Thursday, January 20th
timeless
Anthony Braxton Trio (AB, 1945-, alto saxophone; George Lewis, 1952-, trombone; Mark Dresser, 1952-, bass), live, Antwerp (Belgium), 1985
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langiappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Tag: George Lewis
2020
Thursday, December 31st
string quartet festival
day three
Mivos Quartet, Bronx Community College Online Concert Series, 11/30/20: Michaela Catranis, Luminous Animal (2020); Linda Caitlin Smith, String Quartet No. 6 (2013); George Lewis, String Quartet 2.5: “Playing with Seeds” (2017)
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Old age is
a flight of small
cheeping birds
skimming
bare trees
above a snow glaze.—William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), from “To Waken an Old Lady”
2020
Thursday, September 10th
what’s new
George Lewis (1952-), String Quartet No. 1.5, “Experiments in Living” (2016); Spektral Quartet, 8/27/20
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago
2020
Saturday, May 16th
Feel like losing yourself, if only for a little while, in a garden of sounds?
George Lewis (1952-), The Will to Adorn (2011); International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), live, Chicago, 2012
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
2019
Tuesday, March 26th
sounds of Chicago
George Lewis (1952-), String Quartet No. 1.5, “Experiments in Living” (2016); Spektral Quartet, live, New York, 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2012
Sunday, 8/5/12
Who wouldn’t want to go to such a heaven?
Soul Stirrers (feat. Jimmy Outler), “Listen to the Angels Sing,” TV show, early 1960s
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lagniappe
listening room: (some of) what’s playing
• The Dirtbombs, Ultraglide in Black (In the Red)
• Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio (Blue Note)
• Shabazz Palaces, Black Up (Sub Pop)
• Terrie Ex, Paal Nilssen-Love, Hurgu! (PNL Records)
• Anthony Braxton Quintet (Basel) 1977 (hatOLOGY)
• Miles Davis, Live in Europe 1967 (Sony Legacy)
• ICP Orchestra Performs Herbie Nichols & Thelonious Monk (ICP)
• George Lewis & The NOW Orchestra, The Shadowgraph Series: Compositions for Creative Orchestra (Spool)
• Misha Mengelberg, Steve Lacy, Goerge Lewis, Harjen Gorter, Han Bennink, Change of Season (Soul Note)
• Pharaoh Sanders, Karma (Impulse!)
• Charles “Bobo” Shaw & Lester Bowie, Bugle Boy Bop (Muse)
• Reverend Claude Jeter, Yesterday and Today (Shanachie)
• This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African-American Gospel On 45 RPM (1957-1982) (Tompkins Square)
• J. Berg’s A Cappella Archives (Vol. 3), Royal Rarities (Vol. 3) (Rare Gospel)
• Congotronics 2: Buzz ’n’ Rumble in the Urb ’n’ Jungle (Crammed Discs)
• Pandit Pran Nath, Midnight: Raga Malkauns (Just Dreams)
• Nikhil Banerjee, Afternoon Ragas (Bhimpalasri, Multani) (Raga Records)
• John Luther Adams, Songbird Songs (Mode Records)
• John Luther Adams, Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (New World Records)
• John Cage Edition—Vol. 23: The Works for Violin 4 (Irvine Arditti, violin; Stephen Drury, piano) (Mode Records)
• Morton Feldman, Trio (Aki Takahashi, piano; Marc Sabat, violin; Rohan de Saram, cello) (Mode Records)
• Tristan Murail, Gondwana, Desintegrations, Time and Again (Disques Montaigne)
• Peter Serkin Plays the Music of Toru Takemitsu (RCA/BMG)
• The Incomparable Rudolf Serkin (Beethoven, Piano Sonatas Nos. 30, 31, 32) (Deutsche Grammophon)
• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)
• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Cherry Blossom Clinic (Terre T, rock, etc.)
—Fool’s Paradise (Rex; “Vintage rockabilly, R & B, blues, vocal groups, garage, instrumentals, hillbilly, soul and surf”)
—Downtown Soulville (Mr. Fine Wine, soul, etc.)
2012
Tuesday, 7/24/12
George Lewis (1952-), “Will to Adorn” (2011)
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Chicago, 2012
[W]hen writing “The Will To Adorn,” Lewis was especially “interested in this idea of adornment—color, color, color everywhere.” The piece represents Lewis’ current musical goal to get “more color energy into the pieces.”
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
In February, when I left this concert, which took place on a Sunday afternoon at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, I felt both exhilarated and wistful. This performance, which had been such a joy to hear, I would never be able to experience again. Or so I thought, until, just the other day, I discovered this recording online. Young people, many of them, anyway, would see nothing remarkable in being able, thanks to the ’net, to return to a musical experience whenever, and wherever, you want. To me it seems a small miracle.
*****
reading table
I was trying to assert myself as the man in the house, taking charge of things no one could control.
—Richard Ford, Canada (2012)
2012
Monday, 6/18/12
Happy (Day After) Father’s Day
Nas (son) with Olu Dara (father), “Bridging the Gap” (2004)
(sampling Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy”)
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lagniappe
Here’s more from the old man.
David Murray Octet, “Dewey’s Circle” (DM, tenor saxophone; Olu Dara, trumpet; Butch Morris, cornet; George Lewis, trombone; Henry Threadgill, alto saxophone; Anthony Davis, piano; Wilber Morris, bass; Steve McCall, drums), Ming (Black Saint, 1980)
*****
Muddy Waters, “Mannish Boy” (Chess, 1955)
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lagniappe
reading table
People are mysterious, unfathomable—like divinities: natural objects for reverence. But our habits of thought turn the people around us into objects, the means for our self-protection.
—Lama John Makransky, “Family Practice,”
Tricycle, Summer 2001
music clip of the day 