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Category: saxophone

2012

Saturday, 12/8/12

 passings

Dave Brubeck, pianist, composer, bandleader
December 6, 1920-December 5, 2012

Dave Brubeck Quartet (DB, piano; Paul Desmond, alto saxophone; Gene Wright, bass; Joe Morello, drums), TV show (Jazz Casual with Ralph J. Gleason*), 1961 (followed by other clips)

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lagniappe

found words

japanese punk band with sousaphone

—Web search that brought someone here

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*Gleason, who died in 1975, had a hand in a lot of different things, including the Monterey Jazz Festival (cofounder, 1958) and Rolling Stone (cofounder, 1967).

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2012

Thursday, 12/6/12

We ain’t never goin’ home . . .

—Neneh Cherry (59:55)*

Neneh Cherry & The Thing (Mats Gustafsson, baritone saxophone, electronics; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass; Paal Nilssen-Love, drums), live, Austria (Konfrontationen 2012, Nickelsdorf),  7/21/12

*“Call the Police” (S. McDee).

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2012

Wednesday, 12/5/12

My favorite drummer?

There are days I’d say this is the guy.

Among the many things I love about his playing, which dances, always, is the balance of simplicity and complexity—it’s never more complex than it is simple, never simpler than it is complex.

Old and New Dreams (Don Cherry [1936-1995], pocket trumpet; Dewey Redman [1931-2006], tenor saxophone; Charlie Haden [1937-], bass; Ed Blackwell [1929-1992], drums), live

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lagniappe

reading table

Art is not in some far-off place.

—Lydia Davis, “Extracts from a Life” (The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, 2009)

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2012

Saturday, 11/24/12

Happy 100th Birthday, Teddy!

Teddy Wilson, pianist, November 24, 1912-July 31, 1986

“Rosetta,” 1934

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“Body and Soul,” with the Benny Goodman Trio (BG, clarinet; TW, piano; Gene Krupa, drums), 1935

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“Foolin’ Myself,” Teddy Wilson Orchestra (TW, piano; Billie Holiday, vocals; Lester Young, tenor saxophone; Freddie Green, guitar; Jo Jones, drums, et al.), 1937

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radio

WKCR-FM’s celebration of his centennial, which I mentioned the other day, runs through midnight Sunday.

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musical thoughts

John Cage (whose centennial we recently celebrated), Conlon Nancarrow (ditto), Teddy Wilson—they’d make a helluva band.

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2012

Wednesday, 11/21/12

Happy (108th) Birthday, Hawk!

Coleman Hawkins, tenor saxophonist, November 21, 1904-May 16, 1969

“Prisoner of Love,” 1958 (Art Ford’s Jazz Party, music starts at 1:15)

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“Lover Man,” 1961

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“Body and Soul,” London, 1967

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radio

WKCR-FM, broadcasting from Columbia University, is playing his music—and nothing but—until midnight. (Thank God for college radio.)

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reading table

We’re all in this apart.

—David Ferry, “Found Single-Line Poems,” excerpt (Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations [2012])

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something to get you in the holiday mood

William Burroughs, “Thanksgiving Prayer” (Gus Van Sant, dir.)

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2012

Monday, 11/19/12

Albert Collins (1932-1993), “Lights Are On But Nobody’s Home,” live, Austin, Tx., 1988

How strange to think that Albert, a sweet, warm, gentle guy I had the good fortune to work with in the ’70s while at Alligator Records, has been gone nearly 20 years.

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musical thoughts

There’s one cat I’m still trying to get across to people. He is really good, one of the best guitarists in the world.

—Jimi Hendrix (1968)

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2012

Tuesday, 11/13/12

passings

Ted Curson, trumpeter, composer, June 3, 1935-November 4, 2012

“L.S.D. Takes a Holiday” (T. Curson), live, Paris, 1973

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With Charles Mingus, “Better Git Hit In Your Soul,” Mingus at Antibes (recorded live 1960)*

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“Tears for Dolphy” (T. Curson), 1964

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*CM (bass, piano), Ted Curson (trumpet), Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone), Booker Ervin (tenor saxophone), Dannie Richmond (drums).

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2012

Saturday, 11/3/12

It must have been a comfort, when she was dying, to be able to say to her son, whose trumpet she’d heard since he was a little boy, these are the songs I want you to play at my memorial service.

Dave Douglas  Quintet* with guest Aoife O’Donovan (vocal), “Be Still My Soul” (words by Ka­tha­ri­na A. von Schle­gel, adapted by Aoife O’Donovan, music by Jean Si­bel­ius, arranged by Dave Douglas), recording session (Be Still, 2012)

*DD, trumpet; Jon Irabagon, saxophone; Matt Mitchell, piano; Linda Oh, bass; Rudy Royston, drums.

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2012

Monday, 10/29/12

Miles

Miles Davis Group,* live, Germany (Berlin), 1971

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art beat: Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building)

Allen Ruppersberg, No Time Left To Start Again/The B and D of R’n’R (through 1/6/13)**

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*With Gary Bartz, saxophones; Keith Jarrett, keyboards; Michael Henderson, bass; Leon Chancler, drums; Don Alias & James Mtume, percussion.

**“B and D”=birth and death.

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2012

Sunday, 10/28/12

Nearly forty years have passed since I first heard him; still I can’t get enough.

Vernard Johnson, “Amazing Grace,” live, Memphis, 1988

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lagniappe

reading table

Life tears us apart, but through those wounds, if we have tended them, love may enter us.

—Christian Wiman, “Mortify Our Wolves,” The American Scholar, Autumn, 2012

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