Some weeks present a real challenge with their lack of material to write about. I've read virtually nothing since last Tuesday; and have heard almost no new music. It hasn’t been entirely without incident – just not the sort of thing I’m keen to get into here.
I’ll mention a book I acquired a couple of months ago: one more to be looked at than read. This was Laurie Lipton Drawing (2022). Lipton, for those unaware of her work, is an artist who creates minutely-detailed, large-scale pictures purely in pencil and graphite. I’ve been an admirer of hers for almost twenty years (I wrote a little about her at my original blog in ‘07). The book (Fig. 29) is a survey of the artist's work between 2014 and 2022. It falls into three somewhat overlapping thematic sections, all more or less inspired by the news of the day: ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’ (about the pandemic); ‘Post Truth’ (about Trumpian populism and the social media landscape underlying it); and ‘Techno-Rococo’ (about on-line life supplanting ‘real’ life). As well as full reproductions of the drawings there are ‘close-ups’ of selected details (e.g. Fig. 30) and some photographs of Lipton at work.
Among the recent-ish additions to my jazz collection was Alligator Bogaloo (1967) by a quintet led by the alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson. I picked up a late-‘90s Japanese CD issue of it for a fiver. I was familiar with the album’s infectious title-track from its inclusion on an ‘80s Blue Note compilation album. I hadn’t been aware, however, of the track’s origin, as a piece apparently rustled up out of thin air by Donaldson et al to fill out a reel of tape at the end of a recording session. The rest of the record is new to me. Some of it I’ll admit I’m lukewarm about: the second track, ‘One Cylinder’, for instance, rather outstays its welcome over its six-and-a-half-minute duration. Overall though it’s an enjoyable listen.
I had meant to order a new CD this week. Having seen some positive reviews of Spontaneous Music Live, the new offering by the contemporary jazz quintet SML, I took myself to Bandcamp to place an order. I was disappointed to find it only existed as a download, on vinyl, or (already sold out) a limited edition cassette. I may or may not eventually get the LP. While thinking about it, I can always watch them performing ‘The Drums’ at YouTube.
The cheese of the week has been good old camembert. My camembert of choice lately has been the Aldi ‘Specially Selected’ variety. Other supermarket offerings I’ve tried in recent months have been sold very unripe, whereas the Aldi one seems to me more flavourful than most straight off the shelf, and all the better after another week or so in the fridge.