Nick Cave on the point in life

Nick Cave answers a reader’s question: “What is the point in life?”

“He could not help observing this”

Aleksey Alexandrovich Karnenin is consulting a lawyer. But there’s always time to notice stationery supplies:

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, translated by Constance Garnett, revised by Leonard J. Kent and Nina Berberova (New York: Modern Library, 2000).

The Garnett translation (1901) has cross for order. The revised translation explains order in a note: “decoration for service to the State.” Garnett has appurtenances for materials. So yes, stationery supplies, and not, say, the woods of which the tables are made.

Also from this novel
“The turning point of summer” : Theory of dairy farming : Toothache : Anna meta : “Brainless beef!”

HCR’s latest

Heather Cox Richardson’s latest installment of Letters from an American pulls together many kinds of news: about Hurricane Ian, the role of the federal government in responding to disaster, income disparity, culture wars, authoritarianism, the Russian war against Ukraine, Roger Stone’s machinations, the defeated former president’s document cache, and food insecurity and hunger.

Reading HCR is so much better than watching television-news people standing in a hurricane or its aftermath.

[I counted three on NBC Nightly News last night: two reporters in the storm, Lester Holt in its aftermath.)

Joe Bussard (1936–2022)

Record collector extraordinaire. Here, from Dust-to-Digital, is an appreciation.

*

September 30: The New York Times has an obituary.

A related post
Desperate Man Blues

Over and out

Managing things for my mom, I’ve gotten good at ending telephone calls. How I do it:

“You’ve been really helpful. Thank you. Bye.”

Or:

“I really appreciate your help. Thank you. Take care.”

And I’m out. Which eliminates something along these lines:

“Thanks for your help.”

“Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

“No, that’s everything.”

“Thank you for choosing _______, and have a good day.”

“You too. Thank you.”

“Goodbye now.”

“Bye.”

Those seconds add up. Yes, they do. Goodbye now.

Masonic [need + past participle]

“His hair needed cut”: so says a witness in the Perry Mason episode “The Case of the Wrathful Wraith” (November 7, 1965).

[Need + past participle] is an Illinoism. The witness, Rosemary Welch, was played by Jeanne Bal, a Chicago native. Was [need + past participle] in the script? Did this verb form just slip out?

Paul, have one of your operatives out at the studios look into it.

Related reading
Other needs, other past participles

Shame on you, Maggie Haberman

The biggest NYT scandal of our lifetime - far worse than Judith Miller and Jayson Blair. Their reporter knew a year ago, and covered it up for a payday. Blame the paper. It's the publisher's disgraceful policy to allow this perfidy. pic.twitter.com/wYhpsq2py5

— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) September 27, 2022

For the first time in a long time, I’m thinking about unsubscribing from the Times.

Mystery actor

[Click for a larger view.]

Leave your guess in the comments. I’ll drop a hint if one is needed.

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That was fast. The answer is now in the comments.

More mystery actors
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Carrot and stick

I’ve been meaning to post something about this expression for weeks now. But Sunday’s installment of That’s What They Say (Michigan Radio) no longer makes that necessary: “Sometimes all it takes is a carrot, except when it also takes a stick.”

[Stefan, this post is for you.]

Mingus in Amsterdam

Charles Mingus/Eric Dolphy Sextet, Complete Live in Amsterdam. 2 CDs. Jazz Collectors. 2022.

ATFW You (Jaki Byard) : Parkeriana : So Long Eric : Orange Was the Color Of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk : Sophisticated Lady (Duke Ellington) : Meditations on Integration : Fables of Faubus

Charles Mingus, bass; Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Dannie Richmond, drums. Recorded April 10, 1964, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Holland. Total time: 2:01:59.

All compositions by Charles Mingus except as noted.

I long had a standard choice for a musical time machine (with a train ticket): 1928 or so, so that I could hear Louis Armstrong in Chicago or Duke Ellington in New York. At some point I added 1964 (with plane fare), to hear the Charles Mingus Sextet somewhere in Europe.

This two-disc set holds the first recorded performance from the group’s ill-fated 1964 European tour.¹ And one point to get out of the way: this group was never known as the Charles Mingus/Eric Dolphy Sextet. It was the Charles Mingus Sextet, as programs from the tour (April 10–28) attest. But Dolphy’s name sells records too.

This sextet is for many listeners the best group Mingus ever led, with Coles’s understated trumpet, Jordan’s tough tenor; Dolphy’s explosive work on three instruments; Byard’s chameleonic mastery of piano styles; and the always inspiring and challenging Mingus/Richmond partnership. These discs follow the order of the group’s performance in two hour-long sets. It seems that the idea was to establish a claim to musical tradition upfront — Byard’s Art Tatumisms and Fats Wallerisms, Mingus’s solo on an Ellington tune — before moving in new directions.

Three highlights:

“Parkeriana,” which borrows Dizzy Gillespie’s tune “Ow” (which itself borrows “I Got Rhythm” chord changes) as a foundation upon which to collage tunes by or associated with Charlie Parker. When Dolphy solos on “Rhythm” changes (sans piano, bass, and drums) as Coles and Jordan play “A Night in Tunisia,” I imagine what it might have been like to stand on 52nd Street as music poured from the doorways of different clubs.

“Meditations on Integration,” with Dolphy’s bass clarinet suggesting (to my ears, anyway) police dogs and sirens, Jordan’s tenor at the top of its register, and Byard and Mingus in an elegiac duet.

“Fables of Faubus,” with Coles’s strongest statement, sometimes against bass alone, sometimes against the full band; Byard interpolating “Lift Every Voice and Sing”; Jordan honking and wailing and trading fours with Richmond; Mingus playing “When Johnny Comes Home Again” and other bits of Americana; and Dolphy shifting to a minor mode.

The one weakness of this recording: the sound on the first disc. Coles’s solo on “So Long Eric” is barely audible over the other horns, and the contrapuntal lines of “Parkeriana” are sometimes lost. The microphones and levels must have been adjusted for the second set.

The CD has already disappeared from Amazon. (Supply-chain trouble? A licensing dispute?) The music on these discs also appears in Charles Mingus: The Jazz Workshop Concerts 1964–65 (Mosaic, 2012), now out of print.

Related reading
All OCA Mingus posts (Pinboard)

¹ Why ill-fated? A week after this concert, Coles collapsed on stage, was treated for an ulcer, and left the tour. Dolphy, who stayed on in Europe, fell into a diabetic coma and died in Berlin on June 29, 1964. He was just thirty-six.