can’t wait (premieres February 20th)
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my back pages
My first date with my wife (of 49 years), Suzanne, was to hear the Sun Ra Arkestra at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase (then on North Lincoln).
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Illinois
alone
Sun Ra (1914-1993, piano), “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” (trad.), 1977
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Illinois
basement jukebox
Sun Ra, “I Am Strange,” early 1950s
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random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of Chicago
Sun Ra Arkestra (Sun Ra [1914-1993, keyboards, composition], et al.), “The Lady With the Golden Stockings” (aka “The Golden Lady”), c. 1958 (Chicago)
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Des Moines Art Center
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Untitled (1984)
like nobody else
Sun Ra (1914-1993, Fender Rhodes electric piano), live (“Love in Outer Space,” “Haverford Impromptu #1,” “Rhapsody in Blue,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Space is the Place / Over the Rainbow,” “Haverford Impromptu #2”), followed by Walt Dickerson (1928-2008, vibraphone), Haverford College (Pennsylvania), 1980
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
alone
Sun Ra (1914-1993, piano), live (performance begins at 5:00), Venice (Italy), 1978
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random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
spring: another take
Sun Ra Arkestra (SR, 1914-1993, piano, composition; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again,” live, Rome, 1980
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reading table
Thus spring begins: old
stupidities repeated,
new errors invented.—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from the Japanese by Sam Hamill
spring!
Blossom Dearie (1924-2009; vocals, piano), “They Say It’s Spring” (M. Clark, B. Haymes), 1958
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Bob Dorough (1923-2018; vocals, piano), “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” (T. Wolf, F. Landesman), 1997
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Sun Ra Arkestra (SR, 1914-1993, piano, composition; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again,” live, Rome, 1980
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
out of this world
DJ Carl Craig and drummer Francisco Mora play Sun Ra, live, Paris, 2018
like nobody else
This world is not my home . . .
—Sun Ra (1914-1993)
Sun Ra Arkestra (SR [keyboards, vocals], John Gilmore [tenor saxophone, clarinet, vocals], et al.), live, Spain (San Sebastian), 1985
#1
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#2
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reading table
Appalled: by all the dead: Henry brooded.
—John Berryman (1914-1972 [MCOTD Hall of Fame]), from Dream Song 21
music clip of the day 