music clip of the day

With a big shout-out to my older son Alex, here—on his birthday (22!)—is a small sampling of the music he’s opened my ears to.

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The Very Best

Here’s something he emailed me just last week—new sounds out of Africa (by way of England).

The Very Best, “Julia”

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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Here’s a show he saw over the summer, while living in New York.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, live, NYC (South Street Seaport), 7/09

“Come Saturday”

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“Everything With You”

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“The Pains of Being Pure at Heart”

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Amadou & Mariam

I might have gotten around to Amadou & Mariam sooner or later on my own, but thanks to Alex—who played me their (wonderful) album Dimanche a Bamako a few years ago—I got to this Malian duo sooner. (He and I saw them together, at Chicago’s Park West, in May, just a few months after this performance.)

Amadou & Mariam, “Sebeke,” live, Paris, 2008

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Talib Kweli

Several years ago, thanks to Alex, I first heard this hip-hop artist’s (terrific) album Quality.

Talib Kweli, “Get By,” live, NYC, 2007

Want to hear the original studio track? Here. (Yeah, that’s Kanye at 1:20 and again at 3:24—he produced this track.)

(For all you hip-hop-&-law trivia buffs, Kweli’s the answer to the following question: What hip-hop artist has a brother who’s a professor at a top law school? [Jamal Greene, Columbia].)

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lagniappe

Want to see the world (bits and pieces of it, anyway) through the eyes of one now-22-year-old? Here. Here. Here.