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Category: mail

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

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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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mail

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.

Want more? Here. Here.


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2010

Friday, April 30, 2010

Me and a million other dudes said ‘later’ to picking cotton.—Wilson Pickett (in Gerri Hershey, Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music [1994])

Wilson Pickett, live, Germany, 1968

“Stagger Lee”

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“Funky Broadway”

Want more? Here.

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listening room

The UPS guy left a tiny box yesterday—the new albums by Roky Erickson and Gil Scott-Heron. Who’s next? Sly Stone?

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mail

The Bobby Dylan clip was very nice and linked to Manfred Mann—sweet. Thanks.

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Thanks, Richard! Emails like yours are the main reason I have some energy every week to sit down and grind through another show. Many thanks.

—Kevin [Nutt, host of Sinner’s Crossroads on WFMU-FM, responding to an email notifying him of this mention]

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2010

Sunday, 3/21/10

At last Sunday’s (wonderful) 84th birthday celebration for DeLois Barrett Campbell, roses graced the altar—a gift from longtime friend Aretha Franklin.

DeLois Barrett Campbell and the Barrett Sisters, live, “He Has Brought Us” (Say Amen, Somebody), 1982

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And then we being blood sisters, I always say that gives our harmony a special edge.—DeLois Barrett Campbell

That girl [DeLois Barrett Campbell] can make a song so sweet you want to eat it.—Marion Williams

—Quoted in Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times (6th ed. 2002) (Heilbut was at last Sunday’s birthday celebration.)

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mail

You supply the most delightful diversions!

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Spent a good portion of the afternoon playing back your old clips. Such wonderful variety.

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Just wanted to let you know that I’ve really been enjoying that blog of yours. Very cool.

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2010

Thursday, 3/18/10

If it wasn’t for the music, I don’t know what I’d do.

Indeep, “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life” (1982)

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mail

Cool. Thanks! — Bill

(email from Bill Ryan, Director of the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, in response to a message letting him know that his ensemble was featured here yesterday; their 2007 recording of this piece was lauded by the New York Times as one of the notable classical CDs of the year and by WNYC’s John Schaefer as one of the five best classical CDs of the decade)

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2010

Tuesday, 3/2/10

street music

Barcelona

Hang drummer near La Sagrada Familia

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mail

Thanks for the notification [2/21/10 post: Sister O.M. Terrell and Goodbye, Babylon]. Your blog looks great! I spent some time on it tonight, and have it bookmarked for the future.

—Lance Ledbetter, Dust-To-Digital


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2010

Wednesday, 2/24/10

recipe

1. Take a singer whose range includes about as many notes as he has fingers (on one hand).

2. Add a saxophonist who’s renowned for his melodic and harmonic inventiveness.

3. Mix?

Leonard Cohen with Sonny Rollins, “Who By Fire,” live (TV broadcast), 1989

These two mostly sound (to these ears) like, well, what they are: two distinctive artists whose musical worlds couldn’t be more different. But when Sonny finally leaves his world and enters Leonard’s—a world where melodic invention counts for nothing and subtle changes in inflection count for everything—the results are breathtaking (5:47 and following).

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mail

Salam Richard!

Thanks for the post! How did you find me?

Have you check my personal website: http://www.sohrab.info?

Do you know about my music on-line mag Doo Bee Doo Be Doo (which is looking for writers. What about you?)? Please visit http://www.doobeedoobeedoo.info

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Hope that sometime I will play in your city to have a chance to meet you.

Greetings!

—Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi [2/18/10]

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2010

Monday, 2/15/10

Listen to “Sunny Day” by Akon and Wyclef.—Luke (my 18-year-old son, on the phone the other night)

Akon with Wyclef Jean, “Sunny Day” (2008)

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One of the things I find intriguing about contemporary popular music is the widespread practice (particularly in hip-hop) of featuring guest artists, usually, it seems, people whose style and approach are very different from one’s own. Implicit in this is the notion that hearing two different musical personalities can make for a more interesting and rewarding experience than hearing just one. And including another artist opens a song up, making it less a fixed, static thing and more a vehicle for improvisation and variation, something subject to different takes, whose content and texture ultimately depend to a large extent on the identity and contributions of the featured guest.

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mail

My son called from Minnesota the other day to tell me that the weather was terrible, his car had been towed, he didn’t like his job, and he had a cold and a sore throat. Is it bad that the only motherly advice I could think to give him was to listen to Fats Waller [2/9/10]?

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The drummer’s comments were great [Brian Blade, 2/13/10]. You layin’ down a pretty good groove your own self, Richard.

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2010

Monday, 2/1/10

What will 18-year-olds be listening to this week?

Here’s one take on that.

check out the new lupe

—Luke (email)

Lupe Fiasco, “I’m Beamin” (2010)

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Only in America

Lupe blogged last week about the passing of 87-year-old historian Howard Zinn (A People’s History of the United States), posting a photo of the two of them—Messrs. Zinn and Fiasco—together.

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2010

Thursday, 1/14/10

No matter how many years I listen to music, there’s still nothing like the thrill of hearing, for the first time, something that grabs you by the collar—as this did last night—and doesn’t let go.

Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), Concerto for Piano and Strings (1979)/Evgeny Svetlanov, piano, Sinfonie Orchester der USSR

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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mail

In the Christian’s automobile, no need to worry about a parking space. Amen! [The Dixie Hummingbirds, 1/10/10]

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I want you to know how much I enjoy the music posts.  I learn a lot about many people I really don’t know, and those that I do make for great listening again.

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2010

Saturday, 1/9/10

What’s old is new again.

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek, “Memories Live” (2000; sampling Ann Peebles, “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” 1973 [yesterday’s post])

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mail

Very cool! [DeLois Barrett Campbell and the Barrett Sisters, 1/3/10]

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Great clip! Enjoyed seeing Jack Paar, too, and loved the way the camera eased back to show the drummer at work with the brushes. [Blossom Dearie, 1/7/10]

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