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Category: drums

2012

Sunday, 2/5/12

one of my desert-island singers

Dorothy Love Coates (1928-2002) & the Gospel Harmonettes
“I Won’t Let Go” (AKA “I’m Just Holding On”), live

More?

Here. 

And here.

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lagniappe

Here’s the original recording (Specialty, 1950s).

*****

Were gospel to be more publicly acclaimed, she [Dorothy Love Coates] might have the stature of a Billie Holiday or a Judy Garland. Instead, for thousands of black people, she is the message carrier.

—Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (6th ed. 2002)

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[I]t was obvious that Keith [Richards] and Gram [Parsons] enjoyed spending time together. . . . [W]e just all cared deeply about the same things. We just loved, for instance, to sit and listen to Dorothy Love Coates, the gospel singer.

—Stanley Booth

(Quotes originally posted 3/28/10.)

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2012

Saturday, 2/4/12

lighter than air, funkier than dirt

Otha Turner (1907-2003) and the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band (with guest Luther Dickinson, guitar), “My Babe,” live, Memphis, 1990s

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lagniappe

art beat: more from Wednesday’s stop at the Art Institute of Chicago

Vincent van Gogh, The Poet’s Garden (1888)

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musical thoughts

Last night, at the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall, I heard what may be the finest encore I’ve ever heard. After devoting the second half of his concert to Beethoven’s mammoth Diabelli Variations, pianist Peter Serkin, following several trips offstage to rapturous applause, sat down and played, slowly, meditatively, the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. As the last note was fading, if someone had turned to me and said, with the kind of confidence one often encounters in Hyde Park, that the greatest achievements in the history of humanity can be heard at the piano, I couldn’t have done anything other than agree.

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2012

Friday, 2/3/12

When the groove’s this strong, I don’t ever want it to end.

Give me another take.

And another.

Another.

Black Dub (Brian Blade, drums; Trixie Whitley, drums, vocals; Daniel Lanois, guitar, vocals; Jim Wilson, bass, vocals), “Last Time”

1: Santa Monica, 2/16/11

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2: Philadelphia, 11/18/10

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3: Vancouver, 2/2/11

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4: Hamburg, 7/21/11

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2012

Thursday, 2/2/12

most useless label?

 world music

 indie rock

 free jazz

The competition’s fierce.

Mostly Other People Do the Killing (Moppa Elliott, bass; Peter Evans, trumpet; Jon Irabagon, alto saxophone; Kevin Shea, drums), live, London (The Vortex), 7/14/11

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lagniappe

art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building)

Vincent van Gogh

The Bedroom (1889)

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Self-Portrait (1887)

With van Gogh, the life continually threatens to overtake the art; the challenge is to look with fresh eyes.

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2012

Tuesday, 1/31/12

on & on & . . .

Lyn Horton, Goldmine Brook: The Day After Christmas (2011)
Glenn Branca, Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar (1980, reissued 2004)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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2012

Monday, 1/30/12

Henry “Red” Allen (trumpet), with Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone), Vic Dickenson (trombone), Pee Wee Russell (clarinet), Rex Stewart (cornet), Danny Barker (guitar), Nat Pierce (piano), Milt Hinton (bass), Papa Jo Jones (drums), “Wild Man Blues,” live (TV Broadcast, The Sound of Jazz), 1957

All-star jam sessions often fizzle. Not this one. What makes this so good? A lot of it, I think, has to do with saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, who takes the first solo after trumpeter Red Allen states the melody. Right from the beginning (1:27-) it’s apparent that Hawkins isn’t just going through the motions. He plays, throughout, with great concentration and conviction, not wasting a moment. This inspires everyone; you can see it in their faces (1:44-47, 1:55-58, 2:03-08, 2:39-44). He gives the others a lot to live up to—and they do.

(Yo, Randy—thanks for the tip!)

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2012

Friday, 1/27/12

The 1960s—a decade of relentless experimentation, bold innovation, of searching, always, for something new, something true.

Freddie and the Dreamers, “Little Bitty Pretty One,” “A Little You”
Live, London, 1965

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lagniappe

reading table

Last night I had a dream. I was in France. Paris was again falling to the Germans, but it had become such a habit that one had to look closely to see that anyone really cared. I arrived in Paris (from the front, I think, but there wasn’t much of one) went to a party, where I was surrounded by acquaintances. They became distant and shadowy when I approached them. Suddenly I saw you and gave you a tremendous hug. You moved to another table. I said: ‘I know where there are a couple of good French restaurants.’ You said: ‘They’re all French here.’

—Robert Lowell, Letter to Elizabeth Bishop, 6/14/1953,
in The Letters of Robert Lowell (Saskia Hamilton ed., 2005)

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2012

Wednesday, 1/25/12

trying to teach white folks

This Is Ska! (1964)

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lagniappe

 found words

Real Messages from Heaven

—book title (Books-A-Million, 144 S. Clark St., Chicago)

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2012

Monday, 1/23/12

Yesterday we left off in 1977; let’s fast-forward 33 years.

Von Freeman (tenor saxophone), with Mike Allemana (guitar), Matt Ferguson (bass), Michael Raynor (drums); “Lester Leaps In,” live, Chicago (New Apartment Lounge, 75th St.), 2010 

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lagniappe

This year, as I’ve mentioned before, Von was awarded, along with bassist Charlie Haden, singer Sheila Jordan, trumpeter Jimmy Owens, and drummer Jack DeJohnette, an NEA (National Endowment of the Arts) Jazz Masters Fellowship—“the highest honor that our nation bestows on jazz artists.” Here’s the NEA’s video tribute.

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2012

Friday, 1/20/12

passings

Johnny Otis, December 28, 1921-January 17, 2012, singer, songwriter, piano player, bandleader, disc jockey, TV host, etc.

“Willie and the Hand Jive” (The Johnny Otis Show), c. late 1950s

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lagniappe

Genetically, I’m pure Greek. Psychologically, environmentally, culturally, by choice, I’m a member of the black community.

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Society wants to categorize everything, but to me it’s all African-American music. The music isn’t just the notes, it’s the culture—the way Grandma cooked, the way Grandpa told stories, the way the kids walked and talked.

—Johnny Otis

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