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.
Happy Birthday (Again), Pops!
During his life, Louis Armstrong’s birthday was believed to be July 4, 1900, but, as it turned out, that was a year and a month off—the actual date was August 4, 1901. Given the circumstances, WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) does the only sensible thing: they celebrate both days, playing nothing but Pops 24 hours straight.
favorites
(an occasional series)
According to Miles Davis, the history of jazz can be told in four words:
here are the first two.
Louis Armstrong, “Dinah,” live, Copenhagen, 1933
(Originally posted January 15, 2010.)
What better way to start the workweek?
Joe Lee Wilson, singer, December 22, 1935-July 17, 2011
Archie Shepp, “Money Blues” (featuring Joe Lee Wilson, lead vocals)
Things Have Got To Change (Impulse!), 1971
Part #1
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Part #2
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
Around Joe Lee (excerpt)
Vodpod videos no longer available.only rock ’n roll
(an occasional series)
Oneida, “The Adversary,” Ireland, 10/07
Vodpod videos no longer available.The right music, heard at the right moment, can change your whole day.
The Staple Singers, “I’m Coming Home” (Vee-Jay), 1959
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
Happy Birthday, Lionel!
Today trumpet player Lionel Ferbos, who was born when William Howard Taft was president and tonight can be heard at New Orleans’ Palm Court Jazz Cafe, turns 100.
The Lionel Ferbos Band, “When You’re Smiling”
Live, New Orleans (Norwegian Seamen’s Church), 8/28/09
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For some years, trumpeter Lionel Ferbos has been touted as the oldest active jazz musician in New Orleans. Come this weekend, he’ll qualify for another honorific: The only active jazz musician in New Orleans whose age has crossed into triple digits.
John McCusker / The Times-Picayune
Lionel Ferbos, photographed in May 2011.Ferbos first learned trumpet in 1926, at age 15, inspired by seeing Phil Spitalny and his All-Girl Orchestra at the Orpheum Theater. He played in 1930s bands led by Captain John Handy and Walter “Fats” Pichon. He worked on a crew digging a City Park lagoon before getting hired for a Depression-era Works Progress Administration band, making around $13 a week.
Sheetmetal work eventually paid the bills, even as he continued to moonlight as a musician. He joined Lars Edegran’s New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra in the early 1970s, which toured in Europe, and in 1979 played trumpet and sang in the touring musical “One Mo’ Time.” He has maintained a regular gig at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe on Decatur Street for more than two decades.
—Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune, 7/13/11
two takes
Arvo Pärt, Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977)
A Far Cry, live, Boston (Jordan Hall), 10/17/08
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
BBC Symphony Orchestra, live, London (Royal Albert Hall), 8/17/10
Vodpod videos no longer available.This goes, and goes, and goes, keeping you afloat, carrying you along,
then stops with stunning suddenness—is any music more lifelike?
Happy (75th) Birthday, Albert!
Albert Ayler, tenor saxophonist, July 13, 1936-November 25, 1970
*****
Albert Ayler Trio (Albert Ayler, ts; Gary Peacock, bass; Sunny Murray, drums), Spiritual Unity (ESP), 1964
“Ghosts: First Variation”
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“The Wizard”
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“Spirits”
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“Ghosts: Second Variation”
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lagniappe
random thoughts
OK, let’s talk physics. One problem with the term “free jazz” is that it suggests a sound world in which there’s no center of gravity—a world where everything pushes outward, where centrifugal force rules. But the reality, with many of the greatest artists, is different. Centripetal, not centrifugal, force is king. The musicians push inward, not outward, toward a center none ever inhabits individually but, collectively, they are always moving toward.
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The contributions of Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray are hard to overstate. Sidemen? There are none.
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Like Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler is at heart a blues musician—one who, like Ornette, expanded the blues vocabulary.
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radio
Today, from noon to 9 p.m. (EST), WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) is all Albert Ayler.
