Last night, driving in Chicago with the windows down, I had this track, recorded thirty years ago, on repeat.
Arthur Russell (1951-1992, vocals, cello, keyboards) with Jennifer Warnes (1947-, vocals), “That’s Us/Wild Combination” (A. Russell), late 1980s
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
what’s new
Buscabulla, live (“Mio,” “Nydia,” “Club Tú y Yo”), Puerto Rico (Aguadilla), published 8/18/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
what’s new
Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles, “In the Water,” live, Los Angeles, published 4/15/20
MVPs? No contest—bassist, drummer.
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Pity us
By the sea
On the sands
So briefly—Samuel Menashe (1925-2011)
what’s new
Max Richter (1966-, compositions, piano, keyboard) with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (Clarice Jensen, cello & artistic director; Ben Russell, violin; Laura Lutzke, violin; Isabel Hagen, viola; Claire Bryant, cello), “On the Nature of Daylight,” “Vladimir’s Blues,” “Infra 5,” live, Washington, D.C., 1/22/20
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
I’m very interested in the idea of a piece of music being a place to think.
—Max Richter
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random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
more
Agnes Obel, playing and talking (begins at 2:05; “Won’t You Call Me,” 3:00; “Island of Doom,” 13:55; “Broken Sleep,” 25:35), New York, 1/14/20
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
tonight just outside Chicago
They’re playing at a small club (Fitzgerald’s).
Los Lobos
With Robert Randolph (pedal steel guitar), “Don’t Worry Baby” (C. Rosas, L. Perez, T. Burnett), live, Austin, Tx., 2018
*****
“La Bamba” (trad. adapted by R. Valens), live, Watsonville, Calif., 1989
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
sounds of Algeria, France, and the United States
Mohamed Lamouri, “Billie Jean” (M. Jackson), live, Paris, 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
next week in Chicago
She’s performing Monday at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Caterina Barbieri (modular synthesizer), live, Italy (Genoa), 2015
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lagniappe
random sights
a while ago, Ireland (Dingle Peninsula)
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reading table
I’ve always been aware of being an inconsistent personality. Of having a lot of contradictory voices knocking around my head. As a kid, I was ashamed of it. Other people seemed to feel strongly about themselves, to know exactly who they were. I was never like that. I could never shake the suspicion that everything about me was the consequence of a series of improbable accidents—not least of which was the 400 trillion–to-one accident of my birth. As I saw it, even my strongest feelings and convictions might easily be otherwise, had I been the child of the next family down the hall, or the child of another century, another country, another God.
—Zadie Smith, “Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction,” New York Review of Books, 10/24/19
what’s new
Robert Glasper (keyboards, vocals) with T3 (vocals), Chris Dave (drums), et al., J Dilla Tribute, live, New York, 10/25/19
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of New York
Craig Taborn (piano, electronics), Cory Smythe (piano, electronics), “X’s and Y’s,” live, New York, 2018
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lagniappe
reading table
SHOE FROM THE WAVES
oh he got a shoe from the waves
—Robert Grenier (1941-), A Day at the Beach (1984)
music clip of the day 