like nobody else
John Zorn (composition, alto saxophone, direction) with Marc Ribot (guitar), Kenny Wollesen (vibraphone), Jamie Saft (keyboards), Trevor Dunn (bass), Cyro Baptista (percussion), Joey Baron (drums): “Karaim,” France (Marciac), 2010
**********
lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago
sounds of New York
John Zorn (1953-, alto saxophone), Tyshawn Sorey (1980-, drums), live, 2011
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
like nobody else
John Zorn’s Acoustic Masada (JZ, 1953-, alto saxophone, compositions; Dave Douglas, trumpet; Greg Cohen, bass; Joey Baron, drums), live, Vienne (France), 2006
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
beyond category
John Zorn, Book of Angels (excerpts); Uri Caine, piano; Masada String Trio (Mark Feldman, violin; Erik Friedlander, cello;* Greg Cohen, bass); live, France (Marciac), 2008
**********
lagniappe
reading table
There’s a line in Tarkovsky’s Solaris: we never know when we’re going to die and because of that we are, at any given moment, immortal.
—Geoff Dyer, “Diary,” London Review of Books, 4/3/14
***
*It’s all related: Erik’s the son of photographer Lee Friedlander, whose work is often featured here.
This guy, like another New Yorker,* contains multitudes.
John Zorn (with Marc Ribot, guitar; John Medeski, keyboards, et al.), live, Poland (Warsaw), 2013
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
All the various styles are organically connected to one another. I’m an additive person—the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do. People are so obsessed with the surface that they can’t see the connections, but they are there.
—John Zorn
*****
*Walt Whitman (“Song of Myself”): “I am large, I contain multitudes.”
sounds I miss*
Albert Collins (1932-1993), “Two-Lane Highway” (John Zorn, Spillane, 1987)
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
[A] particular brand of comment showed up enough [on the Alan Lomax Archive recordings on YouTube] that I started a collection. I call them “blues affirmations.” They number in the dozens, posted to an assortment of clips of black vernacular music. These performances don’t necessarily pertain to the song structure or performance style called “blues”—they could be field hollers or minstrel pieces—but the commentary was single-mindedly focused on it.
The notion of a “pure” culture, of any kind, is informed by ignorance and/or ideology and/or romanticism. I feel set upon by a thick, dumb fog just looking at the phrase. But the Blues Affirmations stir something in me; they insist, childlike, on something real, true, forever enduring, constructed of unadulterated and unmediated purity. I look forward to them, and they undo me a bit when they arrive.
They feel authentic, so I’d like to give them the last word:
one word: BLUES…
This is blues
The real blues
Real O.G. Blues. No fancy shit!
This is the real face of the blues right here.
this is how it’s done with real blues!
this that old school real sittin on your porch blues!
That’s REAL old school blues
Oh man….. that’s the Blues baby….. that’s the real, down South, low down, heartfelt blues.
Authentic, real Blues, Love it.
it doesnt get anymore authentic than this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now that is the blues.
THE BLUES
true blues
Pure Blues
Blues is timeless.
there is nothing as hard as the blues
This man over here folks is the blues himself!
Great melody that shows blues music comes from the soul.
The blues is very expressive, and it is the foundation of rock music!
True music, with emotion, feelings.. His soul is speakin
the Blues needs no roaring electric guitars and smashing drums to show all the hard aspects of life without disguise
Clapton who?…THIS IS THE BLUES, R.L. shows you how it smells, looks, taste, sounds, and most importantly how it feels. Clapton never had babies cry in the background of his performances
it’s only perfect because he’s authentic
that look in his eyes at 4:05…. thats the blues right there
The blues is real, that’s why the blues lives on.
That’s from far one of the best blues I never heard… real blues… from the guts… not from the wallets !!!
This is where the blues started – AND THIS IS WHERE THE BLUES ENDS.
—Nathan Salsburg (curator, Alan Lomax Archive), “Part V of Against Authenticity,” Oxford American (6/21/13)
*****
*As I’ve mentioned, I had the great pleasure of working with Albert, co-producing his 1978 album Ice Pickin’ (Alligator)—singular guitarist, sweet guy.
music clip of the day 