Chrome, “Meet You In The Subway” (1979, record; 1984, video)
So much of our musical experience resists explanation. Take this track, for instance. As soon as it’s over, I want to hear it again. Why? No idea.
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lagniappe
mail: two posts, two messages, same correspondent
Last Monday (Koko Taylor/Louis Jordan):
Great boost!
Yesterday (Brother Anthony Wynn/Sensimo):
what the fuck!?!
sounds of Haiti
Rara festival, Kabic (Haiti), Easter, 2005
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lagniappe
Rara music is a Lenten processional music with strong ties to the Vodou religious tradition. It has been commonly confused with Haitian Carnival since both celebrations involve large groups of dancing revelers in the streets. Rara is performed between Ash Wednesday (the day after Carnival ends) until Easter Sunday (or Easter Monday in some parts of Haiti.) Rara bands roam the streets performing religious ceremonies as part of their ritual obligations to the “lwa” or spirits of Haitian Voodoo. Guédé, a spirit associated with death and sexuality, is an important spiritual presence in Rara celebrations and often possesses an ougan (male Voodoo priest) or mambo (female Voodoo priest) before the band begins its procession in order to bless the participants and wish them safe travels for their nightly sojourns.
only rock ’n roll
Animal Collective, Unitled/“Brothersport”
Live, Chicago (Pitchfork Festival), 7/15/11
*****
Want to hear the entire set?
Jazz, classical, gospel, rock: the names may be different, but what they offer is the same—a way, pleasurably, to lose your mind.
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lagniappe
In the evening darkness at a place outside New York, an outlook where/you can perceive eight million people’s homes in a single glance. . . ./Schubert’s being played in some room/there and for someone the tones at this moment are more real than everything else.
—Tomas Transtromer, “Schubertiana” (excerpt), trans. Samuel Charters
Here, in an undated audio clip, Transtromer, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature, talks about this poem and reads it in this English translation.
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Transtromer suffered a stroke in 1990, at the age of fifty-nine, which robbed him of speech and impaired the use of his right arm. Rather than delivering the customary [Nobel] laureate’s address when he accepts the award, on December 10th, he will play a piece on the piano using only his left hand.
—Dan Chiasson, “Night Thoughts: The poetry of Tomas Transtromer,” New Yorker, 10/31/11
Nils Økland, Hardanger fiddle
Sigbjørn Apeland, harmonium
“Blond blå,” live
What’s more surprising—that there’s so much ugliness in the world, or so much beauty?
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lagniappe
reading table
Who are we, if not a combination of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined? Each life is an encyclopedia, a library, an inventory of objects, a series of styles, and everything can be constantly reshuffled and reordered in every conceivable way.
—Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium (trans. Patrick Creagh; 1988)
Edward Wilkerson, Jr. (bass clarinet), Tomeka Reid (cello), Scott Hesse (guitar), live, Lakeside, Michigan (Lakeside Inn), 10/16/11*
Vodpod videos no longer available.No matter how long you’ve been listening to music there are always new things to hear. When, for instance, is the last time you heard a trio featuring bass clarinet, cello, and guitar?
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
This whole division between genres has more to do with marketing than anything else. It’s terrible for the culture of music. Like anything that is purely economic, it ignores the most important component.
*This concert was presented by portoluz as part of its Jazz on a Summer’s Day series.
two takes
Some singers, some songs, I never tire of.
Dionne Warwick, “Anyone Who Had A Heart” (B. Bacharach & H. David)
Live (with Burt B. at the piano), New York (Rainbow Room), 1996
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Recording (Scepter 1963)
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lagniappe
three more takes
Dusty Springfield, recording (1964)
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Shelby Lynne, recording & video (2008)
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Ronald Isley, live (TV broadcast, with Burt B. at the piano, 2004)
flicks
Bessie Smith, St. Louis Blues (1929)
Part 1
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Part 2
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old stuff
I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces: Music in Vernacular Photographs 1880-1955, edited by Steve Roden (Dust-to-Digital 2011)
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lagniappe
tip of the day
Get yourself a copy of this: it’s one of the most beautiful book-and-CD packages I’ve ever seen. Late at night, when everyone else is asleep and the house is still, you’ll be glad you have it.
flicks
Robert Mitchum, “The Ballad of Thunder Road”
Thunder Road (1958)
music clip of the day 