music clip of the day

jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more

Saturday, December 14th

two takes

This is, to these ears, exhilarating.

Tim Berne’s Snakeoil,* “Cornered (Duck)”

Live, New York (The Stone), 5/8/13


***

Live, Washington, D.C (Atlas Performing Arts Center), 10/9/13


*****

lagniappe

musical thoughts

Music should be no more complex than it needs to be. And no matter how complicated it may actually be, it should never seem that way to the listener. If it does, immediacy has deteriorated into abstraction.

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*TB, alto saxophone; Oscar Noriega, bass clarinet, clarinet; Matt Mitchell, piano; Ches Smith, percussion.

Friday, December 13th

only rock ’n’ roll

Superchunk, “Void” (2013)


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lagniappe

reading table

Cormac McCarthy, particularly in a book like Blood Meridian, is writing an English very remote from our own. It’s more like the King James Bible on acid, right?

—David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), in Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace & Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing (2013)

Thursday, December 12th

passings

Jim Hall, guitarist, December 4, 1930-December 10, 2013

With Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone), “In a Sentimental Mood” (D. Ellington), live, Italy (Umbria Jazz Festival), 1996


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With Bill Evans (piano), Undercurrent (“My Funny Valentine,” “I Hear a Rhapsody,” “Dream Gypsy,” “Romain,” “Skating in Central Park,” “Darn that Dream,” “Stairway to the Stars,” “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”), 1962


When I was in college in the early ’70s, this album was a frequent late-night companion. Since then I’ve listened to it more times than I could count. It never grows old.

Wednesday, December 11th

sounds of Chicago

Son Seals, “On My Knees,” live (TV show), 1980s


Musical notation has its place. Sometimes, though, it’s useless. How could marks on a piece of paper ever capture his attack?

Tuesday, December 10th

keep on dancing

Theo Parrish, live, London (Boiler Room), 2013


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lagniappe

reading table

Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die

—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill)

*****

the beat goes on

Fifteen hundred posts—and counting.

Monday, December 9th

sounds of Chicago

Something quiet to begin the week.

Tobias Broström (1978-), “Twilight”; Third Coast Percussion, live


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lagniappe

reading table

quite remarkable
being born human . . .
autumn dusk.

—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)

 

Sunday, December 8th

sounds of Chicago

The Stars of Heaven, live, Chicago, 2012


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lagniappe

art beat

John H. White, Chicago (south side), 1973

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Saturday, December 7th

serendipity

Last night I was feeling glum. Then I happened upon this. Listen to this piano sing.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major; Maria João Pires (piano), Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Trevor Pinnock, cond.), live


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lagniappe

reading table

Why love what you will lose?
There is nothing else to love.

—Louise Glück, “From the Japanese” (excerpt)

Friday, December 6th

sounds of Chicago

Robbie Fulks, “I’ll Trade You Money For Wine,” live, Norway (Oslo), 2013


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lagniappe

art beat

Danny Lyon (1942-), Uptown, Chicago (1965)

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Thursday, December 5th

soundtrack to a dream

Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994), String Quartet (1964); Tetris Quartet, live, Thailand (Bangkok), 2012


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lagniappe

art beat

Lee Friedlander (1934-), Japan (Kyoto), 1981

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