only rock ‘n’ roll
The Avantist, “Ramses,” live (studio performance), Hickory Hills, Ill., 2014
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I am obliged to perform in complete darkness
operations of great delicacy
on my self.—John Berryman (1914-1972, MCOTD Hall of Fame), Dream Song 67
more of Archie B.
Five Blind Boys of Mississippi (feat. Archie Brownlee [1925-1960], lead vocals)
“Will My Jesus Be Waiting,” 1952
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“Where There’s a Will,” 1958
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“That Awful Hour,” 1960
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“Take Your Burdens to Jesus,” 1959
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Life shoots you a lethal dose of time. Time is a drug that wears off.
—Samantha Harvey, Dear Thief
If your appetite for new music is insatiable, what better time to be alive?
Tyshawn Sorey (1980-), Quartet for Butch Morris (2012); International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), featuring Erik Carlson (violin); Joshua Rubin (bass clarinet), Eric Lamb (flute), Cory Smythe (piano); live, New York, 2012
Six decades of listening and, until yesterday, I’d never heard this particular combination of instruments. You?
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art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
James Ensor (1860-1949), Rooftops of Ostend, 1884 (Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor, through January 25th)
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Nature, the sky above us, is conducting no mean politics when it presents beauty to all, without discrimination, and nothing old and defective, but fresh and most tasty.
—Robert Walser (1878-1956), “Snowdrops,” excerpt (translated from German by Tom Whalen and Trudi Anderegg)
alone
This guy breathes life into whatever he plays. The other day we heard a Beethoven performance from 1993. Here he is in 1964.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue; Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), piano, live, 1964
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‘[O]ur days on Earth are numbered, and the numbers are not that big.’
—Samantha Harvey, Dear Thief
Three more takes.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, excerpt (third movt.)
Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000), live, Japan, 1993
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Maurizio Pollini (1942-), live
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Rudolf Serkin (1903-1991), piano, live, 1987
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‘A book is a device to ignite the imagination.’
—Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader
There are a handful of pieces I can’t imagine living without—this is one.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, excerpt (third movt.); Igor Levit (piano), live, Amsterdam, 2013
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To say she is dead is senseless, just as senseless as it is to say I myself am alive.
—Samantha Harvey, Dear Thief
mother & daughter
Cissy & Whitney Houston, medley (“(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone,” “Ain’t No Way,” “You Send Me”), live (TV show), 1983
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He spreads the paper flat and pushes down its dog-eared corners. The paper was once white, and now it is yellow, he thinks. Once flat, now creased. And there is the truth about life: once this, then that.
—Samantha Harvey, The Wilderness
sounds of New Orleans
Henry Butler (piano, vocals), Steven Bernstein (trumpet), Herlin Riley (drums), et al., “Some Iko,” recording session (Viper’s Drag, 2014)
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One must always fight back, not in the hope of winning but just to delay the moment of losing.
—Samantha Harvey, The Wilderness
Ever feel you can’t find a foothold?
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), Piano Concerto (1942); Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Jeffrey Tate, cond.) with Mitsuko Uchida (piano), live
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Aspen tree, your leaves glance white into the dark.
My mother’s hair was never white.Dandelion, so green is the Ukraine.
My yellow-haired mother did not come home.Rain cloud, above the well do you hover?
My quiet mother weeps for everyone.Round star, you wind the golden loop.
My mother’s heart was ripped by lead.Oaken door, who lifted you off your hinges?
My gentle mother cannot return.—Paul Celan (1920-1970; translated from German by Michael Hamburger)
