A lot of musicians sound like they’re perfectly happy to be right where they are. Not this guy—he seems intent on getting somewhere else.
Art Pepper (alto saxophone), with Milcho Leviev (piano), Tony Dumas (bass), Carl Burnett, drums; “Caravan,” conversation, and more; Norway, 1980
back to church
“Sending Up My Timber,” Male Choir, Macedonia Baptist Church, North Carolina, c. 2008
Sometimes what you’re looking for—when, say, your hard drive crashes (as mine just did)—is something where not much seems to happen, beautifully.
John Luther Adams, “The Farthest Place” (2001); piano (Clint Davis), vibraphone (Brian Archinal & Andy Bliss) bass (Satoru Tagawa), violin (Lydia Kabalen); University of Kentucky (Lexington), 2008
**********
lagniappe
There are all kinds of music.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo”
Richard Burton
summer in the city
The Black Keys, Lollapalooza, Chicago (Grant Park), 8/3/12
“Howlin’ For You”
***
“Little Black Submarines”
***
“Lonely Boy”
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
What, if anything, does it mean that, in the year 2012, not one but two of the headliners at Lollapalooza—Jack White and the Black Keys—are deeply influenced by blues?
*****
reading table
Life had begun to demand lies in order to be workable.
***
At the crest of the hill where the road went up, was an abandoned house, and beyond it the road disappeared off into the blue sky.
***
It’s odd, though, what makes you think about the truth. It’s so rarely involved in the events of your life. I quit thinking about the truth for a time then. Its finer points seemed impossible to find among the facts. If there was a hidden design, living almost never shed light on it.
—Richard Ford, Canada (2012)
Mozart, Piano Sonata No. 18 in D. major, K. 576 (1789)
Mitsuko Uchida, piano
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
Listening to Mozart is like entering a room where the walls, the ceiling, even the floor are made entirely of glass.
summer in the city
Grimes, “Circumambient”
Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago (Union Park), 7/14/12
***
Here’s another take (Visions, 2012).
**********
lagniappe
Grimes goes record shopping (Amoeba Music, Los Angeles [Hollywood], 2012).
There’s a reason, I’m coming to realize, why so many pop musicians these days look young enough to be my children—they are.
favorites
“La-La (Means I Love You)” (T. Bell & W. Hart)
Bill Frisell (guitar) with Tony Scherr (bass) & Kenny Wollesen (drums), live, Rochester (NY), 2007
(Originally posted 5/28/10.)
***
The Delfonics, 1968
(Originally posted 2/14/12.)
summer in the city
Jack White, “Take Me With You When You Go”
Lollapalooza, Chicago (Grant Park), 8/5/12
Who wouldn’t want to go to such a heaven?
Soul Stirrers (feat. Jimmy Outler), “Listen to the Angels Sing,” TV show, early 1960s
**********
lagniappe
listening room: (some of) what’s playing
• The Dirtbombs, Ultraglide in Black (In the Red)
• Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio (Blue Note)
• Shabazz Palaces, Black Up (Sub Pop)
• Terrie Ex, Paal Nilssen-Love, Hurgu! (PNL Records)
• Anthony Braxton Quintet (Basel) 1977 (hatOLOGY)
• Miles Davis, Live in Europe 1967 (Sony Legacy)
• ICP Orchestra Performs Herbie Nichols & Thelonious Monk (ICP)
• George Lewis & The NOW Orchestra, The Shadowgraph Series: Compositions for Creative Orchestra (Spool)
• Misha Mengelberg, Steve Lacy, Goerge Lewis, Harjen Gorter, Han Bennink, Change of Season (Soul Note)
• Pharaoh Sanders, Karma (Impulse!)
• Charles “Bobo” Shaw & Lester Bowie, Bugle Boy Bop (Muse)
• Reverend Claude Jeter, Yesterday and Today (Shanachie)
• This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African-American Gospel On 45 RPM (1957-1982) (Tompkins Square)
• J. Berg’s A Cappella Archives (Vol. 3), Royal Rarities (Vol. 3) (Rare Gospel)
• Congotronics 2: Buzz ’n’ Rumble in the Urb ’n’ Jungle (Crammed Discs)
• Pandit Pran Nath, Midnight: Raga Malkauns (Just Dreams)
• Nikhil Banerjee, Afternoon Ragas (Bhimpalasri, Multani) (Raga Records)
• John Luther Adams, Songbird Songs (Mode Records)
• John Luther Adams, Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (New World Records)
• John Cage Edition—Vol. 23: The Works for Violin 4 (Irvine Arditti, violin; Stephen Drury, piano) (Mode Records)
• Morton Feldman, Trio (Aki Takahashi, piano; Marc Sabat, violin; Rohan de Saram, cello) (Mode Records)
• Tristan Murail, Gondwana, Desintegrations, Time and Again (Disques Montaigne)
• Peter Serkin Plays the Music of Toru Takemitsu (RCA/BMG)
• The Incomparable Rudolf Serkin (Beethoven, Piano Sonatas Nos. 30, 31, 32) (Deutsche Grammophon)
• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)
• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Cherry Blossom Clinic (Terre T, rock, etc.)
—Fool’s Paradise (Rex; “Vintage rockabilly, R & B, blues, vocal groups, garage, instrumentals, hillbilly, soul and surf”)
—Downtown Soulville (Mr. Fine Wine, soul, etc.)
music clip of the day 