June | 2013 | music clip of the day

Month: June, 2013

Thursday, June 20th

In a world this fast what you need, sometimes, is something this slow.

Shirley Horn (1934-2005), “Summer (Estate)” (B. Martino & B. Brighetti), live, Switzerland (Bern), 1990

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Space is a valuable commodity in music. Too many musicians rush through everything with too many notes. I need time to take the picture. A ballad should be a ballad. It’s important to understand what the song is saying, and learn how to tell the story. It takes time. I can’t rush it. I really can’t rush it.

—Shirley Horn

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art beat: more from the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago

Statuette of a Female Figure
Cycladic, probably from the island of Keros
Early Bronze Age, 2600/2400 B.C.

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Wednesday, June 19th

serendipity

Last night, while I was doing some law work, these guys—I’d never heard of them before—jumped out of the radio.*

Los Pirañas, “Bambo Ha Muerto Devorado Por El Pecado (Version Alterna),” live, Colombia (Bogotá), 2011

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lagniappe

reading table

I am not poor, I am not rich, nothing’s here but nothing’s lacking, I have little, I want nothing: all my treasure is in Minerva’s tower.

—Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)

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*Give the Drummer Some (WFMU-FM [Give the Drummer Radio Stream] Tues., 6-7 p.m.; Fri., 9 a.m.-noon [EST]).

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Tuesday, June 18th

two takes

Music for Airports, “1/1” (B. Eno, R. Davies, R. Wyatt)

Bang on a Can All-Stars, live, Düsseldorf Airport (Germany), 2011

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Brian Eno, recording, 1978

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lagniappe

art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (while waiting for the jury in my federal bribery-conspiracy trial to return a verdict, which, alas, they did)

Bowl, 150/50 B.C.
Greek, Hellenistic, Eastern Mediterranean
Glass, mosaic technique

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Monday, June 17th

last night

He opened his show, at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, with this.

Daniel Lanois, “The Maker” (D. Lanois), live, Toronto, 2012*

*With James Wilson (bass), Brian Blade (drums).

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Sunday, June 16th

father and son

Brian Blade (drums) & The Fellowship Band, with Brady L. Blade Sr. (vocals), “Amazing Grace,” live, Savannah, Ga. (2012)

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lagniappe

reading table

Some things endure. When my sons, Alex and Luke, were in grade school, I started a two-person “reading group” with each of them. We would read novels together, maybe one a month, alternating choices, and go out and talk about them over a meal. Alex is now twenty-five. This morning we’re going out for breakfast, where we’ll be talking about a short story by Richard Yates, “Oh, Joseph, I’m So Tired.” Of stories there is no end.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was President-elect there must have been sculptors all over America who wanted a chance to model his head from life, but my mother had connections.

—Richard Yates (1926-1992), “Oh, Joseph, I’m So Tired” (first sentence)

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2013

Saturday, June 15th

ear candy

Avril Lavigne, “Girlfriend”/Japanese version

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“How to pronounce Avril Lavigne”

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2013

Friday, June 14th

Shivkumar Sharma (santoor) & Zakir Hussain (tabla), live, Tokyo, 1988

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lagniappe

radio

Today it’s all ragas all day at WKCR-FM (Columbia University), where they’re hosting the Ragas Live Festival—24 hours straight of Indian classical music, featuring 24 live in-studio performances.

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2013

Thursday, June 13th

Speaking of Bach, last night, as I was working on the closing argument I’ll be giving today in a federal bribery-conspiracy trial, it was a great joy—and a great comfort—to be able to listen to this.

Johann Sebastian Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I; Andrei Gavrilov (piano), playing and talking (Preludes & Fugues Nos. 1-12); Joanna MacGregor (piano), playing and talking (Preludes & Fugues Nos. 13-24); TV (BBC), 2000

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lagniappe

reading table

[L]istening to music for an hour or two every evening doesn’t deprive me of the silence—the music is the silence coming true.

—Philip Roth, The Human Stain

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2013

Wednesday, June 12th

musical logic

1. No day that includes a Bach cello suite can be all bad.

2. Any day can include a Bach cello suite.

3. Therefore a day that’s all bad can always be avoided.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Suite No. 1 in G major for Unaccompanied Cello; Pablo Casals (1876-1973), live, France (Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa), 1954

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