tonight
I’ll be at the Hideout, a small club on Chicago’s northwest side, seeing this Ethiopian dancer, this baritone saxophonist, and an array of other dancers and musicians.
Melaku Belay (dance), Ken Vandermark (baritone saxophone), Joe McPhee (alto saxophone), Milwaukee, 6/22/13
**********
lagniappe
reading table
wind blowing
paper fans rustling
rustling—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), 1823 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
two takes
“A House Is Not A Home” (B. Bacharach & H. David)
Luther Vandross (1951-2005), live, 1988
*****
Ronald Isley (1941-) & Burt Bacharach, TV show, 2004
**********
lagniappe
reading table
This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me –—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), #519 (excerpt)
Stevie testifies.
Stevie Wonder, “I Won’t Complain,” Luther Vandross’s funeral, New York (The Riverside Church), 2005
(Originally posted 10/11/09.)
**********
lagniappe
reading table
I hear new news every day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland, &c., daily musters and preparations, and such like, which these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain, monomachies, shipwrecks, piracies and sea-fights; peace, leagues, stratagems, and fresh alarms. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions, edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints, grievances are daily brought to our ears.
—Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)
old school
The Miracles (AKA, beginning in 1965, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles), live (TV shows), 1960s
“You Really Got A Hold On Me”
***
“Ooo Baby Baby” (AKA “Ooh Baby Baby”)
**********
lagniappe
reading table
As life proceeds, and the long journey is recognised for what it is, the look that is cast back unconsciously falsifies. That there were winters is a fact which is discarded, seemingly forgotten. And the longing for more summer, more life, intensifies as the dark days wear on, as if light and life have become interchangeable, as perhaps they are.
—Anita Brookner, Dolly
serendipity
Last night, while I was doing some law work, these guys—I’d never heard of them before—jumped out of the radio.*
Los Pirañas, “Bambo Ha Muerto Devorado Por El Pecado (Version Alterna),” live, Colombia (Bogotá), 2011
**********
lagniappe
reading table
I am not poor, I am not rich, nothing’s here but nothing’s lacking, I have little, I want nothing: all my treasure is in Minerva’s tower.
—Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)
*****
*Give the Drummer Some (WFMU-FM [Give the Drummer Radio Stream] Tues., 6-7 p.m.; Fri., 9 a.m.-noon [EST]).
father and son
Brian Blade (drums) & The Fellowship Band, with Brady L. Blade Sr. (vocals), “Amazing Grace,” live, Savannah, Ga. (2012)
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Some things endure. When my sons, Alex and Luke, were in grade school, I started a two-person “reading group” with each of them. We would read novels together, maybe one a month, alternating choices, and go out and talk about them over a meal. Alex is now twenty-five. This morning we’re going out for breakfast, where we’ll be talking about a short story by Richard Yates, “Oh, Joseph, I’m So Tired.” Of stories there is no end.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt was President-elect there must have been sculptors all over America who wanted a chance to model his head from life, but my mother had connections.
—Richard Yates (1926-1992), “Oh, Joseph, I’m So Tired” (first sentence)
Speaking of Bach, last night, as I was working on the closing argument I’ll be giving today in a federal bribery-conspiracy trial, it was a great joy—and a great comfort—to be able to listen to this.
Johann Sebastian Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I; Andrei Gavrilov (piano), playing and talking (Preludes & Fugues Nos. 1-12); Joanna MacGregor (piano), playing and talking (Preludes & Fugues Nos. 13-24); TV (BBC), 2000
**********
lagniappe
reading table
[L]istening to music for an hour or two every evening doesn’t deprive me of the silence—the music is the silence coming true.
—Philip Roth, The Human Stain
musical logic
1. No day that includes a Bach cello suite can be all bad.
2. Any day can include a Bach cello suite.
3. Therefore a day that’s all bad can always be avoided.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Suite No. 1 in G major for Unaccompanied Cello; Pablo Casals (1876-1973), live, France (Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa), 1954
**********
lagniappe
reading table
[T]here really is no bottom to what is not known. The truth about us is endless. As are the lies.
—Philip Roth, The Human Stain
old stuff
This I could listen to all day.
Fats Waller (1904-1943), “Numb Fumbling,” 1929
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Two of us
brush painting in turn;
autumn night.—Ryokan, 1758-1831 (translated from Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi [Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan])
If God exists, he wants us—this I am sure of—to dance.
Caffey Brothers, “Make Me Over” (Aura Records, Youngstown, Ohio)
**********
lagniappe
reading table
I know that He exists.
Somewhere – in silence –
He has hid his rare life
From our gross eyes.—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), 365 (excerpt)
music clip of the day 