Sunday, 7/1/12
Tearing it up on TV
Five Blind Boys of Mississippi (feat. Henry Johnson)
TV Gospel Time, 1960s
“Lord You’ve Been Good To Me”
***
“Leaning On The Everlasting Arms”
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: gospel
2012
2012
Sunday, 6/24/12
I don’t want to hear nobody but the drums . . .
—Shirley Caesar
Shirley Caesar (with guests, including Ira Tucker [Dixie Hummingbirds] at 5:30-), “I Feel Like Praising Him,” live
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
It’s always difficult to remember what your name is when you’re in the midst of all this music.
—Daniel Blumin, WFMU-FM, last night’s show
2012
Sunday, 6/17/12
four takes
“I’ll Fly Away,” Albert E. Brumley, 1929 (publ. 1932)
Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley
Live (TV show), 1980
***
The Caravans (feat. Shirley Caesar)
Recording, 1964
***
Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley
Live, Virginia (Coeburn), 1970s (?)
***
Aretha Franklin
Live (Albertina Walker’s home-going service), Chicago, 2010
(This last clip was originally posted on 10/24/10, shortly after Albertina Walker, the leader of the Caravans, passed away.)
2012
Sunday, 6/10/12
Aretha’s father
Rev. C. L. Franklin (1915-1984), live, Dallas
“The Doors of the Church Are Open”/“I Will Trust in the Lord”
(recording ends at 5:55)
One thing I love about this is the ease with which he slides into and out of song (1:20, 2:25, 2:50, etc.). (Or is it all song?)
More? Here.
*****
taking a break
I’m going to take some time off—back in a bit.
2012
Sunday, 5/27/12
two takes
The Mighty Clouds of Joy (feat. Joe Ligon, lead vocals)
“Steal Away To Jesus”
TV show (TV Gospel Time), early 1960s
***
Live, South Carolina (Charleston), 1996
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at Harvard’s Sackler Museum (Cambridge, Mass.)
Lyonel Feinenger, Black Ice and Fog on the Burgkuhnauer Allee, November 1928
2012
Sunday, 5/20/12
three takes
“Trials, Troubles, Tribulations” (E.C. Ball)
(AKA “Tribulations”)
Andrew Bird
Live, Nashville (Grimey’s New & Preloved Music), 2009
***
Wayne Henderson, Martha Spencer & Jackson Cunningham
Live, Maryland (Rockville), 2010
***
E.C. Ball & Lacey Richardson
Recording (Alan Lomax), 1959-60
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lagniappe
listening room: (some of) what’s playing
• Face A Frowning World: An E.C. Ball Memorial Album (Tompkins Square)
• Merle Haggard, If I Could Only Fly (Anti- Records)
• The Canton Spirituals, The Live Experience 1999 (Verity Records)
• Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests, Moa Anbessa (Terp Records)
• Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell, Tony Williams, Arcana (DIW Records)
• Peter Brotzmann Octet, Machine Gun (FMP)
• Peter Brotzmann Sextet & Quartet, Nipples (Atavistic Records/Unheard Music Series)
• Miles Davis Quintet, Live in Europe 1967 (Columbia)
• Cecil Taylor European Orchestra, Alms/Tiergarten (Spree) (FMP)
• Alfred Cortot, piano, The Master Pianist (EMI, Icon Series)
• Nathan Milstein, violin, J.S. Bach: Sonatas & Partitas (Deutsche Grammaphon)
• Arnold Schoenberg, Das Klavierwerk, Peter Serkin, piano (Arcana)
• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)
• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Cherry Blossom Clinic (Terre T, rock, etc.)
—Fool’s Paradise (Rex; “Vintage rockabilly, R & B, blues, vocal groups, garage, instrumentals, hillbilly, soul and surf”)
—Downtown Soulville (Mr. Fine Wine, soul, etc.)
• WHPK-FM (broadcasting from University of Chicago)
—The Blues Excursion (Arkansas Red)
2012
Sunday, 5/13/12
Happy Mother’s Day!
“If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again” (J. Whitfield, 1922)
three takes
Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama (2004)
***
The Zion Travelers (1954)
***
The Gay Sisters (1951)
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Happy Birthday, Luke!
Twenty-one? It may be true; but, still, it’s impossible.
2012
Sunday, 5/6/12
back to church
The Canton Spirituals
Live, Memphis, 1993
“Heavenly Choir”
***
“Fix It Jesus”
***
Gospel groups are hard to beat when it comes to longevity. This one got started, in Canton, Mississippi, in 1943. One of the founding members, Harvey Watkins, Sr., is featured here. He passed away in 1994; his son, lead singer Harvey Watkins, Jr., carries on today.
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lagniappe
reading table
my child’s rice cakes
my child’s rice cakes . . .
all in a row—Kobayashi Issa, 1813 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2012
Sunday, 4/29/12
Let’s go to church.
“Until I Die,” Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., 2001
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lagniappe
reading table
On the Death of Friends in Childhood
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 (Collected Poems, 2004)
***
“[We find] it impossible, when we have to analyze death, to imagine it in terms other than those of life.”
—Marcel Proust, The Fugitive (translated from French by Peter Collier)
*****
listening room: (some of) what’s playing
• The Dirtbombs, Ultraglide In Black (In the Red Records)
• Wild Flag (Merge Records)
• That’s What They Want: The Best of Jerry McCain (Excello)
• The Best of Slim Harpo (Hip-O)
• Ambrose Akinmusire, When the Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note)
• Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, I Only Have Eyes For You (ECM)
• Anthony Braxton, 9 Compositions (Iridium)
• Chicago Tentet, American Landscapes 1 & 2 (Okka)
• Steve Lehman Octet, Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi Recordings)
• Joe McPhee, Nation Time (Unheard Music Series)
• Weasel Walter, Mary Halvorson, Peter Evans, Electric Fruit (Thirsty Ear)
• J. Berg’s Royal Rarities Vols. 2-3; A Cappella Archives, Vol. 3; Gospel Goldies, Vol. 2 (Rare Gospel)
• The Fisk Jubilee Quartet, There Breathes A Hope (Archeophone)
• This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African-American Gospel On 45 RPM 1957-1982 (Tompkins Square)
• Bach, Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, Pierre Fournier, (Archiv Production/DG)
• Mozart, Piano Sonatas Nos. 16 and 17, Peter Serkin, piano (Pro Arte)
• Arnold Schoenberg, Das Klavierwerk, Peter Serkin, piano (Arcana)
• The Art of Joseph Szigeti (Biddulph Recordings)
• Anton Webern, Five Movements For String Quartet, Op. 5; Six Bagatelles For String Quartet, Op. 9; String Quartet, Op. 28; Quartetto Italiano (Philips)
• Anton Webern, Complete Works for String Quartet and String Trio, Artis Quartet Wien (Nimbus)
• Music of Stefan Wolpe, Vol. 6, David Holzman, piano (Bridge)
• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Traditions in Swing (Phil Schaap, jazz)
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)
—Rag Aur Taal (various, Indian)
• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Cherry Blossom Clinic (Terre T, rock, etc.)
—Fool’s Paradise (Rex; “Vintage rockabilly, R & B, blues, vocal groups, garage, instrumentals, hillbilly, soul and surf”)
• WHPK-FM (broadcasting from University of Chicago)
—The Blues Excursion (Arkansas Red)
*****
radio
Happy Birthday, Duke!
music clip of the day 