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Category: trumpet

2011

Saturday, 11/12/11

Labels are often worse than useless. This guy, for instance, is often tagged as “cerebral.” But here’s something you can’t—I can’t, anyway—listen to without smiling.

Anthony Braxton, Composition No. 58
Taylor Ho Bynum Chicago Big Band,* live, 2009, Chicago

*****

Here’s another take—Braxton’s original recording (The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton [Mosaic], rec. 1976).

More? Here.

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lagniappe

reading table

To obtain the value
of a sound, a movement,
measure from zero.

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A sound has no legs to stand on.

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The world is teeming: anything can
happen.

—John Cage, “2 Pages, 122 Words on Music and Dance” (excerpts)

*Taylor Ho Bynum & Josh Berman (cor), Jaimie Branch (tpt), Jeb Bishop & Nick Broste (tb), Nicole Mitchell (fl), Caroline Davis, Keefe Jackson & Dave Rempis (saxes), Jeff Parker (g), Jason Adasiewicz (vib), Nate McBride (b), Tim Daisy & Tomas Fujiwara (d)

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2011

Wednesday, 11/2/11

This guy sounded so good the other day—let’s hear some more.

B.B. King with T-Bone Walker, “Bad News”/“Sweet Sixteen”
Live, Monterey Jazz Festival (Monterey, California), 9/16/1967

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2011

Friday, 10/14/11

Happy (Belated) 70th Birthday, Lester!

Lester Bowie, October 11, 1941-November 8, 1999
trumpet player, bandleader, irrepressible spirit

Lester Bowie Brass & Steel Band, Umbria Jazz Festival (Italy), 1996

Part 1

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Part 2

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Part 3

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Part 4

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

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Jazz is neither specific repertoire nor academic exercise . . . but a way of life.

—Lester Bowie

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2011

Monday, 9/26/11

three takes

Blues guitarists—great ones, anyway—aren’t instrumentalists; they’re singers with two voices.

“Born Under A Bad Sign” (W. Bell, B.T. Jones)

Albert King, live, Sweden, 1980

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Albert King, recording, 1967 (Stax)

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Jimi Hendrix, recorded in 1969 (Blues, 1994)

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What makes this last take effective? Part of it is the phrasing: Jimi, like Albert, doesn’t play anything that couldn’t be sung.

More Albert? Here.

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2011

Friday, 9/16/11

Never heard of this guy?

You’re not alone.

But for serious mental illness, he would have been a big star.

 James Carr, singer, June 13, 1942-January 7, 2001

Live, “You Got My Mind Messed Up”

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Live, “Pouring Water on a Drowning Man”

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“The Dark End of the Street” (D. Penn & C. Moman), Goldwax, 1967

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What may be my favorite moment in this track is one that’s easy to miss; a throwaway, it comes at 1:37—the muted, fleeting “huhh.” The whole welter of emotions Carr brings to this performance—anxious, defiant, rueful, resigned—can be heard in this single syllable.

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2011

Wednesday, 9/14/11

Miles Davis Quintet (MD, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums), “Footprints” (W. Shorter), live, Sweden, 1967

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Time for just one note? 3:34. (Shorter’s entire solo is a marvel [1:54-3:54]: it’s as intimate and delicate as a dream.)

More? Here. And here.

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lagniappe

reading table

just the other day
we said goodbye . . .
dewy grave

—Kobayashi Issa, 1790s (trans. David G. Lanoue)

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2011

Wednesday, 9/7/11

What’s surprising here isn’t that there are so many wonderful moments. Given the line-up, you’d expect that. What you wouldn’t expect is for these guys to sound so cohesive, as if they’d been playing together for years.

Sun Ra All Stars (SR, keyboards; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet, vocals; Lester Bowie, trumpet; Archie Shepp, tenor saxophone, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Marshall Allen, alto saxophone, percussion; Philly Joe Jones, drums; Clifford Jarvis, drums; Famadou Don Moye, drums, percussion), live, Germany (Berlin), 1983

Vodpod videos no longer available.

More Sun Ra? Here. And here. And here.

More Don Cherry? Here. And here. And here.

More Lester Bowie? Here. And here. And here. And here.

More Archie Shepp? Here.

More Philly Joe Jones? Here. And here.

More Famadou Don Moye? Here. And here.

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2011

Monday, 8/29/11

Happy Birthday, Bird!

Charlie Parker, alto saxophonist, August 29, 1920-March 12, 1955

According to Miles Davis, the history of jazz can be summarized in four words: Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker.

Charlier Parker & Dizzy Gillespie, “Hot House,” live (TV broadcast), 1952

(Originally posted 10/17/09.)

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lagniappe

radio

WKCR-FM’s Lester Young/Charlie Parker birthday marathon runs until midnight—today’s all Bird.

*****

musical thoughts

Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.

—Charlie Parker

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2011

Saturday, 8/27/11

Happy Birthday, Lester!

Lester Young, tenor saxophonist, August 27, 1909-March 15, 1959

Lester Young (ts) with Carl “Tatti” Smith (trumpet), Count Basie (piano), Walter Page (bass), Jo Jones (drums) (10/9/36, Chicago)

“Oh, Lady Be Good”

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“Shoe Shine Boy”

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More? Here. And here.

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lagniappe

radio: 72 glorious hours

Assuming Irene doesn’t crash the party, the folks at WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)* will be playing Lester Young all day today and into tomorrow, when, at some point, they’ll make the transition to Charlie Parker, whose birthday is Monday. As I wrote last year: “Something happens—something delicious—when you surrender your ears and yourself to someone’s music for such a sustained period of time. Little by little, that musician moves in, taking up residence in your brain. Their distinctive voice becomes, for a time, inseparable from everything else you’re hearing and seeing and thinking and feeling.”

*Later note (2:45 p.m. [CST]): When I just checked, their website seemed to be down; you can also get them via iTunes (radio/college).

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2011

Thursday, 8/25/11

Does anyone have more fun than drummers?

Sonny Rollins/Don Cherry Quartet (SR, tenor saxophone; DC, trumpet; Henry Grimes, bass; Billy Higgins, drums), “52nd Street Theme” (T. Monk), live (TV broadcast), Rome, 1962

Vodpod videos no longer available.

More Sonny Rollins? Here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

More Don Cherry? Here. And here.

More Billy Higgins? Here.

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lagniappe

You know the drum was the first instrument besides the human voice.

—Billy Higgins

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