Jean-Michel Basquiat – SAMO

Basquiat loved Jazz. He owned 3000 records, the collection spanning over multiple decades and styles, and he had great admiration for jazz heroes like Charlie Parker, Miles David and Ornette Coleman. He felt close to them, because they were young and strong and inventive, they were looking for something new beyond jazz tradition, which was […]

AE Housman – When Summer’s End Is Nighing

Summer’s gone and deed’s are done. Which in my case meant a walk to the post office today, holding a heavy envelope (heavy with meaning, mostly) that contained a master thesis. It is now gone, as is the warm weather. I still feel pretty young and a little proud, but my ear also fondly listens […]

Phil Collins – I Don’t Care Anymore

To be angry is necessary, sometimes, don’t you agree? After a lousy (work) day like this one, still seething with rage, and not the fun kind, where laughing about it all is already at your fingertips, I went looking for a fitting soundtrack. There are the obvious choices, like Rage Against The Machine or Metallica, or […]

Ali Silverstein – red, fluorescent orange vessels

“I’m more of a draftsman than a painter”, Los Angeles-based Ali Silverstein (*1980) says about herself. She puts puddles of color on her canvases, cuts out, arranges and rearranges – most of all, she improvises, which of course as a jazz musician appeals to me immediately. “I’m trying this experiment now where I’m not allowed to […]

John Coltrane – After The Rain

After a string of sunny-blue hot summer days, what a strange surprise to wake up in October today. As if someone had decided that June’s shining hour had gone on long enough. Cold and grey weather, but beautiful, because it was an exception. The rain stopped in the early evening. On John Coltrane’s (1926 – […]

The Strokes – I’ll Do Anything Once

I like the Strokes. Which everyone did in the early aughts, they were ubiquitous at college parties or apartment hangouts. The band, formed in 1998 in New York City brought Garage Rock back (and took it with them when their success started to fade somewhat), and added to the soundtrack of a generation that was […]

Titian – Flora

Is the fact that he was an italian Renaissance painter everything you know about Titian? Well, then you’re in good company. While we just can’t bring you up to speed here, as always, we’d like to refer you elsewhere to get a more complete picture. Here at vignettiste, we are all about the small stories, […]

Claude Debussy – la mer

Impressionism – a widely disputed label, did you know that? Especially where Claude Debussy (1862-1918) is concerned. He hated the term, and called critics who used it “imbeciles”. La mer is one of Debussy’s best known orchestral works, it consists of three musical sketches. To use a programmatic title like that, and structuring a piece of […]

Inge Morath – the road to Reno

The photographer of austrian descent (1923-2002) and Henri Cartier-Bresson, both with the Magnum Photo Agency, were hired to portray the filming of “The Misfits” in 1960, with a script by Arthur Miller, featuring Marilyn Monroe. They decided to travel to Reno, where the film was shooting, by car. Since they were both europeans, unused to […]

Lili Boulanger – vieille prière bouddhique

The first woman to win the coveted Grand Prix de Rome in its 110 year history – Lili Boulanger (1893 – 1918) caused a stir in the parisian music scene. She was only 19 and came from a well-known and respected musician family. Her sister Nadia Boulanger is perhaps the best known member of the family, […]