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Camila Nebbia (tenor saxophone), Michael Formanek (bass), Vinny Sperrazza (drums), live, New York (Downtown Music Gallery), 8/28/22
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
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reading table
Life is not made for meetings;
like stars at opposite ends of the sky we move.—Tu Fu (aka Du Fu, 712-770), from “Presented to Wei Pa, Gentleman in Retirement,” translated from the Chinese by Burton Watson (The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 1984)
what’s new
Susana Santos Silva (trumpet, electronics, etc.), live (Quarantine Concert presented by Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago), 4/18/20
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, outside Chicago (Salt Creek Trail)
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reading table
The whole country devastated,
only mountains and rivers remain.
In springtime, at the ruined castle.
the grass is always green.—Tu Fu (712-770), translated from Chinese by Sam Hamill
basement jukebox
“The Only Way Is Up” (G. Jackson, J. Henderson)
Otis Clay (1942-2016), 1980
A few years after Otis Clay recorded this song for his small Chicago label, another version was released in England, where it topped the charts for several weeks.
Yazz (1960-), 1988
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lagniappe
reading table
It is Spring in the mountains.
I come alone seeking you.
The sound of chopping wood echoes
Between the silent peaks.
The streams are still icy.
There is snow on the trail.
At sunset I reach your grove
In the stony mountain pass.
You want nothing, although at night
You can see the aura of gold
And silver ore all around you.
You have learned to be gentle
As the mountain deer you have tamed.
The way back forgotten, hidden
Away, I become like you,
An empty boat, floating, adrift.—Tu Fu (aka Du Fu, 712-729), “Written on the Wall of Chang’s Hermitage” (translated from Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth)
music clip of the day 