sweet soul music
Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999), “Move On Up” (C. Mayfield), live (Master Henry Gibson [1942-2002], hand drums), Netherlands (The Hague), 1987
only rock ‘n’ roll
Joy Division, live (“Digital,” “New Dawn Fades,” “Colony,” “Autosuggestion”), Netherlands, 1980
Uneasy sounds for an uneasy world.
Iancu Dumitrescu (1944-), Hyperspectres for doublebasses, cellos, and percussion, live, Paris, 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow / And leaden-eyed despairs
—John Keats (1795-1821), “Ode to a Nightingale”
old school
Dynamic Revelators (Wichita, Ks.), “Holding On,” live, Gurdon, Ark., c. 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
We have to live out our precise experimentation.
—John Ashbery (1927-), “Breezeway” (Breezeway, 2015)
like nobody else
Cecil Taylor Unit (CT, piano, vocal, percussion; Jimmy Lyons, alto saxophone, percussion; William Parker, bass, percussion; Rashid Bakr, percussion; Andre Martinez, percussion; Brenda Bakr, vocal) with dancers (Doretha Davidson, Leon Brown, Ron McKay, Pauline Zaguhei), live, Germany (Berlin), 1983
only rock ‘n’ roll
Tenement, live, Philadelphia, 2012
sounds of joy
Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Orchestra, “Lavoro” (S. Bergin, borrowing from “Moten Swing”), live, Amsterdam, 2013
Joyful? Yes. But sad, too. Pianist (and cofounder) Misha Mengelberg’s encroaching dementia, which has since sidelined him altogether, provides a poignant counterpoint.
only rock ‘n’ roll
Big Star (with Alex Chilton), “In the Street,” live (TV show), 1994
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Replacements, “Alex Chilton,” live (TV show), 2014
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
[M]y favorite songs . . . make[] me feel more able to go out and live.
—George Saunders, New York Times Magazine, 3/10/16 (on-line)
Who needs coffee?
Johnny Griffin Quartet (JG, tenor saxophone; Ronnie Matthews, piano; Ray Drummond, bass; Kenny Washington, drums), live, New York, 1981
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lagniappe
reading table
when cherry blossoms
scatter . . .
no regrets—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David Lanoue
sounds of joy
Tenor saxophonists Arnett Cobb (1918-1989; 00:44-), Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis (1922-1986; 02:32-), Johnny Griffin (1928-2008; 04:34-), “Lester Leaps In” (L. Young), live, Netherlands (Laren), 1984
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lagniappe
reading table
Even in the midst of trials and tribulations we still have joy.
—Pastor Norvel Goff, Sr., Sunday service, Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, S.C., 2015 (New Yorker, 9/28/15)
music clip of the day 