gospel | music clip of the day

Sunday, 7/31/11

hot, adj. having or giving off heat, having a high temperature.
E.g., services at Bishop Perry Tillis’s Alabama church.

Bishop Perry Tillis (1919-2004), preacher, singer, guitarist

Live, Savior Lord Jesus Pentecostal Church
Samson (pop. 2071 [2000]), Alabama, 1995

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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The Bishop Joe Perry Tillis . . . gives Church services every 1st and 3rd Sundays at the Our Saviour Jesus Holiness Pentecostal Church in Samson, Alabama, playing electric slide-guitar, singing, and talking through one scratchy amplifier. He preaches the Pentecost and uses a combination of testimonies and extended hymns he developed with the help of his guiding angels, his daughter, and good friend Sister Bertha Lee Baker.

—Steve Grauberger (1995)

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Sunday, 7/24/11

Last Sunday they sounded so good—let’s hear some more.

The Staple Singers, “On My Way To Heaven,” “Going Away,” “I’m Leaning,”
“I Know I Got Religion”; Uncloudy Day (Vee-Jay), 1959

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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lagniappe

listening room: (some of) what’s playing

• Muhal Richard Abrams (with Malachi Favors), Sightsong (Black Saint)

• King Oliver, Off the Record: The Complete 1923 Jazz Band Recordings (Off the Record/Archeophone)

• Beethoven, Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 (“Eroica”)/ Arturo Toscanini, conductor, NBC Symphony Orchestra (RCA)

• Bach, Cello Suites, Steven Isserlis (Hyperion UK)

• Morton Feldman, For Bunita Marcus, Stephane Ginsburgh, piano (Sub Rosa) (available as a download from Amazon for 89¢)

• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Traditions in Swing (Phil Schaap, jazz)
—Afternoon New Music (Various, classical and hard-to-peg)
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)
—Raag Aur Taal (Various, Indian music)

• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)

*****

reading table

Here are a couple cheery things (ha, ha) from a favorite poet.

John Berryman, Two Dream Songs

More? Here. And here.

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2011

Sunday, 7/17/11

The right music, heard at the right moment, can change your whole day.

The Staple Singers, “I’m Coming Home” (Vee-Jay), 1959

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Happy Birthday, Lionel!

Today trumpet player Lionel Ferbos, who was born when William Howard Taft was president and tonight can be heard at New Orleans’ Palm Court Jazz Cafe, turns 100.

The Lionel Ferbos Band, “When You’re Smiling”
Live, New Orleans (Norwegian Seamen’s Church), 8/28/09

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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For some years, trumpeter Lionel Ferbos has been touted as the oldest active jazz musician in New Orleans. Come this weekend, he’ll qualify for another honorific: The only active jazz musician in New Orleans whose age has crossed into triple digits.

John McCusker / The Times-Picayune
Lionel Ferbos, photographed in May 2011.

Ferbos first learned trumpet in 1926, at age 15, inspired by seeing Phil Spitalny and his All-Girl Orchestra at the Orpheum Theater. He played in 1930s bands led by Captain John Handy and Walter “Fats” Pichon. He worked on a crew digging a City Park lagoon before getting hired for a Depression-era Works Progress Administration band, making around $13 a week.

Sheetmetal work eventually paid the bills, even as he continued to moonlight as a musician. He joined Lars Edegran’s New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra in the early 1970s, which toured in Europe, and in 1979 played trumpet and sang in the touring musical “One Mo’ Time.” He has maintained a regular gig at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe on Decatur Street for more than two decades.

—Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune, 7/13/11

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2011

Sunday, 7/10/11

Think you can listen to this just once?

Pilgrim Travelers, “Straight Street” (1955)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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2011

Sunday, 7/3/11

This guy I can’t get enough of.

Vernard Johnson, “Don’t Wait ’Til The Battle Is Over, Shout Now!”; live, TV broadcast (Bobby Jones Gospel)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Time for just one note? 6:23.

More? Here. And here.

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lagniappe

art beat

Lee Friedlander, Cherry Blossom Time in Japan (2006)

*****

reading table

Yesterday, opening my Emily Dickinson collection (The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin) at random, I came upon this.

