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Category: art beat

2012

Friday, 1/6/12

two takes

Here’s her first record as a solo artist.

Dionne Warwick, “Don’t Make Me Over” (B. Bacharach & H. David), 1962
Billboard Hot 100 #21, R&B #5

TV broadcast

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Recording

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When I first began, the kind of music I was recording was so unorthodox. It was like nothing else that was being played on radio at the time, and most people said, ‘Well, she won’t be around that long.’

—Dionne Warwick, 2011 Interview

More? Here. And here.

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lagniappe

art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building)

Franz Kline, Painting (1952)

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Jasper Johns, Corpse and Mirror II (1974-75)

(Some folks duck into a church in the noon hour—this is my church.)

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2012

Sunday, 1/1/12

Dionne goes to church.

Dionne Warwick, “Up Where We Belong,” live, c. 1985
New Hope Baptist Church, Newark, New Jersey
Ann Drinkard Moss (Dionne’s aunt), Choir Director

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lagniappe

art beat

Helen Frankenthaler, December 12, 1928-December 27, 2011

Mountains and Sea (1952)

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2011

Monday, 12/26/11

This week we revisit a few favorites from the past year.

*****

[D]ance first and think afterwards . . . . It’s the natural order.

—Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1953, 1955 [English-language premiere])

Al Minns & Leon James, New York (Savoy Ballroom, Harlem), 1950s

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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lagniappe

art beat

Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1940

(Originally posted 1/11/11.)

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2011

Friday, 12/16/11

only rock ’n roll

Happy Refugees, “What’s Your Appeal”
Live, New York (Cake Shop), 12/10/11

More? These guys recently did a live studio performance at WFMU-FM (The Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T), which can be heard here.

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lagniappe

art beat: Tuesday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building)

George Inness (1825-1894), Early Morning, Tarpon Springs (1892)

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2011

Tuesday, 11/15/11

Often feel muddled?

Me, too.

That’s why I turn to Webern and Mondrian.

What they offer, more than anything, is clarity.

Anton Webern, Variations for Piano, Op. 27 (1936)
Glenn Gould, piano, live

*****

Piet Mondrian, Composition (No. 1) Gray-Red (1935)
Art Institute of Chicago

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2011

Monday, 10/31/11

two takes

Need a Monday morning boost? You’ve come to the right place.

“Let the Good Times Roll”

Koko Taylor (1928-2009), live

Years ago, when I was at Alligator Records, I worked with her—what a sweetheart.

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Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five, c. 1946

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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lagniappe

art beat

Yesterday at Chicago’s Goodman Theater:

MARK ROTHKO: Wait. Stand closer. You’ve got to get close. Let it pulsate. Let it work on you. Closer. . . . There. Let it spread out. Let it wrap its arms around you; let it embrace you, filling even your peripheral vision so nothing else exists or has ever existed or will ever exist. Let the picture do its work—But work with it. Meet it halfway for God’s sake. Lean forward, lean into it. Engage with it!

—John Logan, Red (2009)

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2011

Sunday, 10/30/11

As snow falls in the Northeast, let’s head to the Southeast.

Mt. Do-Well Baptist Church Hymn Choir, “That Morning Train”
Live, South Carolina (Mt. Do-Well Baptist Church, McConnells), 2006

More? Here. And here.

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lagniappe

art beat

Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a sentencing hearing in a drug case in federal court; my guy got 86 months, which was a little more than I’d hoped for but a lot less than the 151-188 months the government sought):

Vincent van Gogh
Terrace and Observation Deck
at the Moulin de Blute-Fin, Montmarte (1887)

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2011

Wednesday, 10/26/11

old stuff

I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces: Music in Vernacular Photographs 1880-1955, edited by Steve Roden (Dust-to-Digital 2011)

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lagniappe

tip of the day

Get yourself a copy of this: it’s one of the most beautiful book-and-CD packages I’ve ever seen. Late at night, when everyone else is asleep and the house is still, you’ll be glad you have it.

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2011

Saturday, 9/17/11

Mahogani Music Promotional Video, Detroit (2010)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Yeah, the interplay between these two is awfully cliche.

But there’s a lot to like here: the sounds,* the colors, the composition, the sense of place.

I dig the camera-shy dog, too.

*Joe Simon, “Theme from Cleopatra Jones” (1973)

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art beat

Yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after an oral argument in the nearby federal court of appeals, in a drug case involving 20 kilos of cocaine—from the sordid to the sublime):

Vasily (AKA Wassily) Kandinsky

Painting with Green Center, 1913

*****

Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons), 1913

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2011

Thursday, 9/8/11

hearing colors, seeing sounds

John Coltrane, “Giant Steps,” excerpt (Giant Steps, Atlantic, 1970)
Animation by Michal Levy (2001)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Yo, Michael: Thanks for the tip!)

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lagniappe

Synesthesia is a rare neurological condition that leads stimulation in one sensory pathway to trigger an experience in another. Basically, a short-circuiting in the brain that enables such strange phenomena like perceiving letters and numbers as inherently colored (color-graphemic synesthesia) or hearing sounds in response to visual motion. More than 60 types of synesthesia have been identified, with one of the most common being the cross-sensory experience of color and sound — “hearing” color or “seeing” music.

Israeli artist and jazz musician Michal Levy . . .  is an actual synesthetic: When she listens to music, she sees shapes and colors as different tones, pitches, frequencies, harmonies, and other elements of the melody unfold.

—Maria Popova

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