DMITRI'S BLOG
FROM THE ARCHIVES
November 8, 1987
True Colors Big Band
Ryles Inman Square
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Directed by
Ken Schaphorst & Rob Scheps
Anders Bostrom, Kenny Brooks,
Tony Devaney, John Dirac, Wendy Forgie, Jim Harp,
Curtis Hasselbring, Donny McCaslin, John Medeski,
Dmitri Matheny, Jim Odell, Mike Peipman, Josh Roseman,
Mike Sim, Joe Stoebenau, Dave Valdez, Wesley Wirth
November 8, 2003
Amina Figarova International Band
Pinehill Studio
Leersum, Netherlands
Amina Figarova, piano
Bart Platteau, flutes
Dmitri Matheny, flugelhorn
Ruth Davies, bass
Chris "Buckshot" Strik, drums
FROM THE ARCHIVES
November 7, 2002
Denise Jannah & Amina Figarova
Black Magic Woman Festival @ Pepsi Theater
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Denise Jannah, voice
Amina Figarova, piano
Bart Platteau, flutes
Dmitri Matheny, flugelhorn
Ruth Davies, bass
Chris "Buckshot" Strik, drums
November 7, 2003
Amina Figarova Septet
Pannonica
Den Haag, Netherlands
Amina Figarova, piano
Bart Platteau, flutes
Dmitri Matheny, flugelhorn
Tom Beek, alto saxophone
Kurt van Herck, tenor saxophone
Ruth Davies, bass
Chris "Buckshot" Strik, drums
BLUES VIEWS
"12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac,
12 bagels in a dozen, 12 bars in a Blues!"
—Wynton Marsalis
"You and your woman ain't gettin' along and you're in love.
You can't sleep at nights. Your mind is on her. That's the Blues.
You can't hug that money at night. You can't kiss it."
—John Lee Hooker
"Left hand oom-pah derivatives and comping variants are rather ubiquitous in jazz piano performance practice today, so one's assimilation of said proxy and protocol remains a factor in determining the extent of one's success in efforts of contrapuntal synchrony or the efficient delineation of tension harmony,
as in the Blues."
—Eric Lewis
FAILING & FLYING by Jack Gilbert
Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.