For this evening's listening and reading.

Enjoying the evening with a Japanese pressing of Thelma Gracen put out by Emarcy/Mercury Records.

As summer winds down and work wraps up, I'm diving back into music and reading, starting here:

Vassily Aksyonov, was one of the finest post World World II novelists from Russia. The Burn (Ozhog), with its anarchic mix of memory, fantasy, and traditional Russian realism, charts many a Russian's responses to their homeland.

But the “doctrine” of a thinker is that which, within what is said, remains unsaid, that to which we are exposed so that we might expend ourselves on it. - Plato's Doctrine of Truth

For tonight, Sweet and Lovely with The Buddy De Franco Quintet.

Relaxing this evening with Abbey Lincoln and reading Kojeve's study The Notion of Authority which should be read alongside Agamben's State of Exception.

Happy to have this now in my library: The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence published by Manchester University Press.

Anthony Braxton's Trio and Duet features David Holland, Leo Smith and Richard Teitelbaum, recorded on Sackville Recordings operated by John Norris and Bill Smith who also published the great CODA magazine.

Today is Bloomsday. I have multiple editions of Ulysses in my home library. This Penguin printing has been with me since my final year of high school. A cherished companion through many readings of Joyce's novel.

For this evening: Ahmad Jamal Trio At The Pershing - But Not For Me, from Quality Records for Canada.

Looking forward to listening to Philly Joe Jones' Dameronia and reading Paul Valery's Monsieur Teste, translated by Charlotte Mandell in this NYRB Classics edition.

Listening tonight to Andrew Hill with Kenny Dorham, Eric Dolphy, Joe Henderson, Richard Davis and Anthony Williams.

I did not mind this past weekend's weather kept everyone indoors. I had great company to spend that time with.

Will enjoy the evening with Paper Man led by Charles Tolliver with Gary Bartz, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Joe Chambers, and Paul Morand's wonderfully unconventional autobiography Venices.

Once this workday ends, I'll settle down with The Modern Jazz Quartet's Prestige recordings and this volume of Foucault essays.

Settling into the evening with Tamami Koyake and Edmund Wilson.

Gadamer and Castoriadis offering two approaches for understanding early Greek philosophical thought and thinkers.

Listening today to Any Old Time with Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, featuring vocals by Lena Horne, Billie Holiday and Helen Forrest.

For this quiet Easter Monday: Crossings with Red Garland, Ron Carter and Philly Joe Jones.

Will be settling down tonight with Ted Hughes and Miles Davis.

For tonight's reading and listening: Ahmad Jamal's Poinciana with Israel Crosby on bass, and Vernell Fournier on drums; and Henri Lefebvre's Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche or, The Realm of Shadows.

Listening now to Alexander Zemlinsky's Der Kreidekreis with a libretto by Zemlinsky based on the play Der Kreidekreis by Klabund (Alfred Henschke).

Listening to Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue d'oiseaux with Anatol Ugorski on piano and reading Wittgenstein's Lectures & Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief.

Julia Kristeva's Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia is a perfect compliment upon finishing Leonid Tsypkin's novel Summer in Baden-Baden.

Mosaic Records once again releases an amazing set of rare and hard to come by recordings, this time from Vanguard's Jazz Showcase series from 1953-1958.

Reading once more Opera's Second Death with Zizek on Wagner and Dolar on Mozart.

Listening tonight to Other Afternoons with Jimmy Lyons on alto sax, Lester Bowie on trumpet, Alan Silva, bass and Andrew Cyrille, drums.

Folkways Records in the 1970s, with the support of the Creative Artists Public Service Program, released four records showcasing the works of emerging established composers. Volume 3, featured compositions from Talib Hakim, William Bolcom, Howard Swanson and Frederic Rzewski.

Listening tonight to Charlie Christian with the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra and reading Tadeusz Konwicki's The Polish Complex, part of Penguin's Writers from the Other Europe imprint.

Listening tonight to Weinberg's The Idiot, based on Dostoevsky's novel, with the libretto by Alexander Medvedev and dedicated to the memory of Dmitri Shostakovich.

When one is snowed in, it is best to listen to Jazz Abstractions with compositions by Gunther Schuller and Jim Hall, and read Thomas Bernhard's Frost.

Books on Wagner and his Ring of the Nibelung cycle run from the middling to the insightful, the insightful few in number, Kitcher and Schacht's Finding and Ending is one of those few, gripping in its depth of understanding of Wagner's music and the drama and philosophy of the operas.

CBC Radio Canada Broadcast Recording of the Brandon University Trio playing the piano trios of Joaquin Turina and Anton Arensky.

With the weather once again bringing snow and falling temperatures, it seems appropriate to listen this evening to Stockhausen's Mantra as performed by Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky.

Snow is falling, so it only seems right spend an evening listening Lena Horne's Fellin' Good and reading Faulkner's mysteries featuring Yoknapatawpha County's wise student of crime Gavin Stevens.

Listening to Mieczysław Weinberg's The Passenger with a libretto by Alexander Medvedev and based on the novel by the same name by Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka.

Sometimes asked where to start with Ernst Cassirer as his work can be daunting for many. A good place to start is with this slim study Language and Myth.

Two weeks of intense work is coming to an end. Will begin to relax listening to Jazz as the Black Hawk with the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond on Vogue Records.

For tonight, the Alvinn Pall Sextet recorded by Radio Canada International in 1976.

Re-reading these essays by Derrida. First read them in university, then again a few years later when I did an extensive study of his works, and enjoying them again now.

Listening now to Eberhard Weber's The Following Morning on ECM Records.

Listening today to The Complete Spontaneous Event with the Ray Russell Quartet.

Celebrating this New Year's afternoon with Archie Shepp's Day Dream with Walter Davis, Early May and Philly Joe Jones.

For today's listening pleasure, Nice Guys from the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Spent 2024 reading Kierkegaard's major works. Will finish off with The Concept of Anxiety before starting his Discourses for 2025 along with Derrida's lectures on hospitality.

This winter night needs a Study In Brown on this Japanese pressing from 1974.

Swinging into Christmas with Ella.

Those new to László Krasznahorkai often ask if there is a work that can help them settle into his unsettling and visionary writings. This is an excellent starting point.

It is a cold and damp winter evening now. Time to listen to Fuchsia Swing Song with Sam Rivers with Jaki Byard, Ron Carter and Anthony Williams.