A New York Morning in Kansas. 69° here in Lawrence this morning. I love going out on my little back porch and being reminded of boyhood mornings in Chautauqua, NY.
Our family would vacation at Chautauqua Lake. I would be out early looking for nightcrawlers to go fishing with. A very happy memory triggered by this morning's cool air.
It's been forty-four years since Bill Evans passed. Would it be naive to think in all that time there has been no one to surpass him in the art of jazz piano improvisation? We have seen Keith Jarrett's improvisational virtuosity and McCoy Tyner's muscular strides through a set of chord changes. We've seen more structurally cerebral players manipulate and experiment with the limits of aural legitimacy, testing out what our ears and brains are willing process as music. Countless great players deserving of our attention.
But for sheer lyricism? As I listen to Evans this morning, I have the sensation that his exploration of melody will leave me deeply satisfied. As if he were saying, "This is a beautiful melody. Let me show you the possibilities it contains while still letting it remain itself. That will be my gift."
Happy Birthday to the great Art Pepper. (1925-1982)
Here he is on his signature tune Straight Life.
From my state. Somebody's gotta do it.
How a small group of nuns in rural Kansas vex big companies with their investment activism.
What a gift to start the day this way. Listening to the solo performances from Bill Evans Complete Riverside Recordings.
The finest combination of beauty and genius.
And here we sit. Making everything better with this advanced animation of how broken the web is. #pleaseusetext
Approaching the final steps of dismantling my coffee infrastructure. Down to decaf these last weeks. Time to replace the ritual itself. #removealljoy
Right here in Lawrence, KS!
Imagine what it would feel like to achieve the position of utmost authority and recognition on your planet and then reward yourself by making sure there wasn't one single person anywhere that didn't know you were a total ass.
He is a golem existing only on the energy of his own self loathing.
I've begun the process of back-filling my reading list here.
Oldest to newest. Going to take a while.
