Listening to his stuff, which I’ve been doing for over thirty years, is like eating a particular fruit, a strawberry, say, or a plum—there’s nothing else like it.
Henry Threadgill’s Society Situation Dance Band
Live, Germany (Hamburg), 1988
#1
***
#2
***
#3
John Cage, Third Construction (1941)
So Percussion
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Is anything more familiar—or mysterious—than sound?
another take
Rev. Claude Jeter, Shirley Caesar, The Dixie Hummingbirds, Take Six, et al., “Mary, Don’t You Weep,”* TV show (Night Music), 1989
*David Sanborn is overly generous in his introduction. Claude Jeter may be responsible for this arrangement, but he certainly didn’t write the song. Folks were singing it before he was born.
the other night
Clarity.
Power.
Spaciousness.
Immediacy.
There is nothing in this world—nothing at all, not even remotely—like hearing a great orchestra live, as I was reminded Thursday night as I sat in Chicago’s Symphony Center (across the street from the Art Institute) with my son Alex, listening to this played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, along with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 1 (with pianist Radu Lupu).
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)
Philadelphia Orchestra with Riccardo Muti (cond.), live, c. late 1980s
***
NBC Orchestra with Arturo Toscanini (cond.), recording, 1939
two takes
Dolly Varden, “Surrounded By The Sound”
Live, Chicago, 2008
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Recording (Forgiven Now), 2002
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A lot of stuff like this, at least on the surface, I can’t stand. This I love. Why? Well, for starters, there’s the way the voices interweave. Then there’s the way the words sound. Take the hook, for instance: “I want to be surrounded by the sound.” And, too, there’s the presentation, disarmingly modest. Nothing’s oversold.
basement jukebox
Robert Ward, “I Will Fear No Evil,” mid-1960s
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lagniappe
radio: Happy (89th) Birthday, Max!
WKCR-FM, celebrating the birthday of drummer Max Roach (1924-2007), is featuring his music all day.
This I could listen to all day.
Neneh Cherry & The Thing (Mats Gustafsson, baritone saxophone; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass; Paal Nilssen-Love, drums), “Dream Baby Dream,” live, Spain (San Sebastian), 2012
With just one horn, there’s a lot of space for the other players—the so-called “rhythm section”—to fill, which these guys do as well as anyone I’ve heard in a long time.
David Murray’s Black Saint Quartet (DM, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Lafayette Gilchrist, piano; Jaribu Shahid, bass; Hamid Drake, drums), live, Berlin, 2007
serendipity
Late yesterday afternoon, at my local grocery store, as I was hunting for my son Alex’s Multi Grain Cheerios, this came over the speakers. The temptation to put walking on the shelf—to start dancing my way down the cereal aisle—was strong. Mighty strong. But it was resisted, successfully if not happily.
Macy Gray, “I Try” (1999)
The other day, in the wake of Inez’s passing, we heard several takes on this. How about another?
Aretha Franklin (with James Cleveland & The Southern California Community Choir), “Mary, Don’t You Weep,” live, Los Angeles, 1972
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lagniappe
reading table
The recent death of a friend of my younger brother’s, whose sole housemate was his beloved cat, brought this to mind.
“Cat in an Empty Apartment”
by Wislawa Szymborska (MCOTD Hall of Famer; trans. from Polish by Clare Cavanagh & Stanislaw Baranczak)Die—you can’t do that to a cat.
Since what can a cat do
in an empty apartment?
Climb the walls?
Rub up against the furniture?
Nothing seems different here
but nothing is the same.
Nothing’s been moved
but there’s more space.
And at nighttime no lamps are lit.Footsteps on the staircase,
but they’re new ones.
The hand that puts fish on the saucer
has changed, too.Something doesn’t start
at its usual time.
Something doesn’t happen
as it should.
Someone was always, always here,
then suddenly disappeared
and stubbornly stays disappeared.Every closet’s been examined.
Every shelf has been explored.
Excavations under the carpet turned up nothing.
A commandment was even broken:
papers scattered everywhere.
What remains to be done.
Just sleep and wait.Just wait till he turns up,
just let him show his face.
Will he ever get a lesson
on what not to do to a cat.
Sidle toward him
as if unwilling
and ever so slow
on visibly offended paws,
and no leaps or squeals at least to start.
music clip of the day 