Thursday, 1/5/12
three takes
Salif Keita (with Cesaria Evora, takes 1 & 2), “Yamore”
Luciano remix, 2006
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Original recording & video, 2002
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Live, London, 2002
More? Here.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2012
Wednesday, 1/4/12
Forget the weird press—she can sing.
Sinead O’Connor, “Paddy’s Lament” (trad.)
TV broadcast (Ireland), 12/19/11
*****
How many other pop stars have made so many stunning contributions as a guest artist?
With Shane MacGowan, “Haunted”
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With the Chieftains, “The Foggy Dew”
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With Willie Nelson, “Don’t Give Up”
(Last three clips originally posted 3/3/10.)
2011
Friday, 12/30/11
more favorites from the past year
Only in a city where cooking, like music, is considered an art would music be considered, like food, a necessity.
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Rainy?
It doesn’t matter.
Any day’s a perfect day for a parade.
The Black Men of Labor 2009 Second Line Parade, New Orleans
(Originally posted 11/18/11.)
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Mardi Gras Indians
Young Wild Magnolias, St. Joseph’s Night, New Orleans, 3/19/09
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
United Indian Practice, Handa Wanda, New Orleans, 1/2/11
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Indian Practice, 7th Ward, New Orleans, 11/22/10
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Spy Boy Demond, Seminoles, New Orleans, c. 2010
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted 9/30/11.)
2011
Wednesday, 12/28/11
more favorites from the past year
passings
*****
Is any drummer more lyrical?
Paul Motian, drummer, composer, collaborator, bandleader
March 25, 1931-November 22, 2011
Paul Motian Trio (PM, drums; Joe Lovano, saxophone; Bill Frisell, guitar), “It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago” (P. Motian), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 2005
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lagniappe
Sometimes he would strip a beat to absolute basics, the sound of brushes on a dark-toned ride cymbal and the abrupt thump of his low-tuned kick drum. Generally, a listener could locate the form, even when Mr. Motian didn’t state it explicitly.
“With Paul, there was always that ground rhythm, that ancient jazz beat lurking in the background,” said the pianist Ethan Iverson, one of the younger bandleaders who played with and learned from him toward the end.
Mr. Motian’s final week at the [Village] Vanguard was with Mr. Osby and Mr. Kikuchi, in September. “He was an economist: every note and phrase and utterance counted,” Mr. Osby said on Tuesday. “There was nothing disposable.”
—Ben Ratliff, New York Times, 11/22/11
(Originally posted 11/23/11.)
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You’re never too young to die.
Amy Winehouse, September 14, 1983-July 23, 2011
“Tears Dry On Their Own”
Take 1: original recording and video (2006)
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Take 2: remix by Organized Noize Dungeon Family (Big Boi)
(released 7/24/11)
(Originally posted 7/26/11.)
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Today we remember him with a mix of new clips and old favorites.
Gil Scott-Heron, April 1, 1949-May 27, 2011
“The Bottle,” live, Jamaica (Montego Bay, Reggae Sunsplash), 1983
Cool Runnings: The Reggae Movie (1983)
*****
I’m New Here (2010)
“Where Did The Night Go”
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“Me And The Devil” (Robert Johnson)
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It’s a remix world.
“New York Is Killing Me” (2010), Chris Cunningham remix
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Here’s the original track, followed by a couple more remixes.
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
With Nas
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
With Mos Def
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
langiappe
musical thoughts
In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times.
—Bertolt Brecht
(Originally posted 5/30/11.)
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Lloyd Knibb, drummer (Skatalites, et al.)
March 8, 1931-May 12, 2011
Lloyd Knibb’s importance to Jamaican music can’t be overstated. The inventor of the ska beat at Coxson Dodd’s Studio One, Knibb created a sound that spread like wildfire the world over.
—Carter Van Pelt, host, Eastern Standard Time, WKCR-FM
“Freedom Sound,” live, Belgium (Lokerse Festival), 1997
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Live, Los Angeles, 2007
#1
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#2
(Originally posted 5/18/11.)
2011
Tuesday, 12/27/11
more favorites from the past year
Wild Flag, live, SXSW (Austin, Texas), 3/11
“Romance” (Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop)
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“Future Crimes” (IFC Crossroads House)
Someday an all-female band will seem no more remarkable than an all-male one.
(Originally posted 10/24/11.)
*****
She’s going to be a big star someday.
Nneka, live
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted 2/15/11.)
2011
Monday, 12/26/11
This week we revisit a few favorites from the past year.
*****
[D]ance first and think afterwards . . . . It’s the natural order.
—Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1953, 1955 [English-language premiere])
Al Minns & Leon James, New York (Savoy Ballroom, Harlem), 1950s
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1940
(Originally posted 1/11/11.)
2011
Sunday, 12/25/11
Let’s go to church.
Solomon Burke, “Silent Night” (Savoy, 1982)
2011
Friday, 12/23/11
where I’d like to be tonight
Po’ Monkey’s, Merigold, Mississippi, 2010
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lagniappe
reading table
Charles Simic, “1938”
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random thoughts
Life’s often said to be too short.
Too short for what?
2011
Wednesday, 12/21/11
La Monte Young, The Well-Tuned Piano
Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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Part 4
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Part 5
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lagniappe
Minimalism proper begins with La Monte Young, the master of the drone. He was born in 1935 in a tiny dairy community in Idaho, and spent his childhood listening to the secret music of the wide-open landscape—the microtonal chords of power lines, the harsh tones of drills and lathes, the wailing of far-off trains, the buzzing songs of grasshoppers, the sound of the wind moving over Utah Lake and whistling through the cracks of his parents’ log cabin. In 1940 he moved to Los Angeles with his family. As he later said, he fell in love with California’s ‘sense of space, sense of time, sense of reverie, sense that things could take a long time, that there was always time.’
—Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (2007)
music clip of the day 