keep on dancing
Theo Parrish, live, London (Boiler Room), 2013
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill)
*****
the beat goes on
Fifteen hundred posts—and counting.
alone
R.L. Burnside (1926-2005), “See My Jumper Hanging on the Line,” live, Independence, Miss., 1978
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Harvest in progress
a crane stands
in the rice paddy—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from Japanese by David Young)
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
**********
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)
alone
Ran Blake (1935-), “Over the Rainbow” (H. Arlen & E. Harburg), live, Portugal (Lisbon), 2010
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Even in Kyoto—
hearing the cuckoo’s cry—
I long for Kyoto.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
two takes
Alton Ellis (1938-2008), “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”
Live
Recording
*****
lagniappe
reading table
First day of spring—
I keep thinking about
the end of autumn.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694, translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
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)
Today we welcome her to the ultra-exclusive MCOTD Hall of Fame, where she joins previous inductees Von Freeman, Wislawa Szymborska, William Bronk, and Lester Bowie.
Dorothy Love Coates, January 30, 1928-April 9, 2002
“The Accident” (Odessa Edwards, speaking), “Get Away Jordan,” “Getting Late in the Evening,” “You Must Be Born Again,” live, Los Angeles, 1955
*****
“You Must Be Born Again,” “He’s Right On Time” TV show (TV Gospel Time), early 1960s
*****
“Won’t Let Go” (AKA “I’m Just Holding On”)
*****
“Strange Man”
*****
lagniappe
reading table: two takes
The old pond— a frog jumps in, sound of water.
—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694, translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
New pond. No sound of a frog jumping in.
—Ryokan (1758-1831, translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi)
Where classical music, as we heard the other day (remembering Elliott Carter), has the concerto, gospel has the soloist and choir.
Jennifer Hudson & Chapter 2 Gospel Singers, “Changed” (W. Hawkins)
Live, New York (Harlem), 2005
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Deep autumn—
my neighbor,
how does he live, I wonder?—Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
Some sounds never grow old.
Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, “Find My Baby,” live
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
In response to yesterday’s post, a reader writes:
No, you were right the first time, the movement to bebop was immense progress. . . . To deny progress in art or politics is bad politics, tho there are clearly eddies and flows as we know from being currently enmeshed in a backward eddy.
*****
reading table
They don’t live long
but you’d never know it—
the cicada’s cry.***
Awake at night—
the sound of the water jar
cracking in the cold.***
Even in Kyoto—
hearing the cuckoo’s cry—
I long for Kyoto.—Matsuo Basho (trans. Robert Hass), 1644-1694
music clip of the day 