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Thursday, April 23rd

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Mingus!

Charles Mingus, composer, bandleader, bassist
April 22, 1922-January 5, 1979

Better late than never for someone who, like Miles and Monk, Bach and Beethoven, I couldn’t live without.

Charles Mingus (bass) with Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute), Clifford Jordan (tenor saxophone), Johnny Coles (trumpet), Jaki Byard (piano), Dannie Richmond (drums), live, Belgium, Norway, and Sweden, 1964*


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lagniappe

musical thoughts

There’s something about listening to Eric Dolphy that makes you feel glad to be alive.

—Cliff Preiss, DJ, WKCR (Columbia University), yesterday (Mingus birthday broadcast)

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*Set lists (courtesy of YouTube):

Belgium
00:00-00:45 Intro
00:46-05:33 So Long Eric
05:35-11:20 Peggy’s Blue Skylight
11:23-32:03 Meditations On Integration

Norway
32:30-54:46 So Long Eric
56:30-1:11:40 Orange Was The Color Of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk
1:13:53-1:16:20 Parkeriana
1:16:22-1:29:05 Take The “A” Train

Sweden
1:30:05-1:33:55 So Long Eric
1:34:02-1:52:35 Meditations On Integration
1:52:40- 1:59:50 So Long Eric

Wednesday, April 22nd

sounds of South Africa

Fantasma, “Basbizile,” live, London, 2015

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Another take (Free Love, 2015)

Tuesday, April 21st

sounds of Malawi

The Very Best with Mafalika, “Let’s Go,” live, Malawi (Kumbali Village), 2/15


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Another take (Makes a King, 4/15)

Monday, April 20th

what’s new

Kendrick Lamar, “King Kunta” (video, 4/15; To Pimp a Butterfly, 3/15)

 

Sunday, April 19th

In forty years this guy has let me down not once.

Vernard Johnson, “Only What You Do for Christ Will Last,” live


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lagniappe

random thoughts

Blessed to be awakened, again, by birds.

Saturday, April 18th

never enough

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Suite No. 3 in C major for Unaccompanied Cello; Anner Bylsma, live, 2000


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lagniappe

art beat: Thursday at the Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Vase in the Form of an Exotic Plant, 1886/87

Style: "Japanese baskets"

 

Friday, April 17th

With all he does, this can get lost: on guitar, he’s a killer.

Cee Lo Green, “Crazy,” live (with Prince, guitar), New York, 2011


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Stevie Wonder, “Superstition,” live (with Prince, guitar), Paris, 2010


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lagniappe

reading table

I am alive—I guess—

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #605 (Franklin), first line

Thursday, April 16th

astonishing

Lee Hyla (1952-2014), String Quartet No. 4 (1999); Spektral Quartet, live, Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.), 2011

Wednesday, April 15th

MCOTD Hall of Fame

Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy (LB, trumpet; Steve Turre, trombone; Frank Lacy, trombone; Bob Stewart, tuba; Phillip Wilson, drums, et al.), live, Berlin, 1986

Tuesday, April 14th

yesterday in Chicago

He played a version of this, wonderfully, along with Steve Reich’s “New York Counterpoint” and Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” at the Chicago Cultural Center.

James Falzone, “Sighs Too Deep For Words,” live (studio performance), 2011

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lagniappe

random thoughts

Why settle for a mirror when you could have a window?