Not Seeing” (The Room Is), 2015

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lagniappe

reading table

sweeping the soot
washing the fence . . .
sickle moon

—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)

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*James Falzone, Bb and Eb clarinets; Ken Vandermark, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone; Keefe Jackson, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, contra Bb bass clarinet; Jason Stein, bass clarinet; Ben Goldberg, Bb clarinet, contra Eb alto clarinet; Ned Rothenberg, Bb clarinet, alto saxophone.

Friday, February 27th

sounds of Chicago

Goofiness is a much underrated virtue.

Mucca Pazza, live, Washington, D.C., 2015