Why not begin the week with something that will take you somewhere you haven’t been before?
Philippe Manoury (1952-), Melencolia (third string quartet), 2012; Arditti Quartet
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
never enough
Gospel Harmonettes (featuring Dorothy Love Coates, 1928-2002, MCOTD Hall of Fame), “I Won’t Let Go” (D. Coates), live (TV show), 1964
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lagniappe
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
To limber your sensibility, stalk the aesthetic everywhere: cracks in a sidewalk, people’s ways of walking. The aesthetic isn’t bounded by art, which merely concentrates it for efficient consumption. If you can’t put a mental frame around, and relish, the accidental aspect of a street or a person, or really of anything, you will respond to art only sluggishly.
—Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying,” New Yorker, 12/23/19
never enough
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), String Quartet No. 13, excerpt (Mvt. V, Cavatina), 1826; Guarneri Quartet
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
During a fraught 17-day stay in the hospital because of post-surgical infections 10 years ago, Beethoven’s Cavatina furnished the only moments during which I was released from suffering.
—Susan Gubar, “When Music Is the Best Medicine,” New York Times, 9/26/19
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random sights
yesterday, Chicago
only rock ‘n’ roll
Superchunk, “Break the Glass,” “Lost My Brain,” “What a Time to Be Alive,” “Throwing Things,” live (studio), Seattle, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor; Shunske Sato (violin), live, Netherlands (Haarlem), published 12/5/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of New York
Lei Liang (1972-), Ascension (for brass quintet and percussion, 2008); Andy Kozar (trumpet), Gareth Flowers (trumpet), David Byrd-Marrow (horn), William Lang (trombone), Dan Peck (tuba), Russell Greenberg (percussion), live, New York, 2016
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
sounds of New York
More of one of my favorite drummers—again at the Village Vanguard.
Ed Blackwell (drums, 1929-1992) with Mal Waldron (1925-2002, piano), Charles Rouse (1924-1988, tenor saxophone), Woody Shaw (1944-1989, flugelhorn), Reggie Workman (1937-, bass), “Git Go” (M. Waldron, excerpt), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1985
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
Do you imagine that writers speak ‘as themselves’? No such selves exist.
—Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying,” New Yorker, 12/23/19
sounds of New York
David Murray Quartet (DM, 1955-, tenor saxophone; John Hicks, 1941-2006, piano; Fred Hopkins, 1947-1999, bass; Ed Blackwell, 1929-1992, drums), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 1986
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
There are all kinds of gospel.
Common, William Murphy, Erykah Badu, “God Is Love,” “The Light,” live (TV show), Newark, N.J., 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
*****
reading table
A tethered horse,
snow
in both stirrups.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1783 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
sounds of Ecuador and all over
Nicola Cruz (DJ), live, Argentina (Iguazú Falls), published 12/12/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
We’d rather have the iceberg than the ship,
although it meant the end of travel.—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), from “The Imaginary Iceberg”
music clip of the day 