lunch yesterday Could Van Morrison ever have imagined, in 1969, while recording Moondance, that “Into the Mystic” would serve, in 2011, as aural accompaniment for Wendy’s Natural-Cut Fries with Sea Salt? ********** lagniappe reading table John Berryman, “Dream Song 14,” Ireland (Dublin), 1967 Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky [...]
Archive for November 2011
Wednesday, 11/30/11
11/29/2011Tuesday, 11/29/11
11/29/2011old stuff Best two minutes of the whole day? Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra (with Jimmy Crawford, drums) “White Heat,” 1939 ********** lagniappe musical thoughts It’s difficult to name one favorite drummer, because . . . I’ve got a lot of favorites. But Jimmy Crawford—they called him “Craw”—with the Jimmie Lunceford band? He was a [...]
Monday, 11/28/11
11/28/2011Has Monday ever sounded better? Snooks Eaglin (with George Porter, Jr., bass; Kenneth Blevins, drums) Live, New York (Lone Star Roadhouse), early ’90s “I Just Cried Oh” *** “Baby Please” *** “Lipstick Traces” *** “You Don’t Have To Go” *** “Young Girl” *** “Red Beans” (with Jon Cleary, piano) *** Great guitar players don’t play [...]
Sunday, 11/27/11
11/27/2011Al Green, “None But the Righteous,” live, Tokyo, 1987 *** I’ve got that Holy Ghost religion . . . —Al Green More? Here. And here. And here. And here. ********** lagniappe reading table How much more sharply suffering probes the psyche than does psychology! *** When we see ourselves on the brink of the precipice and it seems [...]
Saturday, 11/26/11
11/25/2011Some musicians come straight at you—others sideways. Andrew Hill (1931-2007), live, 2004, New York ********** lagniappe reading table The pebble is a perfect creature equal to itself mindful of its limits filled exactly with a pebbly meaning with a scent that does not remind one of anything does not frighten anything away does not arouse [...]
Friday, 11/25/11
11/25/2011Can’t go another day without this guy? Me, either. Jackie Wilson, “Baby Workout,” TV broadcast (Shindig), 1965 More? Here. And here. And here. And here. ********** lagniappe reading table morning after morning— what day is it now cuckoo? —Kobayashi Issa, 1810 (trans. David G. Lanoue)
Thursday, 11/24/11
11/24/2011Sometimes less is more; other times more is. Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), Symphony No. 8 Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Bernard Haitink, cond.), live, Amsterdam IA *** IB *** IIA *** IIB *** IIIA *** IIIB (misnumbered at YouTube; nothing’s missing) *** IIIC *** IVA *** IVB *** IVC (again, misnumbered at YouTube; nothing’s missing)
Wednesday, 11/23/11
11/23/2011passings Is any drummer more lyrical? Paul Motian, drummer, composer, collaborator, bandleader March 25, 1931-November 22, 2011 Paul Motian Trio (PM, drums; Joe Lovano, saxophone; Bill Frisell, guitar), “It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago” (P. Motian), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 2005 More? Here. ********** lagniappe Stephen Paul Motian (he pronounced his surname, which [...]
Tuesday, 11/22/11
11/22/2011Frederic Chopin, Mazurka in C Major, Op. 24, No. 2 Martha Argerich, live, Sweden (Stockholm), 2009 More? Here. And here. And here. And here. ********** lagniappe musical thoughts When I don’t play Chopin for a while, I don’t feel like a pianist. —Martha Argerich ***** reading table Look how we “attempted to express ourselves.” Every one of these [...]
Monday, 11/21/11
11/21/2011You can’t write a song like this, you can’t play it like this, unless your ears are open to all kinds of music. Allen Toussaint, “Southern Nights,” live ********** lagniappe reading table If they find a copy of Richard Yates’s Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, they buy it. It is as if they’ve found a baby [...]
