music clip of the day

jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more

Category: saxophone

2012

Monday, 1/16/12

The other night my son Alex took me—this was my Christmas present—to see this guy at a small concert hall on the north side of Chicago (Old Town School of Folk Music). We’d last seen him together 20 years ago, in 1992, at a little club not far from where we live (FitzGerald’s). Alex wasn’t even five years old. It was an early evening set, part of a big Fourth of July festival. The night was stormy. The power went out. He played by candlelight.

 Alejandro Escovedo (1951-), singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader

“Anchor” (A. Escovedo & C. Prophet)
Live, Austin, Tx., 2010

***

“Always a Friend” (A. Escovedo & C. Prophet)
Live (with Bruce Springsteen), Asbury Park, N.J., 2010

***

“Tender Heart” & “Street Songs” (A. Escovedo & C. Prophet)
Live, Austin, Tx., 2010

Leave a comment
2012

Saturday, 1/7/12

Roy Hargrove Quintet,* “Strasbourg/Saint Denis,” live, Paris, 2008

What better way to begin the new year than with live music, which is what I did last Sunday (with my wife Suzanne and older son Alex), catching these guys at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase, where they played an ebullient set for the overflow crowd.

**********

lagniappe

reading table

In January baseball lives in the imagination.

Now he was stuck at this ramshackle ballpark between a junkyard and an adult bookstore on the interstate outside Peoria.

***

“The shortstop is a source of stillness at the center of the defense. He projects this stillness and his teammates respond.”

***

When your moment came, you had to be ready, because if you fucked up, everyone would know whose fault it was. What other sport not only kept a stat as cruel as the error but posted it on the scoreboard for everyone to see?

—Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding (2011)

*****

*RH, trumpet; Justin Robinson, alto saxophone; Gerald Clayton, piano; Danton Boller, bass; Montez Coleman, drums

Leave a comment
2012

Tuesday, 1/3/12

the other night

Just a week after hearing vibist Jason Adasiewicz’s Sun Rooms trio there, my older son Alex (home for the holidays) and I went back to the Hideout, a small club on Chicago’s north side, to hear these guys.

DKV Trio (Hamid Drake, drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, reeds), live, Chicago (Hideout), 12/28/11

Leave a comment
2011

Monday, 12/26/11

This week we revisit a few favorites from the past year.

*****

[D]ance first and think afterwards . . . . It’s the natural order.

—Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1953, 1955 [English-language premiere])

Al Minns & Leon James, New York (Savoy Ballroom, Harlem), 1950s

Vodpod videos no longer available.

**********

lagniappe

art beat

Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1940

(Originally posted 1/11/11.)

Leave a comment
2011

Saturday, 12/24/11

When I was little, I would go into Chicago to hear live music—Peter, Paul & Mary, Kingston Trio, Beach Boys—with my father. Then, as a teenager, I’d go into the city with my brother Don to hear the Velvet Underground and the MC5, the Who, Tim Hardin and Tim Buckley, Muddy Waters. Now I make these trips with my sons. The other night, for instance, my older son Alex (now 24 and home for the holidays) and I went to the Hideout, a small club on Chicago’s north side, not far from where I once went with my father (now gone) and my brother (now hundreds of miles away), to hear this guy.

Jason Adasiewicz’s Rolldown (JA, vibraphone; Josh Berman, cornet; Aram Shelton, alto saxophone; Jason Roebke, bass; Frank Rosaly, drums), “Hide,” live, c. 2008

**********

lagniappe

reading table

No, the human heart
Is unknowable.
But in my birthplace
The flowers still smell
The same as always.

—Ki no Tsurayuki (872-945; trans. Kenneth Rexroth)

Leave a comment
2011

Monday, 12/19/11

Rebirth Brass Band, Treme Sidewalk Steppers Parade, New Orleans, 2/6/11

If there’s a God, He loves parades.

More? Here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

Leave a comment
2011

Saturday, 12/10/11

If sounds define a space as much as walls and windows, you don’t need to knock out a wall to open up a room—just play this.

International Contemporary Ensemble with Steve Lehman
Impossible Flow (S. Lehman), live, New York (Le Poisson Rouge), 4/19/11

The moment this ends I want to hear it again. Is there any higher compliment?

More Steve Lehman? Here.

**********

lagniappe

reading table

A strange old man
Stops me,
Looking out of my deep mirror.

—Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (c. 662-710; trans. Kenneth Rexroth)

Leave a comment
2011

Monday, 12/5/11

recipe

1 river

1 bridge

1 brass band

Mix lightly.

Raya Brass Band, live, Poughkeepsie, New York
Walkway Over The Hudson Grand Opening, 10/3/09

#1

***

#2

***

#3

***

#4

***

#5

Leave a comment
2011

Tuesday, 11/29/11

old stuff

Best two minutes of the whole day?

Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra (with Jimmy Crawford, drums)
“White Heat,” 1939

**********

lagniappe

musical thoughts

It’s difficult to name one favorite drummer, because . . . I’ve got a lot of favorites. But Jimmy Crawford—they called him “Craw”—with the Jimmie Lunceford band? He was a motherfucker.

—Paul Motian, YouTube

*****

reading table

How should I not be glad to contemplate
The clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
And a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
But there is no need to go into that.
The lines flow from the hand unbidden
And the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
And the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
Watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.

—Derek Mahon, “Everything Is Going to Be All Right”

Leave a comment
2011

Monday, 11/14/11

There may yet be hope for this world: this clip, on YouTube, has nearly
two million views.

Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), “Blue Monk,” live, Norway (Oslo), 1966

More? Here. And here. And here.

Leave a comment