Wednesday, 1/5/11
1, 2, 3 strings—that’s all
Maalem Ben Aissa, AKA Maalem Benaissa (gumbri [aka gimbri]), live, Algieria (Algiers), 2007
#1
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
#2
Vodpod videos no longer available.Want more? Here.
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2011
Monday, 1/3/11
Perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived . . .
—Brian Eno
Tony Allen
Live, “New Morning”
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Secret Agent, 2010
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
When I sit down there [at the drums], that’s what I’ve been waiting for . . .
—Tony Allen
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reading table
The time to make up your mind about people is never!
—Tracy Lord, The Philadelphia Story
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You get to decide what to worship.
Zadie Smith, Changing My Mind (2009), epigraphs
2010
Thursday, 12/30/10
When people hear I’m a criminal defense lawyer, they often ask: “How come there aren’t more songs about serial killers?”
Eddie Noack, “Psycho,” 1968
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
In response to yesterday’s post, a reader writes:
Vodpod videos no longer available.Ever wonder what it would be like if Neil Young circa 1971 Heart of Gold and Bruce Springsteen circa his 1975 Time magazine cover performed “Whip My Hair”?
Here’s your answer.
2010
Saturday, 12/18/10
Captain Beefheart (AKA Don Van Vliet), January 5, 1941–December 17, 2010
replay: a clip too good for just one day
For some people, going their own way seems to be the only way they could possibly go.
Captain Beefheart (AKA Don Van Vliet)
The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart (BBC Documentary, 1997)
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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Part 6
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lagniappe
Don’t you think that somebody like Stravinsky . . . it would annoy him if somebody bent a note the wrong way?
—Captain Beefheart
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About the seventh or eighth time [I listened to Trout Mask Replica], I thought it was the greatest album ever made—and I still do.
—Matt Groening
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art beat
Paintings by Don Van Vliet
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(Originally posted 3/6/10.)
Having posted this, I’m going to return to the break I mentioned the other day—back soon.
2010
Thursday, 12/16/10
It’s a remix world.
Gil Scott-Heron, “New York Is Killing Me” (2010), Chris Cunningham remix
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
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.*****
musical thoughts
In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times.
—Bertolt Brecht
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Want more of Gil Scott-Heron? Here and here.
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taking a break
I’m going to take a little break (my first since July)—back soon.
2010
Tuesday, 12/14/10
This guy moved to Chicago, after World War II, from Birmingham, Alabama.
The temperature outside, on this mid-December day, is 7 degrees.
Is it any wonder springtime meant so much?
Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra, “Springtime Again,” 1979
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Want more? Here.
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lagniappe
Happy (90th) Birthday to Clark Terry!
(Yo, Michael: Thanks for the tip!)
2010
Thursday, 12/9/10
Some music asks nothing more than to be a source of delight.
Wim Mertens Ensemble, “Maximizing the Audience,” live, Spain (Madrid), 1998
Vodpod videos no longer available.2010
Wednesday, 12/1/10
recipe
take one electric guitar
add another
& another
& . . .
Glenn Branca Ensemble, Symphony No. 5, live, New York (The Kitchen), 1984
Part 1
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Part 2
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lagniappe
Born . . . in 1949, [Glenn Branca] . . . ignored rock until attracted to the repetitiveness of certain songs by the Kinks and Paul Revere and the Raiders. He claims to have taught himself composition by listening to guitar feedback at point-blank range for forty-five minutes at a time.
—Kyle Gann, American Music in the Twentieth Century (1997)
2010
Wednesday, 11/24/10
Coolest guy on the planet?
Will Gaines (tap dance) with Steve Beresford (piano), Alex Ward (clarinet), live, London, 2009
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lagniappe
I tap-danced for ten years before I began to understand that people don’t make musicals anymore.
2010
Sunday, 11/21/10
ain’t no grave can hold . . .
Johnny Cash, “Ain’t No Grave,” 2003 (recorded), 2010 (released)
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
The Johnny Cash Project is a global collective art project, and we would love for you to participate. Through this website, we invite you to share your vision of Johnny Cash, as he lives on in your mind’s eye. Working with a single image as a template, and using a custom drawing tool, you’ll create a unique and personal portrait of Johnny. Your work will then be combined with art from participants around the world, and integrated into a collective whole: a music video for “Ain’t No Grave,” rising from a sea of one-of-a-kind portraits.
Strung together and played in sequence over the song, the portraits will create a moving, ever evolving homage to this beloved musical icon. What’s more, as new people discover and contribute to the project, this living portrait will continue to transform and grow, so it’s virtually never the same video twice.
Ain’t No Grave is Johnny’s final studio recording. The album and its title track deal heavily with themes of mortality, resurrection, and everlasting life. The Johnny Cash Project pays tribute to these themes. Through the love and contributions of the people around the world that Johnny has touched so deeply, he appears once again before us.
The Johnny Cash Project is a visual testament to how the Man in Black lives on—not just through his vast musical legacy, but in the hearts and minds of all of us around the world he has touched with his talent, his passion, and his indomitable spirit. It is this spirit that is the lifeblood of The Johnny Cash Project. Thank you for helping Johnny’s spirit soar once more. God bless.
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reading table
Without trouble, there is no life.
—New Orleans restaurateur Provino Mosca, quoted in Calvin Trillin, U.S. Journal, “No Daily Specials,” New Yorker, 11/22/10
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radio
Happy Birthday, Hawk!
Today, Coleman Hawkins’ (106th) birthday, the folks at WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) are celebrating in their usual way—playing his music all day (and then some [’til 9:30 a.m. tomorrow]).
When I heard Hawk I learned to play ballads.
