We made it to another Wednesday. How are you? The snow finally melted where I live. As we remember, the Arctic air mass got drunk last week and somehow passed out in the southern and southeastern portions of the US. Thankfully it finished its walk of shame back up north, where it can stay.
Let’s have some music. This is a piece by Pharoah Sanders (an Arkansas native) performed about four decades ago. I find it quite tranquil:
I’ll also add a Marion Brown track I was surprised to find, as it is on ECM, whose catalog YouTube usually keeps hidden tightly behind a subscription paywall. This goes along with my theme of experimental music and what are sometimes called “little instruments” or “found sounds”. This one also includes plenty of traditional instrumentation, albeit without a particularly conventional sound.
The bar is open, and the jukebox is infinite. Have a drink, and if you wish to talk, I’ll check on in from time to time.
Cheers!
While staying on the experimental side a bit longer, here’s a track from one of Mtume’s early LPs, Rebirth Cycle. The LP was all over the place, unlike a couple earlier outings, but it did produce some very out-there pieces like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz96xPGNq60
Glad to have the arctic weather gone in my neck of the woods. Looks like we’re heading into a more spring-like pattern for the next couple weeks at least. A bit more rain, but no below freezing temps at night.
We are having warm weather (for Vermont in February) this week: high 30s, low 40s.
I’ve been on a Lee Hazlewood kick lately, and I love this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zESpqpYtBRg
That would be fairly balmy in your corner of the US. We were having highs in the upper 70s for a couple days earlier this week. Now back to highs in the mid-50s, and back up to the 60s late this weekend. No more below freezing temps at night. That’s a far cry from lows below 0 and highs that might get to around 10 degrees above. I wouldn’t mind if the infrastructure were there to deal with it. We’re not prepped for that kind of cold. At least we seem better prepped than Texas, but that may not be saying much.
Title track to Black Paladins, by the late Joseph Jarman and Don Moye. Spoken word followed by improvisation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmmWTJ_hrOo
I can’t believe it’s 5pm already. Where did this day go?
This day definitely got away from me.
Laughing that the Dodgers won their Spring Training game 10-0 over the Rockies.
That’s quite a route. I haven’t exactly had time to pay a lot of attention. How are the Dodgers looking this year? I used to catch a few of their games back when I lived within driving distance to Dodger Stadium. I still remember a game in the summer of I want to say 1989 when 40-something catcher Rick Dempsey stole 2nd base. Granted it was the slowest steal I ever saw in my life, but that’s how it was scored.
Of course a couple friends and I lived for the Freeway Series games right before the start of the regular season. Back before interleague play began, seeing an NL and AL club play against each other any other context but the World Series was unheard of. Most years, Dodgers had a solid lineup and bench. Angels were sort of hit or miss. My favorite of those games was in Anaheim, when they went into extra innings, and really took their sweet time breaking the tie. A lot of folks just left. One luxury of being college students: we could probably blow off a class if we wanted to (not recommended of course), or show up half asleep later. There was a lot of cheering when the player who crossed home plate delivered the winning run. That unified Angel and Dodger fans alike in the moment.