Tuesday, December 31st
sounds of Nigeria and Chile
Newen Afrobeat, “Upside Down” (F. Kuti), live, Chile (Santiago), 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Month: December, 2019
2019
Monday, December 30th
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), French Suites (Nos. 1-6); András Schiff (piano), live, Germany (Leipzig), 2010
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lagniappe
radio
The annual Bachfest on WKCR (Columbia University) continues through midnight New Year’s Eve.
*****
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Sunday, December 29th
back to church
Swanee Quintet, “Prayer Changes Things,” live, 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
You think you care what this book is about, but really you care how it sounds.
—Joe Moran, First You Write a Sentence (2018)
*****
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Saturday, December 28th
sounds of outside and inside
This I could listen to all day.
Cool Maritime (AKA Sean Hellfritsch), from Sharing Waves, 2018
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lagniappe
reading table
The bush warbler
in a grove of bamboo sprouts
sings of growing old—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
*****
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Friday, December 27th
what’s new
Los Lobos, “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?”, “Llegó Navidad,” “Christmas and You,” “It’s Christmas Time in Texas,” live, Washington, D.C., 12/18/19
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lagniappe
reading table
Along my journey
through this temporal world, people
new-year-house-cleaning—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
*****
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Thursday, December 26th
basement jukebox
Desmond Dekker (1941-2006) & The Aces, “Israelites” (D. Dekker, L. Kong), 1968
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Wednesday, December 25th
Merry Christmas
Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893-1929), “Christmas Eve Blues,” 1928
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Victoria Spivey (1906-1976) with Lonnie Johnson (guitar), “Christmas Morning Blues,” 1928
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Bessie Smith (1894-1937) with Joe Smith (cornet), Charlie Green (trombone), Fletcher Henderson (piano), “At the Christmas Ball,” 1925,
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Leroy Carr (1905-1935), “Christmas in Jail—Ain’t That a Pain,” 1929
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Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers with Charles Brown (1922-1999, vocals, keyboards), “Merry Christmas, Baby,” 1947
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Lowell Fulson (1921-1999), “Lonesome Christmas (I & II),” 1950
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Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Alex or Aleck Miller, 1912-1965), “Sonny Boy’s Christmas Blues,” 1951
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John Lee Hooker (1917-2001), “Blues for Christmas,” 1959
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Tuesday, December 24th
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor; Shunske Sato (violin), live, Netherlands (Haarlem), published 10/24/19
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lagniappe
radio
One of my favorite musical events begins today: the annual Bachfest on WKCR (Columbia University); all Bach, all the time, until midnight New Year’s Eve.
*****
random sights
other day, Chicago (Monadnock Building)
2019
Monday, December 23rd
Why not begin the week with something that will take you somewhere you haven’t been before?
Philippe Manoury (1952-), Melencolia (third string quartet), 2012; Arditti Quartet
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2019
Sunday, December 22nd
never enough
Gospel Harmonettes (featuring Dorothy Love Coates, 1928-2002, MCOTD Hall of Fame), “I Won’t Let Go” (D. Coates), live (TV show), 1964
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lagniappe
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
To limber your sensibility, stalk the aesthetic everywhere: cracks in a sidewalk, people’s ways of walking. The aesthetic isn’t bounded by art, which merely concentrates it for efficient consumption. If you can’t put a mental frame around, and relish, the accidental aspect of a street or a person, or really of anything, you will respond to art only sluggishly.
—Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying,” New Yorker, 12/23/19
music clip of the day 