3n
DKV Trio (Hamid Drake, drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, baritone saxophone), live, Austria (Nickelsdorf), 2013
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lagniappe
road to the World Series
This may be the goose-bump capital of the world right now.
—Cubs radio announcer Pat Hughes, Wrigley Field, yesterday
drum fest
day four
Kidd Jordan (tenor saxophone), Dave Burrell (piano), William Parker (bass), Hamid Drake (drums), live, New York, 2014
#1
#2
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Imagine living in a drumless world.
Soundtrack for your day?
Peter Brotzmann Tentet,* live, Atlanta, 2002
*PB, reeds; Ken Vandermark, reeds; Mats Gustafsson, reeds; Mars Williams, reeds; Joe McPhee, trumpet; Jeb Bishop, trombone; Fred Longberg-Holm, cello; Kent Kessler, bass; Hamid Drake, drums; Michael Zerang, drums.
sounds of Chicago
Fred Anderson Trio (FA, tenor saxophone; Tatsu Aoki, bass; Hamid Drake, drums), live, Netherlands (North Sea Jazz Festival), 2000
Why not listen to something new?
Iva Bittova (voice, violin), Don Byron (clarinet), Hamid Drake (drums), live, Paris, 2008
sounds of Chicago
Tonight these guys, who play all over the world, will be at a little club on the city’s northwest side, the Hideout, as will I.
DKV Trio (Hamid Drake, drums; Kent Kessler, bass; Ken Vandermark, reeds), live, Italy (Sant’Anna Arresi Jazz Festival), 2008
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Joy—no one gives me more than Hamid Drake.
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lagniappe
reading table
God keep me from ever completing anything.
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
can’t wait: Chicago Jazz Festival, 8/29-9/1
Hamid Drake, drums (artist-in-residence at this year’s festival) and Pasquale Mirra, vibraphone, live, Sardinia (Osilo), 2012
#1
#2
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lagniappe
reading table
In this mortal frame of mine, which is made of a hundred bones and nine orifices, there is something, and this something can be called, for lack of a better name, a wind-swept spirit, for it is much like thin drapery that is torn and swept away by the slightest stirring of the wind.
—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), “The Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel” (excerpt, translated from Japanese by Noboyuki Yuasa)
last night
I heard these guys at a small Chicago club (Hideout)—what a storm.
Peter Brötzmann (reeds), Ken Vandermark (reeds), Hamid Drake (drums), Chad Taylor (drums), live, Slovenia (Ljubljana), 7/3/13
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
When our minds are filled with music, they’re free of everything else.
Kidd Jordan Quartet (KJ, tenor saxophone; Billy Bang, violin; William Parker, bass; Hamid Drake, drums), New York (Vision Festival), 2008
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
We tend to take musical instruments for granted, as if their existence were inevitable. But the fact that something exists doesn’t mean it had to. We could’ve been born into a world that never heard a violin.
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reading table
“What kind of heaven is that, you can’t have your records?”
—Michael Chabon, Telegraph Avenue
alone
Hamid Drake, drums, Paris, 2010
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lagniappe
reading table
Last night I completed a long, meandering journey I began several years ago, finishing the last of the seven volumes of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. If you’ve ever thought about making this trip yourself, I have just one word of advice: go. The minutes, and hours, I’ve spent in Proust’s company—often just a few pages at a time—are among the most rewarding, and pleasurable, I’ve had.
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One, two, three. Time, time!
—William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (II, 2, 51)
music clip of the day 