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Category: trumpet

2012

Thursday, 2/2/12

most useless label?

 world music

 indie rock

 free jazz

The competition’s fierce.

Mostly Other People Do the Killing (Moppa Elliott, bass; Peter Evans, trumpet; Jon Irabagon, alto saxophone; Kevin Shea, drums), live, London (The Vortex), 7/14/11

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lagniappe

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

Vincent van Gogh

The Bedroom (1889)

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Self-Portrait (1887)

With van Gogh, the life continually threatens to overtake the art; the challenge is to look with fresh eyes.

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2012

Monday, 1/30/12

Henry “Red” Allen (trumpet), with Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone), Vic Dickenson (trombone), Pee Wee Russell (clarinet), Rex Stewart (cornet), Danny Barker (guitar), Nat Pierce (piano), Milt Hinton (bass), Papa Jo Jones (drums), “Wild Man Blues,” live (TV Broadcast, The Sound of Jazz), 1957

All-star jam sessions often fizzle. Not this one. What makes this so good? A lot of it, I think, has to do with saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, who takes the first solo after trumpeter Red Allen states the melody. Right from the beginning (1:27-) it’s apparent that Hawkins isn’t just going through the motions. He plays, throughout, with great concentration and conviction, not wasting a moment. This inspires everyone; you can see it in their faces (1:44-47, 1:55-58, 2:03-08, 2:39-44). He gives the others a lot to live up to—and they do.

(Yo, Randy—thanks for the tip!)

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2012

Wednesday, 1/25/12

trying to teach white folks

This Is Ska! (1964)

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lagniappe

 found words

Real Messages from Heaven

—book title (Books-A-Million, 144 S. Clark St., Chicago)

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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

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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

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2011

Monday, 12/26/11

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

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[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.

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lagniappe

art beat

Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1940

(Originally posted 1/11/11.)

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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.

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2011

Wednesday, 12/7/11

What a treat to hear a guitar-led group that sounds so fresh.

Nels Cline (guitar) and Friends play the music of Andrew Hill

Live, New York (Jazz Standard), 2007

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature, how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion, the more one will see that it is all music.

—Hazrat Inayat Khan (quoted at Nels Cline’s website)

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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

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#2

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#3

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#4

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#5

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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

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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”

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