passings
DJ Rashad, October 9, 1979-April 26, 2014
Live, Chicago (Pitchfork Music Festival), 2013
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“I Don’t Give A Fuck” (sampling Tupac Shakur’s dialogue in Juice), 2013
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“I’m Gone” (remixing Gil Scott-Heron’s “Home Is Where The Hatred Is”), 2011
sounds of Chicago
Oshwa, “Old Man Skies,” live (recording session), Chicago, 2013
alone
There are all kinds of lullabies.
Tamio Shiraishi (alto saxophone), live, New York, 1/26/14, 1 a.m.
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Yesterday, while I was shopping at Trader Joe’s, a youthful Mick Jagger jumped out of the speakers. “I can’t get no . . . satisfaction . . .” In 1965, when I was twelve years old, if someone had said that in 2014 this would be the soundtrack to buying grapefruit, I would have thought they were nuts. “When I’m drivin’ in my car and that man comes on the radio . . .” Sometimes I wish my generation would just get the hell off the stage.
alone
Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), “Stake,” live, Chicago, 2009
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lagniappe
reading table
Dream Song 1
By John Berryman (1914-1972)Huffy Henry hid the day,
unappeasable Henry sulked.
I see his point,—a trying to put things over.
It was the thought that they thought
they could do it made Henry wicked & away.
But he should have come out and talked.All the world like a woolen lover
once did seem on Henry’s side.
Then came a departure.
Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought.
I don’t see how Henry, pried
open for all the world to see, survived.What he has now to say is a long
wonder the world can bear & be.
Once in a sycamore I was glad
all at the top, and I sang.
Hard on the land wears the strong sea
and empty grows every bed.
sounds of Chicago
Chicago Underground Duo (Rob Mazurek, cornet, electronics, voice; Chad Taylor, drums, mbira, electronics), live (music begins at 4:30), Italy (Venice), 2013
(This clip, alas, has some glitches: at 56:15 both the sound and the picture drop out, returning, with just one of two audio channels, at 58:46.)
passings
Frankie Knuckles, DJ, January 18, 1955-March 31, 2014
2013 Boiler Room set, excerpt (Lou Rawls, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine,” remix)
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It could be plausibly argued that Knuckles was as important to the birth of contemporary dance music as James Brown was to soul or Chuck Berry to rock ‘n’ roll. And like those innovators, Knuckles helped nurture a deceptively sophisticated sound that celebrated and embraced outsiders and misfits — in Knuckles’ case, the gay African-American and Hispanic communities.
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—Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune (obituary), 4/1/14
only rock ’n’ roll
Benjamin Booker, “Violent Shiver”
Live, 2013
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Live (album teaser; fall release), 2014
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lagniappe
art beat
Danny Lyon (1942-), 1960s
alone
Günter “Baby” Sommer, live, Germany (Dresden), c. 2007
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musical thoughts
Who has more fun than drummers?
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lagniappe
reading table
Back to Mandrake the Magician,
The man of mystery often seen
In the company of swells and
Denizens of the underworld,
While mother kneads pie dough
And sways her hips to the radio,
And the fat, bow-legged dog
Drools over a red rubber ball,
When there is a flash of lightning
Followed by a roll of thunder
And sudden darkness upon us all.—Charles Simic, “Memory Train” (New Republic, 3/24/14)
like nobody else
Nina Simone (“Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” [Trad.], “To Love Somebody” [B. Gibb, R. Gibb], “Suzanne” [L. Cohen], “Save Me” [A. Franklin], “Porgy, I Is Your Woman Now”/”Today Is A Killer”/”I Loves You Porgy” [G. Gershwin, D. Heyward]), live, Rome, 1969
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, 1940s
music clip of the day 