Great Dylan covers? The list is surprisingly short. There’s Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower.” And Johnny Winter’s “Highway 61 Revisited.” And this.
Antony and the Johnsons, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (B. Dylan)
sounds of New Orleans
Why would anyone want to live anywhere else?
To Be Continued (TBC) Brass Band, live, New Orleans, 2012
MCOTD Hall of Fame
Henry Threadgill’s Zooid,* live, Washington, D.C., 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
Nothings’s a Gift
by Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012; translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak)Nothing’s a gift, it’s all on loan.
I’m drowning in debts up to my ears.
I’ll have to pay for myself
with my self,
give up my life for my life.Here’s how it’s arranged:
The heart can be repossessed,
the liver, too,
and each single finger and toe.Too late to tear up the terms,
my debts will be repaid,
and I’ll be fleeced,
or, more precisely, flayed.I move about the planet
in a crush of other debtors.
Some are saddled with the burden
of paying off their wings.
Others must, willy-nilly,
account for every leaf.Every tissue in us lies
on the debit side.
Not a tentacle or tendril
is for keeps.The inventory, infinitely detailed,
implies we’ll be left
not just empty-handed
but handless too.I can’t remember
where, when, and why
I let someone open
this account in my name.We call the protest against this
the soul.
And it’s the only item
not included on the list.
*****
the beat goes on
Two thousand posts—and counting.
*****
*HT (flute, alto saxophone), Liberty Ellman (guitar), Jose Davila (tuba, trombone), Christopher Hoffman (cello), Elliot Humberto Kavee (drums).
sounds of New York
Meredith Monk, “Last Song”
Live, New York (Joe’s Pub), 2005
***
Recording (Impermanence), 2008
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Who is this guy who keeps talking, talking, talking inside my head?
sounds of Mali
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba, “Siran Fen,” 2015
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lagniappe
reading table
my rice field too
song by song
is planted—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
*****
The Beatles (Comiskey Park). The Who (Kinetic Playground). The Velvet Underground (Kinetic Playground). The MC5 (Lincoln Park). Bob Marley (Quiet Knight). The list goes on and on. My musical life is unimaginable without the experiences I’ve had with my brother Don, who turns 65 today. Happy Birthday!
sounds of Niger
Mdou Moctar, “à la maison,” live, Niger (Ingall), 2013
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lagniappe
reading table
Neither question nor assertion makes sense / when truth is a tone of voice.
—Karen Solie, “Interior” (The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out)
How about something new?
PRISM Quartet and Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), excerpts from “15 Places at the Same Time” (S. Lehman), live, Philadelphia, 2014
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lagniappe
reading table
There’s a reason it’s called the nervous / system.
—Karen Solie, “Ode” (The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out)
sounds of Brazil
Gilberto Gil, live (TV show), Brazil, 1994
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Of us they are sublimely oblivious—birds.
*****
taking a break
I’m taking some time off—back in a while.
Whether you live for 50 years, 500 years, or 5,000 years, it makes no difference: always there are new things to hear.
Dieter Ammann (1962-), Violation (1999); Lemanic Modern Ensemble (William Blank, cond.) with Karolina Öhman, cello; live, Russia (St. Petersburg), 2014
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The old pond—
a frog jumps in,
sound of water.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
ten strings, twenty fingers
Stephan Crump (bass) & Mary Halvorson (guitar), “Erie” (S. Crump), live, New York, 4/17/15
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Life consists of driving a vehicle you didn’t design, one that came without an owner’s manual, until one day it runs off the road and winds up in a ditch.
music clip of the day 