Sunday, October 18th
timeless
Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945), “God Don’t Never Change,” 1929
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: guitar
2020
Saturday, October 17th
what’s new
William Parker Trio (WP, bass; Ava Mendoza, guitar; Gerald Cleaver, drums), live (performance begins at 3:10), New York (live-streamed by Skopje Jazz Festival, North Macedonia), 10/15/20
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
*****
reading table
Now is the time to experiment, and there is no choice but to experiment.
—Gustavo Dudamel (1981-), Music & Artistic Director, Los Angeles Philharmonic (quoted in Alex Ross, “The L.A. Philharmonic’s Emotional Return to an Empty Hollywood Bowl,” New Yorker, 9/28/20)
2020
Saturday, September 5th
soundtrack to a dream I’d love to have
Jon Hassell (1937-, trumpet), “Sketches of the Mediterranean” (with Paolo Fresu, trumpet, flugelhorn; Rick Cox, guitar; Kheir-Eddine M’Kachiche, violin; Peter Freeman, bass), live, France (Junas), 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
*****
reading table
a knotwood-eating bug
likes what it likes . . .
evening dew—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue
2020
Thursday, August 20th
two takes
Oliver Messiaen (1908-1992), O sacrum convivium (1937)
Susan Alcorn (1953-, pedal steel guitar), live, 2011
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Ensemble Aedes, live, France (Compiègne), 2013
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
So you must not be frightened . . . if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloud-shadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any agitation, any pain, any melancholy, since you really do not know what these states are working upon you?
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Letters to a Young Poet (1929, translated from German by M.D. Herter Norton)
2020
Monday, August 10th
two takes
“Cold, Cold Feeling” (J. M. Robinson)
T-Bone Walker (1910-1975, vocals, guitar), 1952
*****
Albert Collins (1932-1993, vocals, guitar), 1978
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my back pages
The other day, on Spotify, I saw that this track—something I co-produced in another life—had over 4 million plays. If someone had told me, when we were working on this album, that someday it would “stream” to millions of listeners, I would have wondered: What are you smoking?
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
2020
Saturday, August 8th
Feeling inert?
Not anymore.
Tomeka Reid Quartet (TR, cello; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Jason Roebke, bass; Tomas Fujiwara, drums), “Old New” (T. Reid), 2019
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)
*****
reading table
On these southern roads,
on shrine or thatched roof, all the same,
swallows everywhere—Yosa Buson (1716-1784), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
2020
Friday, August 7th
what’s new
Lucinda Williams, “Bad News Blues,” “Big Black Train,” “You Can’t Rule Me,” “Man Without A Soul,” live, Nashville, published 7/27/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2020
Friday, July 31st
Something sweet for the strangest summer ever.
Bill Frisell (guitar) with Greg Leisz (pedal steel guitar), Tony Scherr (bass), Kenny Wollesen (drums), “Surfer Girl” (B. Wilson), live, France (Nevers), 2014
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Brilliant moon,
is it true that you too
must pass in a hurry—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
2020
Wednesday, July 29th
basement jukebox
Otis Rush (1934-2018, vocals, guitar), “All Your Love (I Miss Loving)” (O. Rush), 1959
If you take the words from ‘Black Magic Woman’ and just leave the rhythm, it’s ‘All Your Love’—it’s Otis Rush.
—Carlos Santana
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Roads run forever
Under feet forever
Falling away
Yet, it may happen that you
Come to the same place again
Stay! You could not do
Anything more certain—
Here you can wait forever
And rejoice at your arrival—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011)
2020
Tuesday, July 28th
passings
Peter Green, guitarist, singer, songwriter, October 29, 1946–July 25, 2020
Fleetwood Mac (with Peter Green, vocals, guitar), “Black Magic Woman” (P. Green), live, Boston, 1970
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
