Unfailing clarity, lyricism—how apt to hear him shortly after Mozart.
Sonny Rollins, live (“On Green Dolphin Street,” “St. Thomas,” “Four”), Denmark, 1968*
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lagniappe
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dripping from the flower vendor’s
display
morning dew—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1828 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
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*With Kenny Drew (piano), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass), Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums).
sounds of Morocco
Mourad Belouadi, “Mawama,” live, Morocco (M’hamid), 2014
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Note to self: Let your mind be occupied, fully, by the Other.
I love his approach to Mozart. He’s never fussy or mannered. He plays simply, directly—like a bird flying from tree to tree.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major (:07-), Fantasia in C minor (22:42-), Sonata No. 14 in C minor (39:54-); Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), live, Germany (Munich), 1990
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musical thoughts
Mozart was a kind of idol to me—this rapturous singing . . . that’s always on the edge of sadness and melancholy and disappointment and heartbreak, but always ready for an outburst of the most delicious music.
—Saul Bellow (1915-2005)
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reading table
If, instead of the words ‘good’ or ‘right’ (or ‘sacred’) we use the words ‘beautiful’ or ‘pleasurable’ or ‘enlivening,’ . . . how would our lives be different?
—Adam Phillips, Unforbidden Pleasures (quoted in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review)
old school
Tommy Ellison & The Singing Stars, “I’m Not the Same Person,” live, Hempstead, N.Y., 2007
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I hear a river thro’ the valley wander
Whose water runs, the song alone remaining.—Trumbull Stickney (1874-1904), “Dramatic Fragments,” excerpt
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random sights
yesterday morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
If I learned I had a week to live, one afternoon, sunlight streaming through the windows, I’d listen to Mozart.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Adagio in B minor, K. 540
Mitsuko Uchida, live
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art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Entrance to the Public Gardens at Arles, 1888
(Taking a break—back in a while.)
more Prince
“I Wanna Be Your Lover,” live, Capitol Theatre (Passaic, N.J.), 1982
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Whatever we’re dealing with catches us
in mid-reconsideration. It’s beautiful,
my lord, just not made to be repeated,
that’s all.***
It was a moment, what can I say.
—John Ashbery (1927-), Breezeway (2015), fragments (“A Breakfast Radish,” “Domani, Dopodomani”)
sounds of New York
Music is, in part, a function of place. Can you imagine these sounds coming out of San Diego?
Charles Gayle Trio (CG, tenor saxophone, piano; Larry Roland, bass; Michael Wimberly, drums), live, Germany (Cologne), 2012
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It might be lonelier
Without the Loneliness –—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 535 (Franklin), fragment
more Prince
With Miles Davis, live, Paisley Park (Chanhassen, Minn.), 12/31/87
never enough
What do I watch when he’s at the piano? His feet.
Thelonious Monk Quartet (TM, piano, compositions; Charlie Rouse, tenor saxophone; Larry Gales, bass; Ben Riley, drums), live, France (Amiens), 1966
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Thought forms in the soul in the same way clouds form in the air.
—Joseph Joubert (1754-1824), 1786 (The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, translated from French by Paul Auster)
(Thanks to Orange Crate Art for introducing me to Joubert.)
gathering of birds
Oliver Lake & Alto Madness (Oliver Lake, alto saxophone, compositions; Darius Jones, Bruce Williams, Anthony Ware, alto saxophones; Pheeroan AkLaff, drums), live, New York, 2014
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
music clip of the day 