Richard Williams – Frames of Reference

Murder Most Foul

A combination of chopped-up newsreel and fever dream, “Murder Most Foul” is Bob Dylan’s most striking piece of work in years. This is the author of “Desolation Row” populating a 17-minute song with a lifetime of remembered cultural fragments, zooming out and panning back and forth from the single pivotal event of the Kennedy assassination, plucking references out of the heavy air.

An eloquent introduction by Richard Williams from just over a year ago. Read the rest of it here – thebluemoment.com.

For Paul Bley

Pipe + burgundy turtleneck + incongruous woodland backdrop
+ mindblowing blues deconstruction = peak Paul Bley.

I found this video thanks to Twitter and I had to share it here. RIP Paul Bley.

From Moore To Serra

Henry Moore’s Large Spindle Piece, a cast bronze sculpture from 1974, now installed in the newly reappointed King’s Cross Square. For the past forty years the station was hidden behind an “awful tin shed” temporary canopy. It’s eventual removal, and the long overdue revelation of Lewis Cubitt’s elegant facade, is celebrated by the arrival of this captive “flying shuttle”. Continue reading “From Moore To Serra”

For Charlie Haden

I first knew Charlie Haden from his Liberation Music Orchestra in 1970. It still stands as my favourite album. I later discovered his work with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Carla Bley, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Alice Coltrane, Bill Frisell, Geri Allen… He stood as a signpost to some of the best music of the past 50 years. His death last Friday from post-polio syndrome is a sad loss of a truly great artist. There’s a beautiful reminder of him here, but the best way to know Charlie is to listen to his music…

Charlie Haden: Song For Ché

Kind Of Red

A quintet of five new paintings by Sean Scully entitled Kind of Red, at the Timothy Taylor Gallery. This is painting as a martial art: prepare, focus, get to work; there’s a no-nonsense approach to these blocks of colour thrown onto huge sheet metal plates, rocking in rhythm across the wall. It’s easy to imagine Scully dancing before them wielding a fat wall-painting brush. And in the exhibition catalogue there’s a wonderful, curious and perceptive essay by Richard Williams. Continue reading “Kind Of Red”

B For Barcelona

This large letter B is on a rooftop in the Born district of Barcelona. Is it B for Barcelona or is it perhaps B for Born in Barcelona (that old Springsteen classic)? Or maybe it doesn’t stand for either, especially since it’s lying on its back. Maybe it’s B for Brossa, the Catalan poet, playwright and artist Joan Brossa. He liked to play around with letters and it seems to be on the roof of his theatre. We found it when we came looking for Lottie who lives nearby. We met her under the B for Beer. Continue reading “B For Barcelona”

Charlie’s Angels

I got this from Richard Williams. I couldn’t resist reframing it here. A short promotional video for an album of beautiful close harmony singing by The Haden Triplets – that could only be achieved from sharing a lifetime of sisterly togetherness and a near psychic vocal interplay that can only come from being born mere seconds apart from each other. Their father is Charlie Haden and the record is produced by Ry Cooder, two of my all time musical heroes, and this trio are pretty good too. Get the full story from Richard’s blog, thebluemoment, where he tells it much better than I ever could.

Sounds And Silence

This is a short trailer for the film Sounds And Silence from 2009. It is subtitled Travels With Manfred Eicher and it tells the story of his record label, Editions of Contemporary Music, following him over five years as he records musicians around the world. I discovered it thanks to Richard Williams via his very welcome new blog, The Blue Moment where he’s written about the exhibition ECM: A Cultural Archaeology, until recently at the Haus der Kunst in Munich. Continue reading “Sounds And Silence”