Shivkumar Sharma (santoor) & Zakir Hussain (tabla), live, Tokyo, 1988
#1
#2
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lagniappe
radio
Today it’s all ragas all day at WKCR-FM (Columbia University), where they’re hosting the Ragas Live Festival—24 hours straight of Indian classical music, featuring 24 live in-studio performances.
Speaking of Bach, last night, as I was working on the closing argument I’ll be giving today in a federal bribery-conspiracy trial, it was a great joy—and a great comfort—to be able to listen to this.
Johann Sebastian Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I; Andrei Gavrilov (piano), playing and talking (Preludes & Fugues Nos. 1-12); Joanna MacGregor (piano), playing and talking (Preludes & Fugues Nos. 13-24); TV (BBC), 2000
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lagniappe
reading table
[L]istening to music for an hour or two every evening doesn’t deprive me of the silence—the music is the silence coming true.
—Philip Roth, The Human Stain
musical logic
1. No day that includes a Bach cello suite can be all bad.
2. Any day can include a Bach cello suite.
3. Therefore a day that’s all bad can always be avoided.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Suite No. 1 in G major for Unaccompanied Cello; Pablo Casals (1876-1973), live, France (Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa), 1954
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lagniappe
reading table
[T]here really is no bottom to what is not known. The truth about us is endless. As are the lies.
—Philip Roth, The Human Stain
two takes
“Lulu’s Back In Town” (H. Warren & A. Dubin)
Fats Waller, recording, 1935
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Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), live (TV studio), Norway (Oslo), 1960
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world. It depends on your imagination.
old stuff
This I could listen to all day.
Fats Waller (1904-1943), “Numb Fumbling,” 1929
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lagniappe
reading table
Two of us
brush painting in turn;
autumn night.—Ryokan, 1758-1831 (translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi [Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan])
If God exists, he wants us—this I am sure of—to dance.
Caffey Brothers, “Make Me Over” (Aura Records, Youngstown, Ohio)
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lagniappe
reading table
I know that He exists.
Somewhere – in silence –
He has hid his rare life
From our gross eyes.—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 365 (excerpt)
sounds of Chicago
Bangs & Works Vol. 2 (The Best of Chicago Footwork), 2011
Jlin, “Erotic Heat”
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Young Smoke, “Space Muzik Pt. 3”
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RP Boo, “Off Da Hook”
only rock ’n’ roll
The Stooges (1967-)
Most musicians are no more able than anyone else to talk about what they do in ways that are fresh and absorbing. This guy, to these ears, is something rare: a compelling player who is, as well, a provocative thinker and talker.
Vijay Iyer (piano), playing and talking, 2010
kinetic
Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto saxophone), Rez Abbasi (guitar), Rich Brown (bass), Rudy Royston (drums), “Killer,” “Playing with Stones,” Washington, D.C., 2012
