Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Here’s a big (60th!) birthday shout-out to my brother Don.
How could we ever have gone wrong musically, given where we started?
Perry Como, “Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom),” live (TV broadcast), 1956
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: hard-to-peg
2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Sometimes you don’t feel like Beethoven.
Or Miles Davis.
Or the Soul Stirrers.
What you want is a jolt.
Micachu & The Shapes, “Lips”
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lagniappe
This is what I call PR.
[Mica Levi of Micachu & The Shapes is] the most singular artist leading the future-pop frontier, with an instinctual understanding of music only possible from one of those rare lives where rhythms, melodies, discord and noise have underpinned every last waking second.
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Born in Guildford and raised in Watford, Mica Levi couldn’t have had much more of a musical upbringing if she was conceived between Mozart and an oboe and forced to grow up inside a grand piano.
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‘Lips’ is a short, sharp procession of maddening fret-hits and taunting vocal refrains that lead you everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
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live music on the radio
One of my favorite radio stations, WFMU-FM, is broadcasting live today from the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona: the Almighty Defenders, Cold Cave, Van Dyke Parks, et al.
2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Here’s a piece that sounds different every time you hear it.
John Cage, 4’ 33” (1952)/David Tudor, piano
lagniappe
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I didn’t wish it [4′ 33″] to appear, even to me, as something easy to do or as a joke. I wanted to mean it utterly and be able to live with it.
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Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music.
—John Cage
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Thank you so much for this.
—Robert Ambrose (in response to an email letting him know that he and Bent Frequency were featured here)
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art beat
Tomorrow’s the last day to see the William Eggleston exhibit at Chicago’s Art Institute.
2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
These guys sounded awfully good the other day—let’s hear some more.
Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, “Orleans & Claiborne,” live, New Orleans, 2010
There are a lot of things to like about this performance. One is the way Shorty, following two hot solos (tenor, baritone), doesn’t try to out-blow those guys. Instead, he changes directions (3:20). Sometimes nothing packs more punch than restraint. (Yeah, I don’t know why this clip cuts off when it does, either.)
Want more? Here.
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lagniappe
passings
Soon I’ll be leaving for a funeral—my uncle, Hugh Frebault. Nine days ago we sat and talked and laughed for over an hour; now he’s silent. Does life get any more understandable as you get older? I don’t think so—if anything, it seems to become only more mysterious, more unfathomable.
Blind Willie Johnson, “Dark Was The Night – Cold Was The Ground” (1927, Dallas)
2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
no redeeming value whatsoever
Andre Williams & His Orchestra, “Sweet Little Pussycat” (1966)
lagniappe
Andre Williams, 2010
2010
Saturday, 5/8/10
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2010/part 2
Scene 1: Parade of the New Orleans Social Aid and Pleasure Club
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Scene 2: Chouval Bwa
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Scene 3: Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, “Backatown” (record-store performance)
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Scene 4: Pinettes Brass Band (outside another record store)
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lagniappe
2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2010/part 1
Scene 1: Sousaphone Parade
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Scene 2: Brian Blade & The Fellowship
Want more Brian Blade? Here.
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Scene 3: Mardi Gras Indians (Members of the Golden Star Hunters, Carrolton Hunters, et al.), Backstage
Want more Mardi Gras Indians? Here.
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lagniappe
2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
What was it like to live—people may wonder someday—back before everyone had, each day, their own personal soundtrack?
Tom Ze, “Mae” (Gespenster [trailer])
2010
Wednesday, 4/28/10
As I mentioned a while back, I’m leaning toward a career, in the next life, as a tap-dancer.
Marilyn Miller, “All I Want To Do, Do, Do Is Dance” (Sally, 1929)
Want more? Here.
