A wonderful drummer lifts everyone.
Wolfgang Muthspiel Quintet (WM, guitar; Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet; Brad Mehldau, piano; Larry Grenadier, bass; Brian Blade, drums), “Father and Sun” (W. Muthspiel), live, Austria (Innsbruck), 2016
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (near the Art Institute)
like nobody else
Arthur Russell (1951-1992), singer, songwriter, cellist, producer; “That’s Us/Wild Combination” (A. Russell), with Jennifer Warnes (Calling Out of Context, 2004)
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Cello Suite No. 6 in D major; Sergey Malov (violoncello de spalla), live, Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2016
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lagniappe
reading table
from the hole
in the moneybox . . .
a katydid—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
what’s new
Four Tet (AKA Kieran Hebden, DJ), New York, 12/28/18
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019?
Hard to believe.
But then so much is.
Arvo Pärt (1935-), Fratres for violin, string orchestra, and percussion (1992); Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra (Sergej Krylov, soloist and conductor), live, Lithuania (Vilnius), 2018
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lagniappe
reading table
New Year’s morning—
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
*****
The Future is exactly the same . . .
—The Baffler, Jan.-Feb., 2019
back to church
“Good Time in Zion,” live, Center Baptist Church, Gastonia, N.C., 2017
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of London
NÉRIJA, “The Fisherman,” live (studio), 2016
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of London
Yussef Dayes (drums) and Alpha Mist (keyboards), with Mansur Brown (guitar), Rocco Palladino (bass), “Love Is the Message,” live (studio), 2018
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lagniappe
reading table
opening the window
I see the butterfly off . . .
into the field—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin; Bella Hristova (violin)
first four movements, live (studio), Boston, 2012
fifth movement (Chaconne), live, Philadelphia, 2013
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s Bach Festival (until midnight New Year’s Eve)
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musical thoughts
On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.
—Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), on Bach’s Chaconne, in a letter to Clara Schumann (translated from German)
more
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II; András Schiff (piano), live, London, 2018
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR’s Bach Festival continues through midnight New Year’s Eve.
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musical thoughts
If there is anyone who owes everything to Bach, it is God. Without Bach, God would be a third-rate character.
—Emil Cioran (1911-1995)
