Thursday, May 30th
How about something new?
Close your eyes—listen.
Tyshawn Sorey (1980-), Everything Changes, Nothing Changes (2018); JACK Quartet, live, Banff, Canada, 3/28/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Berwyn, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: violin
2019
Thursday, May 9th
reimagining
Christopher Trapani (1980-), Visions and Revisions (2013); JACK Quartet, 2018
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Bob Dylan, “Visions of Johanna” (B. Dylan), 1966
2019
Wednesday, April 17
what’s new
Joanna Mattrey (viola, stroh violin), live, New York, 4/8/19
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lagniappe
reading table
I made my way to the sofa, where I battled against cancer once more by lying there staring straight ahead. I had such great resistance to thought that I didn’t even worry.
—Colm Toibin, “‘It’s curable,’ he said,” London Review of Books, 4/18/19
2019
Tuesday, March 26th
sounds of Chicago
George Lewis (1952-), String Quartet No. 1.5, “Experiments in Living” (2016); Spektral Quartet, live, New York, 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Tuesday, March 19th
sounds of New York
We Free Strings,* live New York, 1/18/19
*Melanie Dyer, viola; Charles Burnham, violin; Gwen Laster, violin; Alex Waterman, cello; Ken Filiano, bass; Michael Wimberly, percussion.
2019
Saturday, March 2nd
like nobody else
Laurie Anderson, “Language of the Future,” Dublin, 2017
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Each day we go somewhere we’ve never been before.
2019
Saturday, February 16th
Want to be swept away?
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Violin Concerto in D major; Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Paavo Järvi, cond.) with Hilary Hahn (violin), live, Frankfurt, 2014
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Tuesday, February 5th
Yesterday, listening to this while driving to see a client at an outlying jail, I was reminded, again, that hearing the right music at the right time can change your entire day.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; Oscar Shumsky (1917-2000), violin, 1979*
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*Sonata No. 1 in G minor: 00:01
Partita No. 1 in B minor: 17:04
Sonata No. 2 in A minor: 48:26
Partita No. 2 in D minor: 1:11:43
Sonata No. 3 in C major: 1:43:33
Partita No. 3 in E major: 2:07:17
2019
Tuesday, January 15th
what’s new
Miguel Zenón (alto saxophone, compositions) featuring Spektral Quartet, live (“Rosario,” “Milagrosa,” “Villabeño”), Washington, D.C., 1/4/19
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lagniappe
reading table
thin wall—
from the mouse’s hole
the cold—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2019
Tuesday, January 1st
2019?
Hard to believe.
But then so much is.
Arvo Pärt (1935-), Fratres for violin, string orchestra, and percussion (1992); Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra (Sergej Krylov, soloist and conductor), live, Lithuania (Vilnius), 2018
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lagniappe
reading table
New Year’s morning—
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
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The Future is exactly the same . . .
—The Baffler, Jan.-Feb., 2019
music clip of the day 