only rock ’n roll
The Dirtbombs, live, New York (Other Music), 2009
Vodpod videos no longer available.Note: If this doesn’t play properly, make sure the “HD” option is turned on (lower righthand corner).
More? Here.
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reading table
to the west
is Buddha’s paradise . . .
withered fields—Kobayashi Issa (trans. David G. Lanoue), 1819
passings
Jerry Lieber, songwriter, April 25, 1933-August 22, 2011
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, “Hound Dog” (J. Lieber & M. Stoller), live (TV broadcast; Buddy Guy, guitar; Fred Below, drums), Europe, 1965 (originally recorded 1952)
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted 12/10/10.)
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Nick Ashford, songwriter, singer, May 4, 1941-August 22, 2011
Ashford & Simpson, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (N. Ashford & V. Simpson), live
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
David “Honeyboy” Edwards, singer, guitar player, June 28, 1915-
August 29, 2011
Live, WBEZ-FM (Chicago), 2008
Vodpod videos no longer available.Happy Birthday, Bird!
Charlie Parker, alto saxophonist, August 29, 1920-March 12, 1955
According to Miles Davis, the history of jazz can be summarized in four words: Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker.
Charlier Parker & Dizzy Gillespie, “Hot House,” live (TV broadcast), 1952
(Originally posted 10/17/09.)
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR-FM’s Lester Young/Charlie Parker birthday marathon runs until midnight—today’s all Bird.
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musical thoughts
Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.
—Charlie Parker
Happy Birthday, Lester!
Lester Young, tenor saxophonist, August 27, 1909-March 15, 1959
Lester Young (ts) with Carl “Tatti” Smith (trumpet), Count Basie (piano), Walter Page (bass), Jo Jones (drums) (10/9/36, Chicago)
“Oh, Lady Be Good”
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
“Shoe Shine Boy”
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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lagniappe
radio: 72 glorious hours
Assuming Irene doesn’t crash the party, the folks at WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)* will be playing Lester Young all day today and into tomorrow, when, at some point, they’ll make the transition to Charlie Parker, whose birthday is Monday. As I wrote last year: “Something happens—something delicious—when you surrender your ears and yourself to someone’s music for such a sustained period of time. Little by little, that musician moves in, taking up residence in your brain. Their distinctive voice becomes, for a time, inseparable from everything else you’re hearing and seeing and thinking and feeling.”
*Later note (2:45 p.m. [CST]): When I just checked, their website seemed to be down; you can also get them via iTunes (radio/college).
Does anyone have more fun than drummers?
Sonny Rollins/Don Cherry Quartet (SR, tenor saxophone; DC, trumpet; Henry Grimes, bass; Billy Higgins, drums), “52nd Street Theme” (T. Monk), live (TV broadcast), Rome, 1962
Vodpod videos no longer available.More Sonny Rollins? Here. And here. And here. And here. And here.
More Don Cherry? Here. And here.
More Billy Higgins? Here.
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lagniappe
You know the drum was the first instrument besides the human voice.
You may find it difficult to remember someone’s favorite foods or to recall their favorite movies. But their favorite music? Today’s my mother’s birthday; she’s been gone a long time. This guy she loved.
The King Cole Trio (Nat King Cole, piano & vocals; Oscar Moore, guitar; Johnny Miller, bass), “It is Better to Be by Yourself” (Breakfast in Hollywood, 1946)
Vodpod videos no longer available.More? Here.
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lagniappe
art beat: more from Thursday’s stop at Chicago’s Art Institute
Hiroshi Yoshida, Three Little Islands (1930)
sounds of Nigeria
Fela Kuti, live (filmed by Ginger Baker), Nigeria (Calabar), 1971
Vodpod videos no longer available.More? Here.
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at Chicago’s Art Institute
Oda Kazuma, Catching Whitebait at Nakaumi, Izumo (1924)
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Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1953-54
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reading table
. . . life, that storm before the calm.
—Wislawa Szymborska, from “Negative” (trans. Clare Cavanagh & Stanislaw Baranczak, Monologue of a Dog [2006])
only rock ’n’ roll
(an occasional series)
MC5, “Kick Out The Jams,” live, Detroit, 1970
Vodpod videos no longer available.Rock ’n’ roll, requiring no formal training, depending more on verve than virtuosity, is a kind of folk music. Folk music, at its best, evokes a particular place. Can you imagine these guys coming out of, say, San Francisco?
only rock ’n roll
(an occasional series)
Coldplay, “Rehab” (Amy Winehouse)/“Fix You”
Live, Chicago (Lollapalooza), 8/5/11
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lagniappe
reading table
when I’m dead
who’ll wear it next?
new summer robe—Kobayashi Issa, 1817 (trans. David G. Lanoue)
three takes
“Grown So Ugly” (Robert Pete Williams)
I got so ugly, I don’t even know myself . . .
Black Keys
Live, Nashville (Grimey’s Record Store), 2006
More? Here.
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Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (with Ry Cooder, guitar)
Safe As Milk, 1967
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Robert Pete Williams
Free Again, 1961
This is, to these ears, one of the greatest—most vivid, most haunting—songs in all of blues.
