Where classical music, as we heard the other day (remembering Elliott Carter), has the concerto, gospel has the soloist and choir.
Jennifer Hudson & Chapter 2 Gospel Singers, “Changed” (W. Hawkins)
Live, New York (Harlem), 2005
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lagniappe
reading table
Deep autumn—
my neighbor,
how does he live, I wonder?—Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
two takes
Whatever it is, this guy’s got it.
Isaiah Owens, “You Without Sin Cast the First Stone”
Recording, 2004
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Live (with talk), New York, 2004 (trailer, Pray and Get Ready, scheduled for 2013 release)
A reader writes:
Have you seen these films?
Furry Lewis, guitar
William Eggleston, Stranded in Canton (1973-74)
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More?
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“Election Day”
By William Carlos Williams (1940)Warm sun, quiet air
an old man sitsin the doorway of
a broken house—boards for windows
plaster fallingfrom between the stones
and strokes the headof a spotted dog
three takes
“Move On Up A Little Higher” (W. Herbert Brewster)
Mahalia Jackson, radio broadcast, early 1950s
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Brother Joe May, live, early 1950s
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Rev. Timothy Flemming Sr., live, Atlanta, 1976
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (with my son Alex)
Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee, In the Street (1948), featured in the exhibit Film and Photo in New York (through 11/25/12)
(For better quality go to the “Settings” icon [lower right] and select 480p.)
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random thoughts
Sixty years ago today Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected the thirty-fourth President of the United States and, closer to home, my parents’ second son was born. What’s it like turning sixty? Surprising. But no more surprising, I suppose, than finding oneself entwined, in perpetuity, with Ike.
It must have been a comfort, when she was dying, to be able to say to her son, whose trumpet she’d heard since he was a little boy, these are the songs I want you to play at my memorial service.
Dave Douglas Quintet* with guest Aoife O’Donovan (vocal), “Be Still My Soul” (words by Katharina A. von Schlegel, adapted by Aoife O’Donovan, music by Jean Sibelius, arranged by Dave Douglas), recording session (Be Still, 2012)
*DD, trumpet; Jon Irabagon, saxophone; Matt Mitchell, piano; Linda Oh, bass; Rudy Royston, drums.
Nearly forty years have passed since I first heard him; still I can’t get enough.
Vernard Johnson, “Amazing Grace,” live, Memphis, 1988
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Life tears us apart, but through those wounds, if we have tended them, love may enter us.
—Christian Wiman, “Mortify Our Wolves,” The American Scholar, Autumn, 2012
Here are a couple more takes on a song we heard the other day.
“I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray”
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, 1909 (first known recording)
*****
Wiley College A Cappella Choir, live, 2010
The Shores at Wesley Manor, Ocean City, New Jersey
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musical thoughts
“Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray; couldn’t hear nobody pray; way down yonder by myself; couldn’t hear nobody pray.” This “spiritual” was sung as part of a brilliant system of signals devised by men and women attempting an escape from the clutches of American slavery. The song’s coded meaning was, “An escape attempt has failed. We’re all trying to re-group, emotionally and spiritually.”
(http://ctl.du.edu/spirituals/freedom/coded.cfm).
The unfortunate persons singing this lament found themselves in imminent danger. Their best plans toward freedom had not worked; and there existed an immediate need for help, for direction, for protection, for divine intervention. They needed to hear somebody pray!
Bobby testifies.
The Womack Brothers (with Bobby, then 17, on lead vocal), “Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray” (SAR Records [Sam Cooke’s label]; rec. 6/28/1961, Universal Recording Studios, Chicago)
*****
The next year, as the Valentinos, they recorded this.
The Valentinos (with Bobby on lead vocal), “Lookin’ For A Love” (SAR Records, 1962)
Some folks sing with their feet.
Duke Ellington Orchestra, Bunny Briggs (dance), Jon Hendricks (vocal), “David Danced Before the Lord with All His Might,” live, San Francisco (Grace Cathedral), 1965
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And David danced before the Lord with all his might . . .
—2 Samuel 6:14 (King James)
music clip of the day 