Friday, May 5th
Still hard to believe he’s gone.
Prince with Stevie Wonder, live, Los Angeles, 2011
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: harmonica
2016
Thursday, December 15th
Chicago blues
day three
Otis Rush (1935-; vocal, guitar) with Fred Below (1926-1988; drums), et al., “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” live, East Berlin, 1966
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Here’s the original 1956 recording.
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lagniappe
reading table
On the first page of the course syllabus [for the class, taught at Columbia, on “The American Radical Tradition”], I always included the words of Max Weber, a rebuke to those who believe that critics of society should set their sights only on “practical” measures: “What is possible would never have been achieved if, in this world, people had not repeatedly reached for the impossible.”
—Eric Foner, “American Radicals and the Change We Could Believe In,” The Nation, January 2-9, 2017 issue
2016
Wednesday, December 14th
Chicago blues
day two
Junior Wells (1934-1998; vocal, harmonica), Buddy Guy (1936-; guitar), et al., “Cryin’ Shame” (AKA “Country Girl”), live, Chicago, 1970
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lagniappe
reading table
winter wind—
he can’t find his roost
the evening crow—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue
2016
Monday, December 12th
Chicago blues
day one
Howlin’ Wolf (AKA Chester Burnett, 1910-1976), with Hubert Sumlin (guitar), Willie Dixon (bass), et al., “Somestack Lightning,” live, England, 1964
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lagniappe
random sights
last night, Oak Park, Ill.
2016
Tuesday, December 6th
two takes
“Ride ‘Em on Down”
Rolling Stones, 2016
***
Eddie Taylor, 1955
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lagniappe
reading table
The announcement [that he was the president-elect’s choice to lead HUD] was delayed as Mr. Carson, who once had planned to learn to play the organ in retirement, gave himself several days to mull it over.
—Trip Gabriel, “Trump Chooses Ben Carson to Lead HUD,” New York Times, 12/5/16
2016
Friday, November 11th
two takes
“I Hate to See You Go” (AKA “Hate to See You Go”) (W. Jacobs)
Rolling Stones, Blue & Lonesome, 2016
***
Little Walter, 1955
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Painting with Green Center, 1913
*****
reading table
BRIDGEPORT, CT—Thinking back on how happy and untroubled he had been during that time and how different he feels in the present day, local man Jason Moulton, 52, reportedly paused Wednesday and nostalgically recalled the simpler era of 20 hours ago. “Everything seemed so much brighter back then before 9 p.m. last night—nothing like the way things are now,” said Moulton, wistfully reflecting on how, back before yesterday evening, things had seemed to make sense and the future appeared to hold endless promise. “America was a different place all those hours ago. Things were safer then, and the economy was strong—it was just a better time. But it’s all gone downhill ever since. We just don’t have the same values anymore.” Moulton then reportedly shook his head and said that while he would love for the country to get back to the good old days of November 8 and earlier, realistically he knew that would never happen.
—The Onion, “Man Nostalgic For Simpler Era Of 20 Hours Ago,” 11/9/16
2015
Saturday, November 21st
sounds of Mali and France
Amadou & Mariam with guest Bertrand Cantat, live, France (near Belfort), 2012
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lagniappe
reading table
We dream – it is good we are dreaming –
It would hurt us – were we awake –—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #584 (Franklin), excerpt
2015
Saturday, October 3rd
old school
Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller, 1912[?]-1965), live, Europe, 1963-64
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lagniappe
road to the World Series
I want us to do less preparation. Less everything. Just go play.
2015
Saturday, March 14th
sounds of Detroit
Don Was/Sweet Pea Atkinson, “Slow Down,” recording session, 2007
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lagniappe
art beat: more from the other day at the Art Institute of Chicago
This I never tire of.
Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), City Landscape, 1955
2015
Friday, March 6th
sounds of Chicago
Billy Boy Arnold (1935-) & The Aces,* “She Fooled Me,” live, 1978
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lagniappe
art beat
Daido Moriyama (1938-), New York, 1971
*****
*Louis Myers (1929-1994), guitar; Dave Myers (1926-2001), bass; Fred Below (1926-1988), drums.
music clip of the day 