Dionne goes to church.
Dionne Warwick, “Up Where We Belong,” live, c. 1985
New Hope Baptist Church, Newark, New Jersey
Ann Drinkard Moss (Dionne’s aunt), Choir Director
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Frankenthaler, December 12, 1928-December 27, 2011
Mountains and Sea (1952)
more favorites from the past year
Wild Flag, live, SXSW (Austin, Texas), 3/11
“Romance” (Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop)
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“Future Crimes” (IFC Crossroads House)
Someday an all-female band will seem no more remarkable than an all-male one.
(Originally posted 10/24/11.)
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She’s going to be a big star someday.
Nneka, live
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted 2/15/11.)
This week we revisit a few favorites from the past year.
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[D]ance first and think afterwards . . . . It’s the natural order.
—Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1953, 1955 [English-language premiere])
Al Minns & Leon James, New York (Savoy Ballroom, Harlem), 1950s
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1940
(Originally posted 1/11/11.)
When I was little, I would go into Chicago to hear live music—Peter, Paul & Mary, Kingston Trio, Beach Boys—with my father. Then, as a teenager, I’d go into the city with my brother Don to hear the Velvet Underground and the MC5, the Who, Tim Hardin and Tim Buckley, Muddy Waters. Now I make these trips with my sons. The other night, for instance, my older son Alex (now 24 and home for the holidays) and I went to the Hideout, a small club on Chicago’s north side, not far from where I once went with my father (now gone) and my brother (now hundreds of miles away), to hear this guy.
Jason Adasiewicz’s Rolldown (JA, vibraphone; Josh Berman, cornet; Aram Shelton, alto saxophone; Jason Roebke, bass; Frank Rosaly, drums), “Hide,” live, c. 2008
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lagniappe
reading table
No, the human heart
Is unknowable.
But in my birthplace
The flowers still smell
The same as always.—Ki no Tsurayuki (872-945; trans. Kenneth Rexroth)
only rock ’n roll
Happy Refugees, “What’s Your Appeal”
Live, New York (Cake Shop), 12/10/11
More? These guys recently did a live studio performance at WFMU-FM (The Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T), which can be heard here.
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lagniappe
art beat: Tuesday at the Art Institute of Chicago (after a hearing at the nearby federal court building)
George Inness (1825-1894), Early Morning, Tarpon Springs (1892)
two takes
Rock ’n roll, like blues, is for old folks too.
Dick Dale (guitar, 1937-), “Nitro”
Live (radio broadcast, KEXP-FM [Seattle]), 12/11/09
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Recording and Video, 1993
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lagniappe
I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure or sensuality. It makes people move their feet and shake their bodies. That’s what music does.
If sounds define a space as much as walls and windows, you don’t need to knock out a wall to open up a room—just play this.
International Contemporary Ensemble with Steve Lehman
Impossible Flow (S. Lehman), live, New York (Le Poisson Rouge), 4/19/11
The moment this ends I want to hear it again. Is there any higher compliment?
More Steve Lehman? Here.
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lagniappe
reading table
A strange old man
Stops me,
Looking out of my deep mirror.—Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (c. 662-710; trans. Kenneth Rexroth)
Janis Joplin, “Get It While You Can” (J. Ragovoy)
Live, TV broadcast (The Dick Cavett Show), 1970
If she had lived, what would she sound like, at 68, today?
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lagniappe
reading table
We shall not ever meet them bearded in heaven,
Nor sunning themselves among the bald of hell;
If anywhere, in the deserted schoolyard at twilight,
Forming a ring, perhaps, or joining hands
In games whose very names we have forgotten.
Come, memory, let us seek them there in the shadows.—Donald Justice, “On the Death of Friends in Childhood”
What a treat to hear a guitar-led group that sounds so fresh.
Nels Cline (guitar) and Friends play the music of Andrew Hill
Live, New York (Jazz Standard), 2007
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature, how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion, the more one will see that it is all music.
music clip of the day 