sounds of New York
Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die (JB, trumpet, compositions; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Ajemian, bass; Chad Taylor, drums), live, New York (Rye Bar, Brooklyn), 2016
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Improvised music is like basketball: a great player makes everybody better.
*****
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
voices I miss
Von Freeman (MCOTD Hall of Fame), tenor saxophonist, 1923-2012
“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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“Take the ‘A’ Train” (B. Strayhorn) with Joanie Pallatto (vocals), Bettye Reynolds (vocals), Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone), Billy Brimfield (trumpet), John Young (piano), George Freeman (guitar), Larry Gray (bass), Michael Adams (drums), live, Chicago, 1999
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lagniappe
my back pages
On a cold, snowy night forty-one years ago, at a church thirty miles north of Chicago, Von Freeman and John Young played at our—Suzanne’s and my—wedding. All of what they played that night—”Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “More” (before); “In a Sentimental Mood” (as Suzanne walked down the aisle); “My Favorite Things,” “Song for My Father” (after)—can be heard here (0:15-). Years later, John told me: “When I marry ’em, they stay married.”
more
Miles Davis (with John Scofield, guitar; Darryl Jones, bass, et al.), live, Tokyo, 1985
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (Chicago)
Howard Finster, 1916-2001
more
Miles Davis (with John Scofield, guitar; Darryl Jones, bass, et al.), live, Montreal, 1985
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lagniappe
reading table
“Living here is like a joke without a punch line.”
—Bulgarian bar owner, quoted in New York Times Book Review, 12/3/17, review of Border: Journey to the Edge of Europe
trumpet festival
day three
Lester Bowie (1941-1999), trumpeter—and so much more*
Lester Bowie Brass & Steel Band, live, Italy (Umbria), 1996
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lagniappe
reading table
Together, We All Go out under the Cypress Trees in the Chou Family Burial Grounds by T’ao Ch’ien (AKA T’ao Yuan-Ming), 365-427 A.D. (translated from Chinese by David Hinton)
Today’s skies are perfect for a clear
flute and singing koto. And touchedthis deeply by those laid under these
cypress trees, how could we neglect joy?Clear songs drift away anew. Emerald wine
starts pious faces smiling. Not knowingwhat tomorrow brings, it’s exquisite
exhausting whatever I feel here and now.
*****
Happy Thanksgiving!
This holiday, recovering from pneumonia, I’m more thankful than ever for family, for art, for poetry and, yes, for music.
*****
*Lester is a member of the MCOTD Hall of fame, along with saxophonists Von Freeman and Henry Threadgill; drummer Hamid Drake; gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates; composer Morton Feldman; poets John Berryman, William Bronk, and Wislawa Szymborska; and photographer Helen Levitt.
trumpet festival
day two
Peter Evans (trumpet) & Cory Smythe (piano), International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), live, New York, 2014
#1
#2
#3
#4
trumpet festival
day one
Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die (JB, trumpet; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Ajemian, bass; Chad Taylor, drums), live, Toronto, 5/6/17
“theme 1,” “. . . meanwhile,” “theme 2”
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“theme nothing”
drum festival
day one
Dafnis Prieto Sextet (DP, drums; Peter Apfelbaum, tenor saxophone; Alex Sipiagin, trumpet; Roman Filiu, alto saxophone; Manuel Valera , piano; Johannes Weidenmueller, bass), “Back and Forth” (D. Prieto), live, East Lansing, Mich., 2017
like nobody else
Peter Evans (trumpet), “Abyss (for Roscoe Mitchell),” 2016
timeless
James P. Johnson (piano), Sidney DeParis (trumpet), Vic Dickenson (trombone), Ben Webster (tenor saxophone), Jimmy Shirley (guitar), John Simmons (bass), Sidney Catlett (drums), “After You’ve Gone” (T. Layton, M. Harris), 1944
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lagniappe
reading table
Your actual experience is a complete flux.
—Robert Lowell (1917-1977)
music clip of the day 