Friday, May 24th
what’s new
Dirty Beaches, “Casino Lisboa,” 5/13
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lagniappe
found words
trap-music phenomenon
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the moombahton sound
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prolific chiptune band
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technical death metal
—Chicago Reader, 5/23/13, music listings
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2013
2013
Thursday, May 23rd
Some singers are so distinctive that when you’re in the mood for them no one else will do.
Blossom Dearie (1924-2009), “They Say It’s Spring,” 1958*
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lagniappe
reading table: Albion Beatnik Bookstore, Oxford, England
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*BD, vocals, piano; Herb Ellis, guitar; Ray Brown, bass; Jo Jones, drums.
2013
Wednesday, May 22nd
sounds of Chicago
Want to hear a great solo? You’ve come to the wrong place. This isn’t about solos; it’s about interplay.
The Rempis Percussion Quartet,* live, Chicago (Hideout), 2010
#1
#2
*Dave Rempis, saxophones; Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, bass; Tim Daisy, drums; Frank Rosaly, drums.
2013
Monday, May 20th
two takes
“Take Five” (P. Desmond)
Ceramic Dog (Marc Ribot, guitar; Shahzad Ismaily, bass & percussion; Ches Smith, drums), live, Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2013
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Dave Brubeck Quartet (DB, piano; Paul Desmond, alto saxophone; Eugene Wright, bass; Joe Morello, drums), live, Germany, 1966
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry Tree, 1834
2013
Saturday, May 18th
soundtrack for a dream I’d like to have
Four Tet (AKA Kiernan Hebden), live (Boiler Room), 2012
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lagniappe
reading table
I don’t regard my life
as insufficient.
Inside the brushwood gate
there is a moon;
there are flowers.—Ryokan, 1758-1831 (translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi [Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan])
2013
Friday, May 17th
what’s new
Chris Hadfield (Canadian astronaut), “Space Oddity” (D. Bowie)
International Space Station, 5/12/13 (released)
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lagniappe
reading table
I never saw any human being who was of sound mind.
—John Haslam (1764-1844), English physician, quoted in the Times Literary Supplement, 3/29/13 (review of Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty, and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England)
2013
Thursday, May 16th
keep on dancing
Charlie Parker (alto saxophone) with Ray Malone (tap dance), “Donna Lee,” TV show (Broadway Open House*), 1950
*Broadway Open House is network television’s first late-night comedy-variety series. It was telecast live on NBC from May 29, 1950 to August 24, 1951, airing weeknights from 11pm to midnight. One of the pioneering TV creations of NBC president Pat Weaver, it demonstrated the potential for late-night programming and led to the later development of The Tonight Show.
2013
Tuesday, May 14th
There is, it appears, a new addition to the list of activities that threaten national security—channeling Whitney Houston, badly.
An American Airlines pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger refused to stop singing Whitney Houston’s hit song I Will Always Love You.
The solo performance began shortly into the flight from Los Angeles to New York and her crooning quickly became too much for passengers and staff on the domestic flight last Thursday.
The pilot was forced to change course halfway through the six hour flight and make an unscheduled stop at Kansas City so officers could escort the woman from the plane.
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lagniappe
reading table
“Pastoral Harpsichord”
by Charles Simic
A house with a screened-in porch
On the road to nowhere.
The missus topless because of the heat,
A bag of Frito Banditos in her lap.
President Bush on TV
Watching her every bite.Poor reception, that’s the one
Advantage we have here,
I said to the mutt lying at my feet
And sighing in sympathy.
On another channel the preacher
Came chaperoned by his ghost
When he shut his eyes full of tears
To pray for dollars.“Bring me another beer,” I said to her ladyship,
And when she wouldn’t oblige,
I went out to make chamber music
Against the sunflowers in the yard.
2013
Monday, May 13th
Today, celebrating his twenty-second birthday, we revisit a few of the many posts inspired by my son Luke.
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It’s impossible, sometimes, to separate our experience of music, especially pop music, from the surrounding circumstances. The other day, for instance, I was taking my son Luke back to school in Bloomington, Indiana. He was playing dashboard DJ. As we rolled through the hills of southern Indiana, nearing our destination, this came on after a long stretch of hip-hop (Lil Wayne, Eminem, Young Jeezy, Tyga, et al.), and the electronic intro, the Björk-like voice—they lit up the highway.
Ellie Goulding, “Lights,” 2010
(Originally posted 8/22/12.)
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what you’d be listening to if you were 20*
Lupe Fiasco, “The End of the World” (sampling M83, “Midnight City”), 2011
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Adele, “Rolling in the Deep,” Jamie xx Remix, feat. Childish Gambino, 2011
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*Based on a sample of one—my son Luke. What a treat to have a pair of 20-year-old ears back in the house (and car) over the holidays.
(Originally posted 1/2/12.)
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what’s new
I’ve got some music for you . . .
—my (20-year-old) son Luke, in a hospital room, moments after returning from general anesthesia and foot surgery
“Made In America,” Kanye West & Jay-Z, with Frank Ocean (Watch the Throne), 2011
. . . it might be my favorite song on the whole album.
(Originally posted, with a different visual, 9/3/11.)
2013
Thursday, May 9th
Some instruments just seem made for each other.
Ned Rothenberg (clarinet), Mivos Quartet, Clarinet Quintet (N. Rothenberg), excerpt, live, Ann Arbor, 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
Let there be physical suddenness.
—Michael McClure
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random thoughts
This morning, before sunrise, when I was out walking my son Luke’s dog, Roscoe, he stopped to inspect each blade of grass, carefully.
music clip of the day 