We do not play on Graves —
Because there isn’t Room —
Besides — it isn’t even — it slants
And People come —

And put a Flower on it —
And hang their faces so —
We’re fearing that their Hearts will drop —
And crush our pretty play —

And so we move as far
As Enemies — away —
Just looking round to see how far
It is — Occasionally —

—Emily Dickinson (#599)

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*****

listening room: what’s playing

• Echocord Jubilee Comp. (Echocord)

• Art Ensemble of Chicago, Full Force (ECM)

• Art Ensemble of Chicago, Urban Bushmen (ECM)

• Paul Motian (with Lee Konitz, soprano & alto saxophones; Joe Lovano, tenor saxophone; Bill Frisell, guitar; Charlie Haden, bass), On Broadway Vol. 3 (Winter & Winter)

• Rebirth Brass Band, Feel Like Funkin’ It Up (Rounder)

• Marc Ribot, Silent Movies (Pi Recordings)

• Wadada Leo Smith, Kabell Years: 1971-1979 (Tzadik)

• Charles “Baron” Mingus, West Coast, 1945-49 (Uptown Jazz)

• John Alexander’s Sterling Jubilee Singers, Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb (New World Records)

• Rev. Johnny L. Jones, The Hurricane That Hit Atlanta (Dust-to-Digital)

• Elliott Carter, composer; Ursula Oppens, piano; Oppens Plays Carter (Cedille)

• Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, composers; Maurizio Pollini, piano, piano works (Schoenberg), Variations Op. 27 (Webern) (Deutsche Grammophon)

• Morton Feldman, For Bunita Marcus, Stephane Ginsburgh, piano (Sub Rosa)

• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Traditions in Swing (Phil Schaap, jazz)
—Daybreak Express (Various, jazz)
—Out to Lunch (Various, jazz)
—Jazz Profiles (Various, jazz)
—Jazz Alternatives (Various, jazz)
—Morning Classical (Various, classical)
—Afternoon New Music (Various, classical and hard-to-peg)
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)

• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Give The Drummer Some (Doug Schulkind, sui generis)
—Downtown Soulville with Mr. Fine Wine (soul)

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2011

Sunday, 6/26/11

two takes

The Mighty Clouds of Joy, “I Made A Step,” live

Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 1981

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Nashville, 2005

Vodpod videos no longer available.

More? Here. And here.

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lagniappe

Greatest musical intersection in the world?

Chicago’s South Side, W. 36th St. (Honorary Sam Cooke Way, as of this month) and S. Cottage Grove Ave. (Honorary Albertina Walker & The Caravans Drive)

Photo credit: Bob Marovich, The Black Gospel Blog

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2011

Sunday, 6/19/11

Gospel, soul, blues—sometimes they seem inseparable.

Willie Banks and The Messengers, live, Mississippi (Jackson), 1990

“Things I Can’t Change”

***

“God Is Still In Charge”

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lagniappe

listening room: what’s playing

• Talib Kweli, Gutter Rainbows (Javotti Media/3d)

• Art Ensemble of Chicago, Full Force (ECM)

• Anthony Braxton Quartet, (GTM) 2006 (Important Records)

• John Coltrane (with Rashied Ali), Interstellar Space (Impulse!)

• The Lester Young/Count Basie Sessions (1936-1940) (Mosaic)

• Various Artists, Ska Bonanza: The Studio One Ska Years (Heartbeat)

• Stefan Wolpe: Compositions for Piano (1920-1952), David Holzman, piano (Bridge)

• Ann Southam: Simple Lines of Enquiry, Eve Egoyan, piano (Centrediscs)

• Morton Feldman, For Bunita Marcus, Stephane Ginsburgh, piano (Sub Rosa); John Tilbury, piano, Morton Feldman, All Piano (London HALL)

• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Traditions in Swing (Phil Schaap, jazz)
—Out to Lunch (Various, jazz)
—Jazz Profiles (Various, jazz)
—Jazz Alternatives (Various, jazz)
—Afternoon New Music (Various, classical and hard-to-peg)
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)
—Rag Aur Taal (Various, Indian)
—Morning Ragas (Various, Indian)
—Amazing Grace (Various, gospel)
—Live Constructions (Various, hard-to-peg)

• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Give The Drummer Some (Doug Schulkind, sui generis)
—Transpacific Sound Paradise (Rob Weisberg, “popular and unpopular music from around the world”)
—Daniel Blumin (sui generis)
—Airborne Event (Dan Boodah, sui generis)
—The Push Bin with Lou (Lou Z., sui generis)

*****

art beat

One of the great things about having friends is that they invite you to things you’d never get to, or even know about, otherwise—like, for instance, this wonderful exhibit of illustrated architecture books (dating from 1511), something I wouldn’t have gotten to but for my friend Bob Blythe.

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2011

Sunday, 6/12/11

coming to a theater near you

Rejoice and Shout (2011)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Yo, Michael—thanks for the heads-up!)

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art beat

Here’s another image from the book featured yesterday.

Lee Friedlander, Kyoto, Japan, 1977

*****

taking a break

I’m taking a little break (my first since December)—back soon.

While I’m away, why not enjoy, oh, Amadou & Mariam and Ornette Coleman and Hound Dog Taylor and Solomon playing Beethoven’s Appassionata sonata and Solomon Burke and Del Shannon and . . . ?

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2011

Sunday, 6/5/11

Some folks sing when they speak.

Bishop Robert Manley, Jr., Bethesda Temple Church of the Living God, Frankfort, Kentucky, 2008

Part 1

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Part 2

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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musical thoughts

I think there are certain aspects of music which do not have any equivalent in speech, in particular the pulse of music, the steady rhythm, and its synchronization with movement.

—Oliver Sacks, M.D.

With all due respect to Dr. Sacks (whom I admire greatly), I think maybe he should get out more often—to, for instance, churches in Harlem.

*****

listening room: what’s playing

• Professor Longhair, Crawfish Fiesta (Alligator); House Party New Orleans Style (Rounder); No Buts, No Maybes: The 1949-1957 Recordings (Hoodoo Records)

• Arthur Russell, Calling Out Of Context (Audika)

• Theo Parrish, Sound Sculptures Volume 1 (Sound Signature)

• Eddie Jefferson at Ali’s Alley with Rashied Ali Quintet (Blue Music Group)

• Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet, Tabligh (Cuneiform)

• Henry Grimes & Rashied Ali, Going To The Ritual (Porter Records)

• Paul Motian, Lost In A Dream (ECM) (with Chris Potter, Jason Moran); Rarum (ECM); Garden of Eden (ECM); Time and Time Again (ECM) (with Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell)

• Jason Moran, Ten (Blue Note)

• Various Artists, Gospel Music (Hyena Records)

• The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi: 1947-1954 (Acrobat)

• Brother Claude Ely, Ain’t No Grave (Dust-to-Digital)

• The Skatalites, Ball of Fire (Island)

• Tinariwen: Imidiwan: Companions (World Village)

• Ali Akbar Khan, Peerless (Navras)

• Bach: Cello Suites, Nos. 1-3, Jean-Guinen Queyras (Harmonia Mundi)

• Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 15, Borodin Quartet (BMG Classics/Melodiya)

• Music of Stefan Wolpe: Volume Six, David Holzman (Bridge Records)

• Gyorgy Ligeti: String Quartets and Duets, Arditti String Quartet (Sony)

• Morton Feldman: For Bunita Marcus, Stephane Ginsburgh (Sub Rosa); John Tilbury, Morton Feldman, All Piano (London HALL)

• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Out to Lunch (Various, jazz)
—Afternoon New Music (Various, classical and hard-to-peg)
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)

• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Give The Drummer Some (Doug Schulkind, sui generis)
—Reggae Schoolhouse (Jeff Sarge)
—Transpacific Sound Paradise (Rob Weisberg, “popular and unpopular music from around the world”)
—Daniel Blumin (sui generis)
—Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona (live sets)

*****

mail

Richard:

Thanks and despite its brevity it is quite touching.

David [Holzman, in response to an email letting him know that he was featured here yesterday]