music clip of the day

jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
2020

Monday, March 23rd

like nobody else

His sound-world seems just right for these strange times—beautiful and solemn in equal measure.

Arvo Pärt (1935-), Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (Tõnu Kaljuste, cond.), live (Fratres, 1:30-; Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, 13:49-; Adam’s Lament, 22:10-; Salve Regina, 45:40-; Te Deum, 59:30-), Germany (Hamburg), 2/18/20*

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

*ECM Records founder/producer Manfred Eicher (1943-), who has long championed Pärt’s music, joins the others onstage at the end.

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2020

Sunday, March 22nd

back to church

“What I Am,” Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, Chester, S.C., 2003

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

streaming

From jazz pianist Fred Hersch:

Mini Concert Every Day

I hope everybody is safe and healthy and will remain that way. This is an unprecedented challenge to everyone on the planet and we all need resilience and resourcefulness going forward.

Starting this Sunday, every day at 1pm EST
I will do a live mini concert of piano music from my home.

You can see and hear the concert here:

https://www.facebook.com/fredherschmusic

Wishing you all strength and much love,

Fred

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2020

Saturday, March 21st

sounds of Kingston

Buju Banton (1973-), live (studio), Kingston (Jamaica), 3/20/20

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.

—Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh (1926-)

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2020

Friday, March 20th

How about something quiet, and delicate, and beautiful?

Ballaké Sissoko (1968-, kora), live, Paris, 2017

 

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

Quick the world rushed out like waters.

—Eimear McBride (1976-), A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing

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2020

Thursday, March 19th

two takes

“Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most” (F. Landesman, T. Wolf)

Betty Carter (1929-1998), 1965

 

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Bob Dorough (1923-2018, piano, vocals), 1997

 

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, outside Chicago (Glen Ellyn)

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2020

Wednesday, March 18th

sounds of Ukraine

Alyona Alyona, “Дикі танці,” 1/30/20

 

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Oak Park, Ill.

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2020

Tuesday, March 17th

passings

Charles Wuorinen, composer, June 9, 1938-March 11, 2020

Flying to Kahani (2005); Orchestra of the League of Composers (C. Wuorinen, cond.), live, New York, 2016

 

In 2011, jazz composer Carla Bley called Mr. Wuorinen ‘the greatest composer working.’ And the proudly poly-stylistic composer John Zorn, who has worked in forms ranging from klezmer to punk rock, recently called Mr. Wuorinen ‘a true artist whose intense and uncompromising vision produced work of remarkable beauty and drama.’ ‘He never wrote an insincere note in his life,’ Zorn continued. ‘He was a powerful role model and I loved him dearly.’

—Tim Page, obituary, Washington Post, 3/14/20

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lagniappe

random sights

early yesterday morning, Oak Park, Ill.

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2020

Monday, March 16th

Want to be swept away?

Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915), Etude in D-sharp minor, Op. 8, No. 12 (1894); Daniil Trifonov (1991-, piano), live, Berlin, 2019

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

And I Was Alive
by Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938),
translated from Russian by Christian Wiman

And I was alive in the blizzard of the blossoming pear,
Myself I stood in the storm of the bird-cherry tree,
It was all leaflike and star shower, unerring, self-shattering power,
And it was all aimed at me.

What is this dire delight flowering fleeing always earth?
What is being? What is truth?

Blossoms rupture and rapture the air,
All hover and hammer,
Time intensified and time intolerable, sweetness raveling rot.
It is now. It is not.

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2020

Sunday, March 15th

timeless

Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, Alabama, “I’m Bound for Canaan Land,” recorded in Chicago, 1947

 

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

Where did my life come from?
Where will it go?

—Ryōkan (1758-1831), from an untitled poem (translated from classical Chinese by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel)

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2020

Saturday, March 14th

never enough

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, Violin Partita No. 1 in B minor; Rachel Podger (1968-, violin), live (performance begins at 2:00), London, 11/24/19

 

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lagniappe

art beat: other day, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Claude Monet (1840-1926), Water Lilies (1914-1926), detail

*****

reading table

Playing ball
With the children in this village
Spring day, never let the shadows fall!

—Ryōkan (1758-1831), translated from Japanese by Ryūichi Abé and Peter Haskel

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