Tuesday, February 9th
more
PJ Harvey, The Hope Six Demolition Project (album trailer), 2016
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: guitar
2016
Monday, February 8th
what’s new
PJ Harvey, “The Wheel,” 2016
2016
Thursday, January 28th
sounds of Jamaica
Burning Spear, live, Paris, 1988
2016
Wednesday, January 27th
sounds of Mali
Tinariwen with Lalla Badi, “Tinde Final Tinariwen,” live, Paris, 2014
2016
Monday, January 25th
The last time I heard a trumpeter this quiet, this subtle, this interesting was . . . hmmm . . .
Ambrose Akinmusire (ah-kin-MOO-sir-ee) Quintet,* live, Luxembourg (Dudelange), 2014
*****
*AM, trumpet; Charles Atura, guitar; Sam Harris, piano; Harish Raghavan, bass; Justin Brown, drums.
2016
Friday, January 22nd
only rock ‘n’ roll
More of Tenement.
Live, Madison, Wis., 1/15/16
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lagniappe
my back pages
On a cold, snowy night thirty-nine years ago, at a church outside Chicago, tenor saxophonist Von Freeman (MCOTD Hall of Fame) and pianist John Young performed at a wedding ceremony. Both are now gone. All of what they played that night – “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “More” (before); “In a Sentimental Mood” (unaccompanied saxophone, as the bride walked down the aisle); “My Favorite Things,” “Song for My Father” (after) – may be heard here (0:15-).
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
Friday, January 15th
only rock ‘n’ roll
Tenement, “Rock Eating People,” live, Milwaukee, 2014
2016
Monday, January 11th
passings
Friday: “what’s new.”
Saturday: the guys who back him on his new album.
Today: “passings.”
David Bowie, singer, songwriter, January 8, 1947-January 10, 2016
“Blackstar,” 2015
2015
Monday, December 21st
Why start the new week with the same old stuff?
Julia Wolfe (1958-), Believing (2001); Bang on a Can All-Stars, live, South Korea (Tongyeong International Music Festival), 2014
lagniappe
art beat
Regular readers may recognize this drawing, which was posted last year. The artist is a client of mine, Walter Unbehaun, a seventy-something bank robber whose story is told in the January issue of GQ magazine (Kathy Dobie, “The Curious Case of the Homesick Bank Robber”). This drawing makes an appearance:
[H]e’d created a strong bond with his lawyer. He considered ‘Rich’ a friend, giving him two finely wrought pencil sketchings. One was of an ancient and deeply wrinkled Peruvian woman, the other of a plump African woman wearing glasses.
Walter Unbehaun, African Preacher (Kankakee County Jail, 2014)
music clip of the day 