Last night, like many other nights, this kept me company, on repeat, as I slept.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987; MCOTD Hall of Fame), Piano and String Quartet (1985); Kronos Quartet with Aki Takahashi (piano)
**********
lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Head of Sorrow, 1882 (Rodin: Sculptor and Storyteller, through March 4th)
what’s new
Amadou & Mariam, “Bofou Safou,” “Dimanche à Bamako,” “Filaou Bessame,” live, Washington, D.C., 1/19/2018
never enough
If I could play like this, I’d never stand up.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, Prelude; Eva Lymenstull (baroque cello), 2017
**********
lagniappe
reading table
I like this story from the N.Y. Times—a composition by a child in the third grade: ‘I told my little brother that when you die you cannot breathe and he did not say a word. He just kept on playing.’
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), Letter to Robert Lowell, September 8, 1948
sounds of New York
Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die (JB, trumpet, compositions; Tomeka Reid, cello; Jason Ajemian, bass; Chad Taylor, drums), live, New York (Rye Bar, Brooklyn), 2016
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
Improvised music is like basketball: a great player makes everybody better.
*****
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
more
No one plays ballads more tenderly—or tartly.
Von Freeman (MCOTD Hall of Fame, 1923-2012), “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” (E. Maschwitz & M. Sherwin) with Jodie Christian (piano), Rufus Reid (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), live, Harrisburg, Penn., 1994
***
“I Can’t Get Started” (V. Duke, I. Gershwin), live, Belgium, 1992
***
“Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” (R. Rodgers, L. Hart) with Mike Allemena (guitar), Matt Ferguson (bass), Michael Raynor (drums), live, Chicago (Mandel Hall, University of Chicago), 2011
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
voices I miss
Von Freeman (MCOTD Hall of Fame), tenor saxophonist, 1923-2012
“Oleo” (S. Rollins) with Clifford Jordan (tenor saxophone), Willie Pickens (piano), Dan Shapera (bass), Robert Shy (drums), Chicago (Chicago Jazz Festival), 1988
***
“Take the ‘A’ Train” (B. Strayhorn) with Joanie Pallatto (vocals), Bettye Reynolds (vocals), Fred Anderson (tenor saxophone), Billy Brimfield (trumpet), John Young (piano), George Freeman (guitar), Larry Gray (bass), Michael Adams (drums), live, Chicago, 1999
**********
lagniappe
my back pages
On a cold, snowy night forty-one years ago, at a church thirty miles north of Chicago, Von Freeman and John Young played at our—Suzanne’s and my—wedding. All of what they played that night—”Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “More” (before); “In a Sentimental Mood” (as Suzanne walked down the aisle); “My Favorite Things,” “Song for My Father” (after)—can be heard here (0:15-). Years later, John told me: “When I marry ’em, they stay married.”
Some singers—not many—need no accompaniment.
Mary Ann & China Pettaway (mother, daughter), live, Boykin, Ala., 2016
**********
lagniappe
art beat
Lee Friedlander (1934-), Ana “Mama Cookie” Cook, 1958
How about a trip to the nineteenth century?
Daniil Trifonov, piano (Chopin, Schumann, Grieg), live (studio performance), Washington, D.C., 1/12/18
**********
lagniappe
reading table
To shut our eyes is Travel.
—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Letter 354
This guy—this voice—gets under my skin.
Moses Sumney, live (studio performance), Seattle, 2017
Astonishing performance.
Astonishing piece.
Anton Webern (1883-1945), Variations, op. 27 (1936)
Glenn Gould (1932-1982), piano
**********
lagniappe
reading table
What Miracles the News is!
Not Bismark but ourselves.—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Letter 354
music clip of the day 