two takes
“Lulu’s Back In Town” (H. Warren & A. Dubin)
Fats Waller, recording, 1935
***
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)
**********
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”
***
Young Smoke, “Space Muzik Pt. 3”
***
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
alone
Cecil Taylor, piano, live, Germany (Nürnberg), 1984
alone
Matthew Shipp, piano, “Greensleeves,” “Symbol Systems,” 2012
sounds of Chicago
“Chicago gospel—a musical snapshot,” Chicago Tribune, 2007
*****
Happy Birthday to my oldest musical companion, my brother Don, with whom I’ve shared more musical experiences, live and on record, than I could possibly remember—the Beatles (Comiskey Park, 1965), the Velvet Underground (Kinetic Playground, 1968 [followed by our arrests, while walking back to the car, for, uh, curfew]), the MC5 (Lincoln Park, 1968 [Democratic Convention]) . . .
