Thursday, May 21st
sounds of Senegal
Cheikh Lô (1955-, vocals, guitar, drums), live (studio), Seattle, 2020
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Month: May, 2020
2020
Wednesday, May 20th
One-word review: spellbinding.
De Yeon Kim (gayageum), Tyshawn Sorey (drums), live, Boston, 2019
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
2020
Tuesday, May 19th
sounds of New York
Aruan Ortiz, Anthony Coleman, Vijay Iyer, Solo Piano Impressions for Herbie Nichols (1919-1963, pianist, composer), live, New York, 2019
One-word review of Aruan Ortiz’s opening set: Wow!
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
2020
Monday, May 18th
Why not begin the week with something quiet?
Jürg Frey (1953-), Extended Circular Music No. 4 (2014); Absolut Trio, live, Switzerland (Basel), 1/22/20
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
2020
Sunday, May 17th
back to church
“All I Do,” St. Paul Baptist Church Choir, McConnells, S.C. (Mt. Do Well Baptist Church), c. 2009
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
He walked in awe
In awe of light
At nightfall, not at dawn
Whatever he saw
Receding from sight
In the sky’s afterglow
Was what he wanted
To see, to know—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011), “Enlightenment”
2020
Saturday, May 16th
Feel like losing yourself, if only for a little while, in a garden of sounds?
George Lewis (1952-), The Will to Adorn (2011); International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), live, Chicago, 2012
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
2020
Friday, May 15th
only rock ‘n’ roll
Little Richard, 1932-2020
“Tutti Frutti,” 1956 (screen test, The Girl Can’t Help It)
*****
“Long Tall Sally,” 1956 (Don’t Knock the Rock)
*****
“Good Golly, Miss Molly,” 1958
*****
“Rip It Up,” early 1960s
*****
“Lucille,” 1973
*****
When you look at today’s Grammy winners – God bless them – half of them were discovered when they were 10 years old, were groomed, and had managers and publicists. Little Richard just clawed his way to the top at a very early age with nothing except a tremendous amount of talent and gumption.
—David Kirby, author of Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll (2009)
**********
lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
2020
Thursday, May 14th
basement jukebox
Eddie Bo (aka Edwin Joseph Bocage [1930-2009], vocals, piano), “Dinky Doo,” 1961
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
streaming
Tonight at 7:30 p.m. (ET) the last performance by pianist Peter Serkin (1947-2020) at New York’s 92nd St. Y (12/1/18) will be streamed here (Mozart [Adagio in B Minor, K. 540; Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 570], Bach [Goldberg Variations]).
2020
Wednesday, May 13th
This I could listen to all day.
Ikue Mori (1953-, electronics), Steve Noble (1960-, percussion), live, Copenhagen, 2016
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Tuesday, May 12th
sounds of Austin
Blaze Foley (aka Michael David Fuller, 1949-1989), “If I Could Only Fly” (B. Foley), live (Duct Tape Messiah, 2011)
*****
Another take.
Merle Haggard, live (TV show, performance starts at 1:15), 1986
*****
What makes this song work? As is often the case, it comes down to small sonic details. Listen, for instance, to the first line of the hook (also the title): “If I could only fly . . .” Repeated f’s (“If,” “fly”), echoing vowels (“I,” “fly”): so much repetition in so few words, yet it sounds so natural. Listen, too, to the small step up, melodically, from the first to the second syllable of “only,” enacting what it would have felt like to fly—”if . . . only.”
**********
lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
music clip of the day 