timeless
Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972), “How I Got Over” (C. Ward), live, Chicago
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lagniappe
reading table
Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a soul?
—John Keats (1795-1821), letter to his brother George Keats, 1819
sounds of Chicago
Sheila Jordan (1928-) & Paul Marinaro (1973-), “Comes Love” (S. Stept, L. Brown, C. Tobias), live, Chicago, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
alone
Elisabeth Harnik (piano), live, Wels, Austria, 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
what’s new
Nilüfer Yanya, “Baby Blu,” 4/11/19
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Columbus Park, Chicago (goslings huddled behind the mother)
One of my favorite musicians of all time died over seventy-five years ago at the age of twenty-five.
Charlie Christian (1916-1942, guitar) with Cootie Williams (trumpet), Johnny Guarnieri (piano), Dave Tough (drums), et al., “Waitin’ for Benny” (full session), live (studio), New York, 1941
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday, Intuit (Chicago)
Robert Johnson, City, 2018
sounds of Chicago
Listen to this guitarist (2:47-), who just celebrated his 92nd birthday with a gig at Chicago’s Green Mill. Even at twenty-three he was utterly original.
Charlie Parker (1920-1955, alto saxophone) with George Freeman (1927-, guitar), et al., “Keen and Peachy” (C. Parker), live, Chicago, 1950
sounds of New York
Tyshawn Sorey (drums), Graham Haynes (trumpet), Brandon Ross (guitar), Val-Inc (AKA Val Jeanty, electronics, percussion, turntables), live (studio), New York, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
sounds of Chicago
Carrie Robinson, “Power to Live Right,” live, Chicago (Maxwell Street), 1965
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Forest Park, Ill.
two takes
“When the Gates Swing Open” (T. A. Dorsey)
Otis Clay (1942-2016), live, Chicago, c. 2007
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Al Green (1946-), live, Memphis, 1983
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lagniappe
reading table
Spring and All
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast—a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen
patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees
All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines—
Lifeless in appearance,
sluggish dazed spring approaches—
They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind—
Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf
One by one objects are defined—
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf
But now the stark dignity of
entrance—Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken
sounds of Chicago
Otis Clay (1942-2016), “Trying to Live My Life Without You” (L. Williams)
Live, Toronto, 2014
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Recording, 1972
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Forest Park, Ill.
music clip of the day 