voices I miss
Betty Carter (vocals, 1929-1998) with Geri Allen (piano, 1957-2017), Dave Holland (bass, 1946-), Jack DeJohnette (drums, 1942-), live, Germany (Hamburg), 1993
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
two takes
“Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most” (F. Landesman, T. Wolf)
Betty Carter (1929-1998), 1965
***
Bob Dorough (1923-2018, piano, vocals), 1997
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, outside Chicago (Glen Ellyn)
voices I miss
Betty Carter (1929-1998) with Gerri Allen (piano), Dave Holland (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), “Giant Steps” (J. Coltrane), live, Germany (Hamburg), 1993
**********
lagniappe
random sights
last night, Chicago (West Diversey)
like nobody else
Betty Carter (1929-1998), live, Montreal, 1982
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lagniappe
random sights
Tuesday, Oak Park, Ill.
***
Today
two takes
It’s spring!
“Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” (T. Wolf & F. Landesman)
Betty Carter (1929-1998), Inside Betty Carter, 1964
*****
Bob Dorough (1923-), Right On My Way Home, 1997
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lagniappe
reading table
spring rain—
the uneaten ducks
are quacking—Kobayashi Issa, 1813 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
two takes
“Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” (T. Wolf & F. Landesman)
Bob Dorough, vocals & piano (Right On My Way Home, 1997)
*****
Betty Carter, vocals (Inside Betty Carter, 1964)
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Alcove
by John Ashbery
(Planisphere, 2009)
Is it possible that spring could be
once more approaching? We forget each time
what a mindless business it is, porous like sleep,
adrift on the horizon, refusing to take sides, “mugwump
of the final hour,” lest an agenda—horrors!—be imputed to it,
and the whole point of its being spring collapse
like a hole dug in sand. It’s breathy, though,
you have to say that for it.
And should further seasons coagulate
into years, like spilled, dried paint, why,
who’s to say we weren’t provident? We indeed
looked out for others as though they mattered, and they,
catching the spirit, came home with us, spent the night
in an alcove from which their breathing could be heard clearly.
But it’s not over yet. Terrible incidents happen
daily. That’s how we get around obstacles.
captivating, adj. capturing interest as if by a spell. E.g., Betty Carter.
Betty Carter (with Cyrus Chestnut, piano), “Once Upon A Summertime,” live, Japan, 1993
(Watch how she moves when giving way to Cyrus Chestnut’s piano solo [3:40-54]: the elegance of a dancer, the dignity of a queen.)
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lagniappe
If you’re sitting in that audience ready to fight me from the very beginning, I’m going to have a hard time getting to you. But if you’ve got a heart at all, I’m going to get it.—Betty Carter
