sounds of Chicago
Tonight these guys, who play all over the world, will be at a little club on the city’s northwest side, the Hideout, as will I.
DKV Trio (Hamid Drake, drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, reeds), live, Italy (Sant’Anna Arresi Jazz Festival), 2008
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Joy—no one gives me more than Hamid Drake.
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lagniappe
reading table
God keep me from ever completing anything.
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
Something beautiful to begin the week.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, excerpt (2nd movt., Adagio); Hélène Grimaud (piano), Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world and at peace with myself.
—Nelson Mandela (July 18, 1918-December 5, 2013)
two takes
The Caravans (feat. Cassietta George), “Walk Around Heaven All Day”
Live
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Recording, 1964
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lagniappe
reading table
Interview of Alice Munro, last month
It’s hard to imagine a male writer, having just won the Nobel Prize in Literature, being so direct, so natural, so down to earth.
two takes
This is, to these ears, exhilarating.
Tim Berne’s Snakeoil,* “Cornered (Duck)”
Live, New York (The Stone), 5/8/13
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Live, Washington, D.C (Atlas Performing Arts Center), 10/9/13
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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.
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)
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.
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?
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.
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)
sounds of Chicago
The Stars of Heaven, live, Chicago, 2012
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lagniappe
art beat
John H. White, Chicago (south side), 1973
