Walk While Reading

Monday nights, never sounded so good!

The New York Times this weekend has a ton of great stuff on W. Eugene Smiths body of work in The Jazz Loft Project. The audio slide show alone is worth the three minutes of your time. 

“My style boils down to this: First of all, I never put more meaning into a sentence than is absolutely necessary. Second, the sentences have to have rhythm. This is something I learned from music, especially jazz. In jazz, great rhythm is what makes great improvising possible. It’s all in the footwork. To maintain that rhythm, there must be no extra weight. This doesn’t mean that there should be no weight at all – just no weight that isn’t absolutely necessary. You have to cut out the fat.”

-Haruki Murakami

John Coltrane

Photo by William Claxton

Current listening pleasure.

So beautiful its hard to handle.

Chet Baker at a piano, 1950’s.

Photo by William Claxton

Ella Fitzgerald performing at the New York nightclub Downbeat 1948. Watching are Duke Ellington, center, and Benny Goodman in glasses behind Ellington.

photo by Herman Leonard.

It’s gray, raining again and cold in Vancouver today. Listening to this just makes sense right now.

Thelonious Monk The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D. G. Kelley.