Friday, May 28, 2010
two takes
“La-La Means I Love You”
The Delfonics, live, 2008 (originally recorded 1968)
*****
Bill Frisell, live, New York (Rochester), 2007
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: bass
2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Chicago, Texas, Louisiana, West Coast—blues comes in lots of different shades.
Freddie King, with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown; live (TV broadcast [The !!!! Beat]), 1966
Part 1
*****
Part 2 (“Funnybone”)
*****
Part 3 (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”)
2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
music from Mali
Sometimes the groove is so deep and so wide and so relaxed that, even if someone’s talking over it in a language you don’t understand at all, you just want to lie down in it and stay there.
Ali Farka Toure, guitar and vocals, “Ai du”
2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Jenny said when she was just five years old
There was nothin’ happening at all
Every time she puts on the radio
There was nothin’ goin’ down at all
Not at allThen one fine mornin’, she puts on a New York station
You know, she couldn’t believe what she heard at all
She started shakin’ to that fine, fine music
You know, her life was saved by rock and roll . . .—Lou Reed, “Rock & Roll” (The Velvet Underground, Loaded [1970])
*****
Bo Diddley, “Hey, Bo Diddley,” “Bo Diddley,” live (TV broadcast [Ed Sullivan Show]), 1955
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lagniappe
This well may be the human race’s greatest ever achievement.
—YouTube comment
2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
These guys sounded awfully good the other day—let’s hear some more.
Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, “Orleans & Claiborne,” live, New Orleans, 2010
There are a lot of things to like about this performance. One is the way Shorty, following two hot solos (tenor, baritone), doesn’t try to out-blow those guys. Instead, he changes directions (3:20). Sometimes nothing packs more punch than restraint. (Yeah, I don’t know why this clip cuts off when it does, either.)
Want more? Here.
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lagniappe
passings
Soon I’ll be leaving for a funeral—my uncle, Hugh Frebault. Nine days ago we sat and talked and laughed for over an hour; now he’s silent. Does life get any more understandable as you get older? I don’t think so—if anything, it seems to become only more mysterious, more unfathomable.
Blind Willie Johnson, “Dark Was The Night – Cold Was The Ground” (1927, Dallas)
2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
In embracing music from another continent, this guy—a Gypsy born in Belgium who grew up near Paris—was way ahead of his time.
Django Reinhardt, January 23, 1910-May 16, 1953
Quintette du Hot Club de France
Live, “J’attendrai Swing,” 1939
*****
Live, “Echoes of France,” 1945
It’s something of a miracle that Django was able, physically, to make music at all. When he was eighteen, his left hand was badly injured in a fire, leaving his fourth and fifth fingers permanently curled toward the palm.
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lagniappe
Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn’t have.—Django Reinhardt
*****
With Duke Ellington (1939)
2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
no redeeming value whatsoever
Andre Williams & His Orchestra, “Sweet Little Pussycat” (1966)
lagniappe
Andre Williams, 2010
2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Dear MCOTD,
What would go well with a bottle of sleeping pills?
Chet Baker, “Almost Blue” (Let’s Get Lost [1988])
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lagniappe
Here’s a big birthday shout-out to my 19-year-old son Luke, who’s opened my ears to more things than I could ever count.
2010
Wednesday, 5/12/10
Is the greatest electric guitar player of all time a guy who died in 1942?
Charlie Christian, July 29, 1916-March 2, 1942
“Waiting for Benny” (1941 [recorded at a Benny Goodman session, while the engineers were testing the equipment])
*****
Live, New York (Minton’s), 1941
“Swing To Bop”
***
“Stompin’ at the Savoy”
lagniappe
TV news piece, Oklahoma City, 2007 (following CC’s induction into the Jazz Hall of Fame)
2010
Saturday, 5/8/10
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2010/part 2
Scene 1: Parade of the New Orleans Social Aid and Pleasure Club
*****
Scene 2: Chouval Bwa
*****
Scene 3: Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, “Backatown” (record-store performance)
*****
Scene 4: Pinettes Brass Band (outside another record store)
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lagniappe
music clip of the day 
