sounds of Ukraine
Julia Gomelskaya (1964-2016), Symphony No. 2 (“Ukraine Forever”), 2010; National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (Mykola Dyadyura, cond.), live, Kyiv (Ukraine), 2011
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
sounds of Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Konono No. 1, “Mama Na Bana,” live, Belgium (Spa), 2012
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
spring: another take
Sun Ra Arkestra (SR, 1914-1993, piano, composition; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again,” live, Rome, 1980
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lagniappe
reading table
Thus spring begins: old
stupidities repeated,
new errors invented.—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill
two takes
“Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” (F. Landesman, T. Wolf)
Bob Dorough (1923-2018; vocals, piano), 1997
*****
Betty Carter (1929-1998, vocals), 1964
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
back to church
Hood Memorial Hymn Choir, “Until I Die,” live, Center Baptist Church, Gastonia, North Carolina, 1988
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, outside Chicago
sounds of Ukraine
Yuko, “Маша,” live (studio), Kyiv (Ukraine), 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
a while ago, Maine (Monhegan Island)
sounds of Ukraine
Yakiv Tsvietinskyi (composition, trumpet), “Double Quartet No. 9,” live (studio), Ukraine, 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
voices I miss
Billy Bang Quintet (BB, 1947-2011, violin, compositions; James Zollar, trumpet; Andrew Bemkey, piano; Todd Nicholson, bass; Newman Taylor Baker, drums), live, New York, 2006
(clip plays)
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lagniappe
reading table
Look at your past, how it’s grown.
—Karen Solie (1966-), from “All That Is Certain Is Night Lasts Longer Than the Day”
sounds of Ukraine
Valentin Silvestrov (1937-), Symphony No. 1 (1963-74); National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (Volodymyr Sirenko, cond.), Kyiv (Ukraine), 1998
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music is still song, even if one cannot literally sing it: it is not a philosophy, not a world-view. It is, above all, a chant, a song the world sings about itself, it is the musical testimony to life.
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random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
what’s new
Ensemble Musikfabrik (Marco Blaauw, trumpet, curator; Benjamin Kobler, piano), live, Cologne (Germany), yesterday: John Cage, The Perilous Night (1944) for prepared piano; Rebecca Saunders, Blaauw (2004) for double bell trumpet; Rebecca Saunders, Unsaid (2019) for piano; Rebecca Saunders, White (2015, rev. 2016) for double bell trumpet; Morton Feldman, Last Pieces (1959) for piano; Alvin Singleton, Vous Compra (2001) for trumpet and piano
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day 