One-word review: Wow!
Paul Dresher (1951-), et al., Schick Machine (excerpts), with Steven Schick (percussion, voice, etc.), live, Davis, California (UC Davis), 2009
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
The first musician—a percussionist?
Three more takes.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, excerpt (third movt.)
Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), live, Japan, 1993
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Maurizio Pollini (1942-), live
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Rudolf Serkin (1903-1991), piano, live, 1987
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lagniappe
reading table
‘A book is a device to ignite the imagination.’
—Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader
There are a handful of pieces I can’t imagine living without—this is one.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, excerpt (third movt.); Igor Levit (piano), live, Amsterdam, 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
To say she is dead is senseless, just as senseless as it is to say I myself am alive.
—Samantha Harvey, Dear Thief
Some singers put their arms around you and hold you.
Gospel Challengers, “The Storm Is Passing Over,” live (TV show), early ’60s
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lagniappe
reading table
even an old man
has New Year’s eyes . . .
cherry blossoms—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
mother & daughter
Cissy & Whitney Houston, medley (“(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone,” “Ain’t No Way,” “You Send Me”), live (TV show), 1983
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lagniappe
reading table
He spreads the paper flat and pushes down its dog-eared corners. The paper was once white, and now it is yellow, he thinks. Once flat, now creased. And there is the truth about life: once this, then that.
—Samantha Harvey, The Wilderness
two takes
“I Don’t Claim To Be An Angel”
Laura Cantrell, live (studio performance), New York, 2011
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Kitty Wells (1919-2012), live (TV show), c. 1953
What better way to start the year than with the music of Sly Stone?
Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra (Steven Bernstein, trumpet; John Medeski, organ, et al.), live, Paris, 2011
“Stand” (feat. Sandra St. Victor, vocals)
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“Everyday People” (feat. Eric Mingus, vocals)
*****
Still, after four decades, this album remains on my desert-island list.
Sly and the Family Stone, Fresh, 1973
1. In Time (0:00)
2. If You Want Me To Stay (5:48)
3. Let Me Have It All (8:48)
4. Frisky (11:43)
5. Thankful ‘N’ Thoughtful (14:54)
6. Skin I’m In (19:36)
7. I Don’t Know (Satisfaction) (22:29)
8. Keep On Dancin’ (26:23)
9. Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) (28:45)
10. If It Were Left Up To Me (34:07)
11. Babies Makin’ Babies (36:07)
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lagniappe
random thoughts: New Year’s resolution #5
Each day: begin, again.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Patterns in a Chromatic Field (1981)
Arne Deforce (cello) & Yutaka Oya (piano)
Live (excerpts), Belgium (Kortrijk), 2013
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Charles Curtis (cello) & Aleck Karis (piano)
Recording, 2004
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lagniappe
random thoughts: New Year’s resolution #4
No matter how much I get out, it never fails. Whenever I experience live music, as I did Sunday when I heard this otherworldly piece played, wonderfully, by cellist Mira Luxion and pianist Andy Costello (Constellation, Chicago), I leave with the same thought—you really ought to do this more often.
what’s new
Dirty Beaches, “Time Washes Everything Away,” 12/14 (video)
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lagniappe
random thoughts: New Year’s resolution #3
Give up the wish to live in a world where making New Year’s resolutions would be something more than a reminder of how laughably little is within our control.
