Wednesday, June 1st
sounds of New York
Sandbox Percussion, live (excerpts from S. Reich, “Drumming”; A. Weiser, “Anatomy of a Drum Roll”; S. Reich, “Music for Pieces of Wood”), New York (Washington Square Park), 2014
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
2016
Tuesday, May 31st
Need a lift?
Angelika Niescier (alto saxophone), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Florian Weber (piano), Chris Tordini (bass), Tyshawn Sorey (drums), “The Barn Thing” (A. Niescier), live, Germany (Krefeld), 2013
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), Martha’s Vineyard Rocks 127B 1954 (Abstractions, through 8/14/16)
2016
Monday, May 30th
Vancouver folkie + iconic Memphis rhythm section.
This should never have worked.
But it does, wonderfully.
Frazey Ford, “September Fields” (Indian Ocean), 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
The climate is pretty.
I wrote everything on it.
That’s the activity where it
gets relatively inauspicious.***
And you were sitting there
in the night of life. It sure was good.
My favorite desserts were there.
And when they invite you, it’s like an important document
goes missing. I’ll give you an example:
a twelve-year struggle upstate, in
the slick atmosphere of the breakfast room.
It might have gotten stuck in her farthingale.Otherwise no reply.
—John Ashbery (1927-), “As Someone Who Likes Travel,” fragments (New Yorker, 5/30/16)
To read Ashbery is to read English as a foreign language—which I mean as a compliment.
2016
Sunday, May 29th
sounds of Chicago
Windy City Spiritualaires with Willie Clayton, “Prove It,” live, Birmingham, Ala., 2000
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), Glouchester 1H 1944 (Abstractions, through 8/14/16)
2016
Saturday, May 28th
three takes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor
Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), live
#1
#2
***
Artur Schnabel (1882-1951), 1939
#1
#2
#3
***
Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950), live, France (Besancon), 1950
***
The A minor sonata is the first of only two Mozart piano sonatas in a minor key . . . It was written in one of the most tragic times of his life: his mother had just died.
2016
Friday, May 27th
what’s new
Filastine, “The Cleaner,” released yesterday
2016
Thursday, May 26th
sounds of Sweden
Klara Lewis, live, England (Gateshead), 2015
2016
Wednesday, May 25th
Unfailing clarity, lyricism—how apt to hear him shortly after Mozart.
Sonny Rollins, live (“On Green Dolphin Street,” “St. Thomas,” “Four”), Denmark, 1968*
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lagniappe
reading table
dripping from the flower vendor’s
display
morning dew—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1828 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
*****
*With Kenny Drew (piano), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass), Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums).
2016
Tuesday, May 24th
sounds of Morocco
Mourad Belouadi, “Mawama,” live, Morocco (M’hamid), 2014
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Note to self: Let your mind be occupied, fully, by the Other.
2016
Monday, May 23rd
I love his approach to Mozart. He’s never fussy or mannered. He plays simply, directly—like a bird flying from tree to tree.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major (:07-), Fantasia in C minor (22:42-), Sonata No. 14 in C minor (39:54-); Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), live, Germany (Munich), 1990
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Mozart was a kind of idol to me—this rapturous singing . . . that’s always on the edge of sadness and melancholy and disappointment and heartbreak, but always ready for an outburst of the most delicious music.
—Saul Bellow (1915-2005)
***
reading table
If, instead of the words ‘good’ or ‘right’ (or ‘sacred’) we use the words ‘beautiful’ or ‘pleasurable’ or ‘enlivening,’ . . . how would our lives be different?
—Adam Phillips, Unforbidden Pleasures (quoted in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review)
music clip of the day 