Sunday, May 31st
testify!
Anointed Brown Sisters, “Hold On,” live, LaFayette, Alabama (Mt. Sellers Baptist Church), 2011
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Each day I know less.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Month: May, 2015
2015
2015
Saturday, May 30th
sounds of Niger
Mdou Moctar, “à la maison,” live, Niger (Ingall), 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
Neither question nor assertion makes sense / when truth is a tone of voice.
—Karen Solie, “Interior” (The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out)
2015
Friday, May 29th
only rock ‘n’ roll
The Oblivians, live, Bartlett, Tenn., 1996
2015
Thursday, May 28th
How about something new?
PRISM Quartet and Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), excerpts from “15 Places at the Same Time” (S. Lehman), live, Philadelphia, 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
There’s a reason it’s called the nervous / system.
—Karen Solie, “Ode” (The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out)
2015
Wednesday, May 27th
Sit back. Close your eyes. Listen—just listen.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major (“Waldstein”); Emil Gilels (1916-1985), live
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lagniappe
reading table
My boys.
I don’t have them to hold. What do I do with my arms?
—Sonali Deraniyagala, Wave
2015
Monday, May 18th
sounds of Brazil
Gilberto Gil, live (TV show), Brazil, 1994
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Of us they are sublimely oblivious—birds.
*****
taking a break
I’m taking some time off—back in a while.
2015
Sunday, May 17th
More of The Consolers (Sullivan & Iola Pugh).
Live (TV Gospel Time), early 1960s
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, c. 1938
Today Helen Levitt enters the MCOTD Hall of Fame, joining saxophonists Von Freeman and Henry Threadgill; trumpeter Lester Bowie; poets John Berryman, William Bronk and Wislawa Szymborska; and gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates.
2015
Saturday, May 16th
There are a handful of pianists whose every note I’m hungry to hear—he’s one.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Sonata No. 8 in A Minor; Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950), recording, 1950
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), Palisades, New Jersey, 1958
2015
Friday, May 15th
passings
B.B. King, singer, guitarist, September 16, 1925-May 14, 2015
“The Thrill Is Gone” (R. Hawkins, R. Darnell), live
Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), 1974
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Montreux Jazz Festival, 1993
2015
Thursday, May 14th
Whether you live for 50 years, 500 years, or 5,000 years, it makes no difference: always there are new things to hear.
Dieter Ammann (1962-), Violation (1999); Lemanic Modern Ensemble (William Blank, cond.) with Karolina Öhman, cello; live, Russia (St. Petersburg), 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
The old pond—
a frog jumps in,
sound of water.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
music clip of the day 