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Month: May, 2014

2014

Saturday, May 31st

Life as a criminal-defense lawyer involves travel to many glamorous destinations. Just this week, for instance, I went to Lisbon, Ohio (pop. 2,821), where I whiled away a sunny morning at the federal prison.

Bon Iver, “Lisbon, OH” (Bon Iver, 2011)

 

[Justin] Vernon composed the instrumental as he was writing letters to his friend Ian Wallace serving three years in prison in Lisbon, Ohio. . . . [H]is pal ended up in jail as a result of attempting to blow-up two university buildings for the Earth Liberation Front.

—Songfacts

 

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2014

Friday, May 30th

Feeling too good for TV keeps getting harder.

The Handsome Family, “Far From Any Road”

True Detective (2014), theme song


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Live, England (Lochside Theatre, Castle Douglas), 2008

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2014

Thursday, May 29th

No matter where you are, new sounds are just around the corner.

Marcos Balter (1974-), Strohbass (2011), Shanna Gutierrez (bass flute) and Ryan Muncy (baritone saxophone), live, Evanston, Ill., 2011

 

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2014

Wednesday, May 28th

basement jukebox

The Five Jets, “Down Slow,” 1954

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2014

Tuesday, May 27th

the other night

The sky’s all thunder and lightning, and it’s almost midnight, and I’m sitting in a Walgreens parking lot near Midway Airport, waiting for my son Alex’s long-delayed flight to arrive, and if it weren’t for Rubinstein’s recordings of Chopin’s nocturnes, which I keep playing over and over amidst the rain and the neon, I’d be going absolutely bonkers.

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 1; Arthur [Artur] Rubinstein (1887-1982), piano

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lagniappe

random thoughts

Listening to Chopin, reading Chekhov: if I ever retire, maybe I’ll relocate to the 19th century.

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2014

Monday, May 26th

This piece had its world premiere in 1941; the venue wasn’t fancy—a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), live, ChamberFest Cleveland (Franklin Cohen, clarinet; Yura Lee, violin; Gabriel Cabezas, cello; Orion Weiss, piano), 2013

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2014

Sunday, May 25th

testify!

This old world is not my home. I’m just passing through. But while I’m down here, I’ve got a job to do. . . . I’m just working—singing—for my train fare back home.

—Willie Rogers

Willie Rogers (Soul Stirrers), “When the Gates Swing Open,” live

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2014

Saturday, May 24th

more

Sun Ra & His Arkestra (with John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Take the ‘A’ Train” (B. Strayhorn), live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 1976

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2014

Friday, May 23rd

what’s new

Where would Western civilization be without the invention of the three-minute pop song?

Dream Chart Top 40 Songs: May 2014 (5/24/14)

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2014

Thursday, May 22nd

Happy (100th) Birthday, Sonny!

Sun Ra (AKA Herman “Sonny” Blount), May 22, 1914-May 30, 1993, keyboard player, composer, bandleader, singular spirit

Today, celebrating his centennial, we revisit a few favorites.

Sun Ra All Stars (SR, keyboards; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet, vocals; Lester Bowie, trumpet; Archie Shepp, tenor saxophone, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Marshall Allen, alto saxophone, percussion; Philly Joe Jones, drums; Clifford Jarvis, drums; Famadou Don Moye, drums, percussion), live, Germany (Berlin), 1983


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Sun Ra & His Arkestra, live, Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, 1974


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Sun Ra Arkestra (SR, piano; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again,” live, Rome, 1980


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Sun Ra (piano) & Walt Dickerson (vibraphone), “Astro” (Visions, 1978)


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lagniappe

radio

WKCR (Columbia University): Sun Ra all day—tomorrow, too.

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