Snack time, listening to and imitating Auntie @kristacostin live on #classicalmpr. Sounds wonderful! #auntikrista #bach
This interview with Sonny Rollins is amazing.
The idea of jazz is so spiritual, and it has such great qualities, that it will always withstand whatever the larger culture is.
I loved fishing and silence. Walking in the hills…. I didn’t talk much. Had opinions about everything. Life and death. Good and evil. I was a film buff. Loved music. I’d stopped reading contemporary novels. More than anything, I loathed half-hearted, spineless people.
Tonight’s listening: Emerson String Quartet, Chaconnes and Fantasias: Music of Britten and Purcell. It’s beautiful and mysterious music, highly recommended.
Recommended reading: Moyn & DBH
Two exceptional recent Commonweal essays:
- David Bentley Hart demolishes an attempt to defend the death penalty
- Samuel Moyn reviews Jeremy Waldron’s new book on equality
While you’re there, go ahead and also read Anthony Domestico on what you can learn about Millennials by reading their novels rather than silly Internet “think pieces” about them (that is, us).
The Brad Mehldau Trio @ the Dakota
The Brad Mehldau show tonight at the Dakota Jazz Club was so, so good. Among the highlights from a set filled with new material:
- A new Mehldau tune, “Bel and the Dragon”
- A new, wildly polyrhythmic composition co-written by Ballard and Mehldau
- A beautiful rendition of “Wolfgang’s Waltz,” from an album, Rising Grace, that I’ve been listening to constantly over the past couple weeks
What a gift to see musicians like these in one’s city. Mehldau mentioned a couple times how much they loved playing the Dakota. A treat for everyone.
Really looking forward to this book. Ecklund is an excellent scholar and writer, and this is a critically understudied topic.
Ted Gioia’s albums-of-the-year lists are always long and excellent. This year’s list is no exception. There are hours of beautiful, exciting music here.
Camus, quoted by Izzo:
The love we share with a city is often a secret love.
Current listening: Mavis Staples, One True Vine:
I can tell when something’s going on, And something’s going on. But some Holy Ghost keeps me hanging on…
