Monday, 9/17/12
street music: London
Dave Crowe, beatbox, 2011
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: England
2012
Wednesday, 8/29/12
who you’d be swept away by—right now—
if you were a 24-year-old male*
Jessie Ware, live, London, 7/18/12
“Night Light”
***
“Taking In Water”
***
“Running”
**********
lagniappe
radio: final day of WKCR’s Pres-&-Bird Birthday Marathon
*****
*Based on a sample of one—my son Alex.
2012
Thursday, 8/23/12
Music, for some people, is no less vital than oxygen.
James Rhodes, talking and playing (2010)
**********
lagniappe
reading table
To Praise the Music
by William Bronk (1918-1999)
Evening. The trees in late winter bare
against the sky. Still light, the sky.
Trees dark against it. A few leaves
on the trees. Tension in their rigid branches as if
–oh, it is all as if, but as if, yes,
as if they sang songs, as if they praised.
Oh, I envy them. I know the songs.
As if I know some other things besides.
As if; but I don’t know, not more
than to say the trees know. The trees don’t know
and neither do I. What is it keeps me from praise?
I praise. If only to say their songs,
say yes to them, to praise the songs they sing.
Envied music. I sing to praise their song.
(Want to hear Bronk, a MCOTD Hall of Famer, read this? Here.)
*****
art beat: more from Tuesday’s stop at the Art Institute of Chicago
Roy Lichtenstein, Mirror #3 (Six Panels) (1971)
2012
Tuesday, 4/24/12
not for the faint of heart
Phil Minton (vocals), Mats Gustafsson (baritone saxophone), John Russell (guitar), live, London (Cafe Oto), 2010
**********
lagniappe
art beat: Sunday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Seascape, 1879
Sometimes, when posting an image of a painting, I wonder: “Why bother?” No art form resists reproduction more successfully.
2011
Saturday, 2/26/11
If making mindless music is so easy, how come so few do it well?
Ramones, live, London, 1977
#1
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
#2
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
#3
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
lagniappe
reading table
Life on Earth is quite a bargain.
Dreams, for one, don’t charge admission.
Illusions are costly only when they’re lost.
The body has its own installment plan.—Wislawa Szymborska, “Here” (excerpt; trans. Clare Cavanagh & Stanislaw Baranczak)
2011
Friday, 1/21/11
two takes
. . . the most beautiful song in the English language.
“Waterloo Sunset” (Ray Davies)
The Kinks, live, 1973 (TV broadcast), England
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Ray Davies, live, 2010, England (Glastonbury)
Vodpod videos no longer available.2011
Thursday, 1/13/11
Talking with a Jamaican-born client, I mention Gregory Isaacs’ passing.
He responds, “He died too?”
Sugar Minott, May 25, 1956-July 10, 2010
1983:”Rough Ole Life (Babylon),” Reggae Sunsplash, Jamaica
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
2009: Rehearsal, Lovers Rock Gala Awards, England
“Lovers Rock”
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
“Good Thing Going”
Vodpod videos no longer available.2009
Tuesday, 9/29/09
With a big shout-out to my older son Alex, here—on his birthday (22!)—is a small sampling of the music he’s opened my ears to.
*****
The Very Best
Here’s something he emailed me just last week—new sounds out of Africa (by way of England).
The Very Best, “Julia”
*****
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Here’s a show he saw over the summer, while living in New York.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, live, NYC (South Street Seaport), 7/09
“Come Saturday”
***
“Everything With You”
***
“The Pains of Being Pure at Heart”
*****
Amadou & Mariam
I might have gotten around to Amadou & Mariam sooner or later on my own, but thanks to Alex—who played me their (wonderful) album Dimanche a Bamako a few years ago—I got to this Malian duo sooner. (He and I saw them together, at Chicago’s Park West, in May, just a few months after this performance.)
Amadou & Mariam, “Sebeke,” live, Paris, 2008
*****
Talib Kweli
Several years ago, thanks to Alex, I first heard this hip-hop artist’s (terrific) album Quality.
Talib Kweli, “Get By,” live, NYC, 2007
Want to hear the original studio track? Here. (Yeah, that’s Kanye at 1:20 and again at 3:24—he produced this track.)
(For all you hip-hop-&-law trivia buffs, Kweli’s the answer to the following question: What hip-hop artist has a brother who’s a professor at a top law school? [Jamal Greene, Columbia].)
**********
lagniappe
Want to see the world (bits and pieces of it, anyway) through the eyes of one now-22-year-old? Here. Here. Here.
music clip of the day 