Friday, November 7th
blues festival (day five)
Junior Wells (vocals, harmonica), Buddy Guy (guitar), Phil Guy (guitar), et al., “Ships on the Ocean,” live, Chicago (Theresa’s Lounge, 4801 S. Indiana), c. 1975
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: blues
2014
Thursday, November 6th
blues festival (day four)
Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Alex “Rice” Miller, c. 1912-1965), live, Denmark (Copenhagen), 1964
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lagniappe
art beat
Marc PoKempner (1948-), Xmas Eve, Theresa’s, Chicago (Theresa’s Lounge, 4801 S. Indiana), 1981
2014
Wednesday, November 5th
blues festival (day three)
J. B. Lenoir, “Slow Down” (J. B. Lenoir), live (at home), Chicago, 1965
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lagniappe
reading table
You need to be crazy to be great. I love crazy.
—Cubs’ new manager Joe Maddon (Chicago Tribune, 11/3/14)
2014
Tuesday, November 4th
blues festival (day two)
Albert Collins (1932-1993), Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954-1990), Jimmie Vaughan (1951-), “Frosty” (A. Collins), live, Washington, D.C., 1989
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lagniappe
random (birthday) thoughts
Blessed to have lived sixty-two years—thirteen more than my father—in a world so beautiful.
2014
Monday, November 3rd
blues festival (day one)
T-Bone Walker (1910-1975), “Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong,” live (TV show), Germany, 1962*
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Claude Monet (1840-1926), The Customs House at Varengeville, 1897
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random thoughts
Every painting was once a blank canvas.
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*With Memphis Slim (piano), Willie Dixon (bass), Jump Jackson (drums).
2014
Saturday, August 23rd
voices I miss
Albert Collins (1932-1993), “Cold, Cold Feeling,” live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 1979
Nobody sounds like this guy, whose 1978 album Ice Pickin’, recorded at Curtis Mayfield’s studio in Chicago and nominated for a Grammy, I’m happy to say I co-produced.
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), Birmingham, Ala., 1963
2014
Wednesday, July 9th
sounds of Chicago
Fenton Robinson (1935-1997), “Somebody Loan Me a Dime” (F. Robinson)
Live (The Devil’s Music [BBC], 1979)
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Recording (1967)
2014
Saturday, June 21st
And speaking of relying more on feel than plan.
Hound Dog Taylor (1915-1975) & the Houserockers (Brewer Phillips guitar; Ted Harvey, drums), “I Held My Baby,” “Taylor’s Rock,” “Wild About You Baby,” “Roll Your Moneymaker,” “Sadie,” instrumental featuring Brewer, instrumental featuring Ted, live, Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, 1973
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), The Dwarf, Palisades, New Jersey, 1958
2014
Thursday, June 19th
passings
Jimmy Scott, singer, July 17, 1925-June 12, 2014
“Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” live, New York (Birdland), 2000
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lagniappe
reading table
If you were to open up Iona’s chest and pour all the grief out of it, you would probably flood the entire planet, yet it is not visible.
—Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), “Grief” (often rendered as “Misery”; translated from Russian by Rosamund Bartlett)
2014
Monday, June 16th
Ornette, at 84, still plays some of the most haunting blues I’ve ever heard.
Ornette Coleman (alto saxophone), with Henry Threadgill (alto saxophone), David Murray (tenor saxophone), Savion Glover (tap dance), et al., live, New York (Prospect Park), 6/12/14
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With Don Cherry (trumpet), Charlie Haden (bass), Billy Higgins (drums), The Shape Of Jazz To Come, 1959
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), East 100th St., New York, 1966
music clip of the day 