Leeway

KANGAROO - DH Lawrence - Lawrence's novel of Australia. Lawrence's mystical flights can sometimes be a bit too much, but his passion, sensitivity and honesty surmount any drawbacks.

THE TIME OF THE ANGELS (1966) - Iris Murdoch. Coming back to an old friend, Miss Murdoch, near the close of the reading year.

EMMA - Jane Austen. 1816

I'll keep my list short, in order of acclaim: Myra Melford Residency at The Stone, NYC: Bringing her great ensembles to the stage in three days: Crush Quartet, Be Bread Sextet, Same River Twice, Snowy Egret. Masterful. The Thing, Bohemian Caverns, Washington, DC - a blast of energy right from the empyrean. Urs Leimgruber & Jacques Demierre and colleagues, two nights at I-Beam, Brooklyn, NY. Urs is one of the really great saxophonists, and it was a thrill to catch him. Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg - DC Arts- Washington, DC - The Lion in Winter. Mary Halvorson - Georgetown University - Pure guitar pleasure.

Michel Doneda (soprano sax) and Tatsuya Nakatani (per). Red Room, Baltimore, Dec 18 Donned was an impressive performer on the soprano, and he and Nakatani have a great deal of rapport after touring for an extended period of time.

A lovely novel.

Fine, but not quite as fine as Pride and Prejudice.

VANITY FAIR - Thackeray I put off reading this book for a long time, probably scared away by its bulk. Read it over the last week and found it to be the masterpiece it is reputed to be. Deft mixture of sentiment and satire,, and containing one of the great rascals of literature, Becky Sharp.

One of the great RomComs.

THE PROFESSOR - Charlotte Bronte Bronte's first novel, although only published posthumously. William Crimsworth leaves an oppressive life in England, goes to Brussels to teach, and finds a new life and wife. Many of the themes were later taken up in Bronte's last novel, Villette. I found this work quite engaging, very direct and full of a kind of restless social energy.

I think his relationship with Stravinsky is a pretty remarkable one. Probably nothing quite like it since Boswell and Johnson. I think Craft will have to be accounted for in any estimation of Stravinsky's later career.

Anderson was undoubtedly an artistic influence on the Chicago scene (I posted something on this earlier today in another thread, and I completely agree with that premise), but due to social, racial, economic, and technological reasons, that influence was insufficient to tangibly explode the scene into prominence Vandermark's MacArthur and his alliances with Euro free jazz players, were prime catalysts for opening up the Chicago scene and giving it impetus. In KV, the man, the moment, and the idea all came together in a creative Big Bang.

Arguably, Ken Vandermark has had as large an influence as anyone on the contemporary Chicago scene. In fact, I date the renaissance of the contemporary Chicago scene to Vandermark's receipt of the MacArthur Fellowship, much of which became seed money for new groups and artists. In the Chicago family tree, Ken's part of the trunk.

AGNES GRAY - Anne Bronte. 1847. Continuing my tour of the works of the Bronte sisters. Agnes/Anne give the comeuppance to the rich and arrogant who made Agnes/Anne's life as a governess miserable. Some wonderfully bitter scenes of the rich and vulgar, and their dreadful children. In the process, Agnes/Anne does come off at times as a bit of a prig herself.

I put a fair amount of time into reading Charlotte Bronte's "Villette" (1853) and at the end I can't say for sure whether I like it or not. I liked some of it for sure. It has some nicely quirky parts to it, and the narrator, Lucy Snowe," is quite interesting. But I never got the sense that these parts really added up to a whole.

Irabagon is addicted to irony, Laubrock is committed (overly-so?) to sincerity.

Ran up to NYC this past weekend to see Urs Leimgruber at I-Beam Brooklyn. I'm a huge fan of Leimgruber, he's in my select group of great saxophonists, but have never had the chance to see him live. Wasn't going to miss this opportunity. The Friday night set was Urs and pianist Jacques Demierre. Bassist Barre Phillips couldn't make the date due to medical treatment (btw, Urs says the treatment was quite successful and the prognosis is good). Instead, Urs and Jacques played a couple of solo DVD performances of Barre projected on the background, and then improvised against Barre's virtual appearances. It was their way of invoking Barre's presence in the music. It worked and the music was deep. One thing that surprised me was how strong Demierre played; he quite rocked that piano on a multiple occasions. Urs' playing was intensely personal. On Saturday night, a larger group showed up. Shelly Hirsch (vocals), Paul Lytton (perc), and Nate Wooley (tp) joined Urs and Jacques and played a quite substantial and varied set. First was Hirsch, Lytton and Demierre in trio. Next was Urs and Nate in duo. Finally, the quintet played together. First time I'd seen Lyttton, who seems to be enjoying his time in NYC; his percussion is masterful. This might have been the smallest drum kit he's played on recently, but he had an arsenal of devices to keep him busy. Also first time I'd seen Hirsch. She has a virtuoso voice and a keen dramatic sense. I know a lot of folks don't like vocals/vocalese, but Hirsch was really a spark plug for the trio and quintet, and injected visceral excitement into the performances. Demierre again showed surprising range on the piano. And Urs, well, he was in even stronger form this evening. His playing is so physical and yet transcendent. Very glad I had the chance to hear him and talk to him before and after sets. Hope they come back this way soon with Barre.

Made a quick trip up to NYC this weekend, and found time to take in the new and very hip Whitney, now located on the far lower west side of Manhattan, along the Green Line walkway. Great atmosphere in and around the museum, with lots of exciting design elements. I caught the newly opened Frank Stella retrospective, which was a real eye opener. Had no idea that Stella produced such variegated work, but after moving through the exhibit several times, I stopped worrying about his seeming will o' the wisp quality and started enjoying--immensely-- the painterly quality and inventiveness of the work. A very enjoyable show. Plus there were some good selections from the permanent collection on view, as well as an exhibition"Archibald Motley, Jazz Age Modernist," which was interesting (Archibald was uncle to novelist Willard Motley). Some Stella and Motley below.

I have the CD "Compression" but have not played it in a while, but I can't imagine it being anything less than excellent. I may have posted it in "What Are You Listening to..." thread. I don't recall "Smoke" knocking me out, but I need to give that another listen; it's also been quite a while.

Charlotte's book is far more accomplished that sister Emily's "Wuthering Heights," although I miss the sort of cracked intensity that WH exhibits. There are plenty of social, psychological, religious, and sexual ore to be mined here. One of the great lines: "Reader, I married him."

Found this difficult to read - even when I had to read it at university. Didn't have that problem with Jane Eyre BTW. I like the cover illustration on that Penguin edition - something French from a British collection - Corot? Barbizon school? I read it as 'light relief' in my last year at uni as finals were approaching (unbelievable as that may seem it was light relief compared with memorising the key points of Civil War era political pamphlets!). Utterly haunted by it at the time. I'd read virtually no pre-20th C novels since school up to that point. I was so taken by it that it started me on Austin, the other Brontes, Elliot, Hardy etc over the next couple of years. Must re-read it. The cover illustration is a detail from Corot's "Gust of Wind," in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. I agree that WH is a tougher read than JE. I'm re-reading Jane Eyre at the moment.

I wonder if the author got Henry to cooperate in the biography.

An old and still strange friend.