Sunday, February 14th
two takes
“Homegoing” (AKA “When You Hear of My Home Going”)
Victoria Hawkins, c. 1960
***
Lucinda Greene, live, Grand Prairie, Tx. (St. John Baptist Church), 2013
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: gospel
2016
2016
Sunday, February 7th
sounds of Chicago
Jubilee Showcase (TV show), Chicago, 1963-1984
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2016
Sunday, January 31st
sounds of Chicago
Thompson Community Singers, “Christ Is the Answer,” TV show (Jubilee Showcase), 1960s
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lagniappe
reading table
I stepped from Plank to Plank
A slow and cautious way
The Stars about my Head I felt
About my Feet the Sea –I knew not but the next
Would be my final inch –
This gave me that precarious Gait
Some call Experience –—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #926 (Franklin)
*****
I’m taking a break—back in a while.
2016
Sunday, January 24th
testify!
Inez Andrews (1929-2012), James Cleveland (1931-1991), “I Appreciate,” live
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lagniappe
reading table
Don’t you love the Oxford dictionary? When I first read it I thought it was a really really long poem about everything.
—David Bowie (1947-2016)
*****
random thoughts
Note to self: Incline, always, toward the light.
2016
Sunday, January 17th
More of Otis Clay, who died the other day.
The Gospel Songbirds (Otis Clay [right]; Maurice Dollison, aka Cash McCall [left], 1941-), “I Believe,” live (Jubilee Showcase), 1964, Chicago
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lagniappe
reading table
There was very little time for small talk, so I said, ‘Does God exist?’
—James Tate (1943-2015), “The Wrong Wedding” (Dome of the Hidden Pavilion, 2015)
2016
Sunday, January 10th
passings
Otis Clay, singer, February 11, 1942-January 8, 2016
“When the Gates Swing Open,” live, Chicago (Christian Tabernacle Church)
*****
My life always has been a combination of things musically. . . . Every Saturday night I listened to the Grand Ole Opry. . . . During the day, later on, you listened to (radio) coming out of Memphis. During the noonday, at 12 o’clock, we listened to (blues pioneer) Sonny Boy Williamson, coming out of Helena, Ark. (And) I’m listening to Vaughn Monroe and Rosemary Clooney and listening to Hank Williams and Roy Acuff.
***
Chicago is just a suburb of Mississippi.
—Otis Clay (Chicago Tribune obituary, January 9, 2016)
2016
Sunday, January 3rd
Aretha’s daddy
One of these days, the cloud will be lifted . . .
—Rev. C. L. Franklin
Rev. C. L. Franklin, live, Detroit
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lagniappe
reading table
The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that ships are sometimes wrecked.
—Simone Weil (1909-1943), “The Love of God and Affliction” (translated from French by Richard Rees)
*****
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
the beat goes on
2,200 posts—and counting.
2015
Sunday, December 27th
more
Mighty Clouds of Joy (feat. Joe Ligon, lead vocals), “I Know I’ve Been Changed,” live, South Carolina (Charleston), mid-1990s
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lagniappe
reading table
most end up
stuck in mud . . .
cherry blossoms—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue
2015
Sunday, December 20th
old school
Mighty Clouds of Joy, “I’m Glad About It,” live, Houston, 1967
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Sometimes I have good nights, and sometimes I have bad nights. One never knows.
—tenor saxophonist, and MCOTD Hall of Famer, Von Freeman (1923-2012)
2015
Sunday, December 13th
Hearing this voice, from a gone world, gives me goosebumps.
Vera Hall, “Death Is Awful,” live, Livingston, Ala., 1939
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day 