basement jukebox* (an occasional series) Fontella Bass, “Rescue Me” (1965) ***** Tyrone Davis, “Can I Change My Mind” (1969) ***** Otis Clay, “The Only Way Is Up” (1980) *When I was a little boy, a big bright shiny jukebox lit up our basement. Daily it granted our wishes, communicated with just the touch of a [...]
Archive for March 2011
Thursday, 3/31/11
03/31/2011Tuesday, 3/29/11
03/29/2011Zimbabwe The music is as sweet as the news is bleak. Zimbabwe College of Music Mbira Ensemble (with Thanda Richardson, vocals), live, Harare (Mannenberg Jazz Club), 2/17/08 ***** Mbira Dzenharira, “Saramugomo,” 2001 ***** SMG Young Stars, Kenge Art, Mutubambile Orphan Choir with Oliver Mtukudzi, Magariro Edu Marimba Band ********** lagniappe reading table . . . [...]
Monday, 3/28/11
03/27/2011four takes “Everybody Needs Love” (Eddie Hinton) Drive-By Truckers, live, Ashland, North Carolina, 2010 ***** Eddie Hinton, live, c. 1982 ***** Eddie Hinton, recording, 1982 ***** Drive-By Truckers, live (TV broadcast [Conan]), 3/8/11 ********** lagniappe overheard Sunday morning, on a plane from Chicago to Boston, a young girl in the row in front of me: [...]
Sunday, 3/27/11
03/26/2011For some folks singing is as vital as breathing. Five Star Jubilee Singers, Harriman Junction, Tennessee Live, “I’ve Been Changed,” “Go Down Moses,” “I’m Just Keeping It Real,” “Open the Floodgates to Heaven,” 2008 ********** lagniappe It’s a Friday night in downtown Harriman, and inside the Anointed Praise and Worship Church, the Five Star Jubilee [...]
Saturday, 3/26/11
03/25/2011The notes are easy enough to replicate—the touch impossible. Pinetop Perkins (piano, vocals), July 7, 1913-March 21, 2011 “Grindin’ Man” (with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, harmonica), live, New Jersey (New Brunswick), 2008 ***** “How Long Blues,” live ********** lagniappe He was one of the last great Mississippi Bluesmen. He had such a distinctive voice, and [...]
Friday, 3/25/11
03/25/2011Western Swing Festival Beginning on Friday, March 25th at 8:00 a.m. . . . [we] will honor the legacy of Western Swing with 64 hours of continuous programming, running until midnight on Sunday, March 27th (this will preempt all regularly scheduled programming). We will explore the genre’s entire history, from its roots in the 1920s [...]
Thursday, 3/24/11
03/23/2011Elizabeth Taylor, February 27, 1932-March 23, 2011 Michael Jackson, singing to Elizabeth Taylor (2003) Their relationship, apparently a very close one, seems less surprising when you consider the fact that they were both extremely complex figures in a culture that resists complexity, particularly in its celebrities, even more particularly in ones who happen to be [...]
Wednesday, 3/23/11
03/22/2011More Lester The world became a less interesting place the day Lester Bowie died. Digable Planets with Lester Bowie (trumpet), Joe Sample (keyboard), Melvin “Wah-Wah Watson” Ragin (guitar), “Flying High in the Brooklyn Sky,” live ********** lagniappe Part of the job of a musician is that of a messenger. If you ain’t ready to be [...]
Tuesday, 3/22/11
03/22/2011Yesterday, on the way home from Bloomington, Indiana (where I’d left my son Luke), one of the things that kept me company was this guy’s latest album.* Black Star (Mos Def, Talib Kweli), “Definition” (1998) *Mos Def, The Ecstatic (2009)
