Sometimes the best of what’s new is old.
Betty Davis, “Down Home Girl” (Miles Davis & Teo Macero, prods.; John McLaughlin [guitar], Herbie Hancock [keyboards], Harvey Brooks [bass], Mitch Mitchell [drums]), 6/28/16 (rec. 1969)
**********
lagniappe
art beat: yesterday, Art Institute of Chicago
From Thirteen Laughing at Each Other, Juan Muñoz (1953-2001), through 10/5/16
Miles
Miles Davis Quintet (MD, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano, Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums), live, Europe (Karlsruhe, Germany; Stockholm, Sweden), 1967
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
Miles may not be the greatest trumpet player in the history of jazz, but he’s arguably the greatest bandleader. Only someone with supreme self-confidence could do what he did. A brilliant judge of talent, a leader who expected, and enabled, others to flourish, he could seem, at times, the least interesting player in his own band.
*****
reading table
Winter solitude—
in a world of one color
the sound of wind.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694, translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
protean, adj. 1. Of or resembling Proteus in having a varied nature or ability to assume different forms. 2. Displaying great diversity or variety. E.g., Miles Davis.
Miles Davis Quintet (MD, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums), “I Fall In Love Too Easily,” live, Germany (Karlsruhe), 1967
More? Here. And here. And here.
**********
lagniappe
last night
There’s something in nothing, and we’ll never know what it is.
—Susan Howe, poet, after a performance of Frolic Architecture with composer and musician David Grubbs at the University of Chicago’s Bond Chapel
Miles Davis Quintet (MD, trumpet; Wayne Shorter, tenor saxophone; Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums), “Footprints” (W. Shorter), live, Sweden, 1967
Vodpod videos no longer available.Time for just one note? 3:34. (Shorter’s entire solo is a marvel [1:54-3:54]: it’s as intimate and delicate as a dream.)
**********
lagniappe
reading table
just the other day
we said goodbye . . .
dewy grave—Kobayashi Issa, 1790s (trans. David G. Lanoue)
Great drummers are like great basketball players—they lift everybody’s game.
Trixie Whitley with Brian Blade (drums) and Daniel Lanois, “I’d Rather Go Blind,” recording session, 2008
*****
Herbie Hancock (piano), Wayne Shorter (saxophone), Dave Holland (bass), Brian Blade (drums); live, Germany (Salzau), 2004
Part 1
(It may simply be a coincidence [or my imagination], but a four-note pattern that Herbie keeps repeating, with variations, reminds me, particularly at around 2:27 and following, of the beginning of Alfred Schnittke’s Piano Concerto [featured on 1/14/10].)
Part 2
**********
lagniappe
Johnny [Vidacovich, featured on 9/30/09], man . . . what an inspiration. His playing is so liquid but at the same time just the street of it is so intoxicating. Studying with him, the drumming aspect was never about fundamental things. It was never about the drums as much as it was about the music and playing with this melodic sensibility. That sticks with me even more than the thickness or the groove, which he never spoke about, really. That was like a given. If you have it inside of you, that groove, you need to lay it down. But also need to be able to sing through the drums.—Brian Blade
music clip of the day 