sounds of Chicago
Jason Stein Trio (JS, bass clarinet; Jason Roebke, bass; Marcus Evans, drums), live (Constellation; performance begins at 3:00), Chicago, 7/31/21
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, outside Chicago (Dean Nature Sanctuary, Oak Brook)
what’s new
Tomeka Reid Quartet (TR, cello, compositions; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Jason Roebke, bass; Tomas Fujiwara, drums), live (“Billy Bang’s Bounce,” “Niki’s Bop,” “Ballad,” “Aug 6,” “Glass Light,” “Woodlawn”), Los Angeles, 5/27/21
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
sounds of Chicago
Keefe Jackson Trio (KJ, saxophone, clarinet; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Roebke, bass), live, Chicago, last night (performance begins at 15:00)
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
Feeling inert?
Not anymore.
Tomeka Reid Quartet (TR, cello; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Jason Roebke, bass; Tomas Fujiwara, drums), “Old New” (T. Reid), 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
On these southern roads,
on shrine or thatched roof, all the same,
swallows everywhere—Yosa Buson (1716-1784), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
14 strings + drums
Tomeka Reid Quartet (TR, cello, compositions; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Jason Roebke, bass; Tomas Fujiwara, drums), live, New York, 3/8/16
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
tonight in Chicago
These folks will be at Constellation.
Tomeka Reid (cello) with Mary Halvorson (guitar), Jason Roebke (bass), and Tomas Fujiwara (drums), “Glass Light,” live, Chicago, 2014
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And these guys will be Elastic.
Dave Rempis (saxophone), Joshua Abrams (bass), Avreeayl Ra (drums), live, Chicago, 2013
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lagniappe
radio
Celebrating the birthdays of saxophonists Lester Young (August 27, 1909) and Charlie Parker (August 29, 1920), WKCR-FM (Columbia University) is featuring their music all day today (Young), all day tomorrow (Young and Parker), all day Saturday (Parker), and into Sunday morning (Parker).
sounds of Chicago
Steve Dawson’s Funeral Bonsai Wedding (SD, vocals and guitar; Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone; Jason Roebke, bass; Frank Rosaly, drums), “As Soon As I Walk In” (S. Dawson), 2014
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music and family have provided two of my life’s through lines. As little boys, my brother Don and I would play in the basement, listening, on the brightly lit juke box, to the Everly Brothers (“Wake Up, Little Susie”), and Johnny Horton (“The Battle of New Orleans”), and Gene Pitney (“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”). Soon we were out the door, hearing the Beatles at Comiskey Park, the Velvet Underground at the Kinetic Playground, and the MC5 in Lincoln Park. Still the beat goes on, undiminished by the passing years. Last week, for my sixty-second birthday, Don gave me (what else?) a record—the new album by this guy, Steve Dawson.
sounds of Chicago
Klang (James Falzone, clarinet; Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone; Jason Roebke, bass; Tim Daisy, drums), live (studio performance), 2009
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lagniappe
art beat: the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago
Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Untitled (Purple, White, and Red), 1953
This painting and I have been getting together, several times a year, for decades. Admittedly, our relationship is rather one-sided. But, if anything, its indifference to me only deepens my feelings for it.
sounds of Chicago
Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things (MR, drums; Jason Roebke, bass; Greg Ward, alto saxophone; Tim Haldeman, tenor saxophone), “Wilbur’s Tune,” live, Paris, 2010
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Mike Reed’s Myth/Science Assembly (MR, drums; Tomas Fujiwara, drums; Josh Abrams, bass; Greg Ward, alto saxophone; Ingrid Laubrock, tenor saxophone; Taylor Ho Bynum, trumpet; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone; Nick Butcher, electronics), live (rearranging a found Sun Ra fragment [excerpt]), Chicago (Chicago Jazz Festival), 2011
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Mike Reed’s Loose Assembly (MR, drums; Josh Abrams, bass; Greg Ward, alto saxophone; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Adasiewicz, vibraphone), live (studio performance), Chicago, c. 2009
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If other Chicago musicians are “busy,” what’s Mike Reed? In addition to leading various groups, he owns and operates Constellation, a performing arts center. Then there’s the Pitchfork Music Festival, which this summer will feature, over the course of three days, Beck, Giorgio Moroder, Kendrick Lamar, Grimes, et al. He books and produces it.
When I was little, I would go into Chicago to hear live music—Peter, Paul & Mary, Kingston Trio, Beach Boys—with my father. Then, as a teenager, I’d go into the city with my brother Don to hear the Velvet Underground and the MC5, the Who, Tim Hardin and Tim Buckley, Muddy Waters. Now I make these trips with my sons. The other night, for instance, my older son Alex (now 24 and home for the holidays) and I went to the Hideout, a small club on Chicago’s north side, not far from where I once went with my father (now gone) and my brother (now hundreds of miles away), to hear this guy.
Jason Adasiewicz’s Rolldown (JA, vibraphone; Josh Berman, cornet; Aram Shelton, alto saxophone; Jason Roebke, bass; Frank Rosaly, drums), “Hide,” live, c. 2008
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lagniappe
reading table
No, the human heart
Is unknowable.
But in my birthplace
The flowers still smell
The same as always.—Ki no Tsurayuki (872-945; trans. Kenneth Rexroth)
music clip of the day 