Nommo

Milford Graves adorns the front cover of the March issue of Wire magazine. An interview is inside and a mini primer of some of his collaborations.



Herei is one of those albums - Nommo


Milford Graves & Don Pullen - Nommo (Full album) [1967]

The vinyl LP is quite rare - no CD of it  - and cheapest i have seen it is over £100. Thank goodness somebody uploaded it to You Tube. 

More Milford Graves

The other albums that Wire magazine recommended -

Andrew Cyrille & Milford Graves (Usa, 1974) - Dialogue of the Drums

( More music here )

Enjoy.

Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson has a new album out with the Kronos Quartet , reviewed in the March issue of Wire magaazine, and here she is with Lou and John in al ive gig -no date given.

John Zorn, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson - Concert for Japan

Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet - The Water Rises / Our Street Is a Black River

Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet - "Landfall" (excerpt) at Big Ears 2015

This album is already inmy wants list

Good Morning

In Canterbury

I am currently in Canterbury having done two visits and about to do my third on the outskirts of the city. The weather is fine, mild and dry , and much better after the rain soaked Sunday. These visits are all non purchase ones, though i did buy a book in a charity shop. The title grabbed me - "The Rise And fall Of The Medicis" by Christopher Hibbert. .

Book 16 - E. H. Gombrich "A Little History Of The World"

E. H. Gombrich "A Little History Of The World" (Yale University Press)





I can't recommend this much beyond the halfway point. Gombrich does a creditable job right up to the birth of Christ, but in my opinion the wheels fall off this book after the event.

It's totally Eurocentric, Christian-slanted history and a very moving illustration of the old adage that history is written by the victors. There's some lip service done regarding the genocides the Europeans were responsible for- but it is cursory at best. And sure, it's a history book for kids, so one wouldn't wish to dwell on the ugliness. And it's also a book written long, long ago (though allegedly updated).

For what it is, it's more than a little interesting. For what it isn't, it's not worth picking up.

Meanwhile, i point you in the direction of Frankopan;s"The Silk Roads" for a more measured history , of which i an currently reading, all six hundred plus pages of it.

Book 17 - Fyodor Dostoyevsky "Notes From The Underground"

Fyodor Dostoyevsky "Notes From The Underground" (Vintage)






I suppose you could call this short novella a vitriolic tirade of existentialistic angst.


The book is narrated by an unnamed character, who calls himself the "Underground Man." It doesn't take the reader long to see that our anti-hero is pathetic, contradictory, and extremely irritating. He is insufferably arrogant, believing the world to revolve around himself. He laments all of the woe that has befallen him, but we very quickly see that he gets a certain pleasure out of his suffering, or rather, out of people noticing his suffering. His comments on the moans of a man with a tooth-ache, growing louder and louder and increasingly pitiful so that no one could possibly escape noticing his condition, are a perfect example. The narrator actually believes that everyone has nothing better to do than notice and anguish over his every misfortune.

In the second part of the story, the Underground Man is more the focus, instead of his views. He tells us a few stories from his life, which even further bring to life his pathetic, self-centered character.

There is a officer who, every day, walks past our main character. Every day, the narrator steps aside to let the officer pass. This is such a very small instance that no one would remember it, or even make any note of it. However, in the narrator's pride, he builds up an entire, involved story about how the officer is slighting him, pretending not to recognize him every day, and thinks day and night about not letting him pass one day. It is built up and built up, until one day, finally, the narrator fails to step aside. The two men bump shoulders, and that is that. Of course, WE know that the officer never even noticed, but the narrator says "But I knew that he was pretending!"

Other similar things are when the narrator forces some former friends to invite him to a dinner (where he insults all of them and ruins their night), and where he becomes involved with a woman, whom he falls in love with.
We see him destroy any shred of kinship still felt between him and his friends, and we see him destroy all love that the girl may have had for him.

This book is a sputtering, mad, crazy rant of anger and misguided thinking, and yet it is also remarkably well structured. In all of its crazy veering off subject, the random allegories, and the contradictions that the narrator voices over and over, Dostoevsky obviously has a purpose and a vision to this work.

Although it never left me breathlessly racing through pages, this book did occupy my thoughts for awhile after I read it, and the narrator was interesting in how utterly unlikable he was.

If approached with research  (Russian history, philosophy, sociology) or knowledge and a readiness to look deeper into this book than what is immediately apparent, "Notes from Underground" is worth the read.

Evening Relaxation

Relaxing on the sofa,reading and listening to Glenn Gould's version of "The Well Tempered Clavier" by J.S Bach.

Just Wondering

What do you consider is your strength?

What do you consider is your weakness?