piano | music clip of the day

Saturday, 12/25/10

Merry Christmas!

Bessie Smith (with Joe Smith, cornet; Charlie Green, trombone; Fletcher Henderson, piano), “At the Christmas Ball” (1925)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Lowell Fulson, “Lonesome Christmas (I & II)” (1950)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Sonny Boy Williamson, “Sonny Boy’s Christmas Blues” (1951)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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lagniappe

radio: all Bach, all the time

WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) is currently in the midst of their annual Bach Festival, which runs through the end of the year.

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reading table

Barn’s burnt down—
now
I can see the moon.

—Mitzuta Masahide (trans. Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto), 1657-1723

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going forward

I won’t be here every day; but I’ll be here often.

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Saturday, 12/18/10

Captain Beefheart (AKA Don Van Vliet), January 5, 1941–December 17, 2010

replay: a clip too good for just one day

For some people, going their own way seems to be the only way they could possibly go.

Captain Beefheart (AKA Don Van Vliet)

The Artist Formerly Known As Captain Beefheart (BBC Documentary, 1997)

Part 1

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Part 2

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Part 3

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Part 4

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Part 5

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Part 6

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lagniappe

Don’t you think that somebody like Stravinsky . . . it would annoy him if somebody bent a note the wrong way?

—Captain Beefheart

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About the seventh or eighth time [I listened to Trout Mask Replica], I thought it was the greatest album ever made—and I still do.

—Matt Groening

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art beat

Paintings by Don Van Vliet

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(Originally posted 3/6/10.)

Having posted this, I’m going to return to the break I mentioned the other day—back soon.

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Saturday, 12/11/10

The older you get, the more time you don’t have.

—James Moody

James Moody, March 26, 1925-December 9, 2010

“Easy Living” (with Barry Harris, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Alan Dawson, drums), 1969 (I have no idea why, but this track, on my Mac, seems to play much better with Safari than Firefox.)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

With Moody, it’s all meat—there’s nothing superfluous.

Want more? Here.

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lagniappe

radio

WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) pays tribute to Moody through noon (EST) today.

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Friday, 12/10/10

two voices

Some voices are so distinctive and indelible that, once heard, they occupy rooms all their own in your mind.

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, “Hound Dog,” live (TV broadcast; Buddy Guy, guitar; Fred Below, drums), Europe, 1965 (originally recorded 1952)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Happy (180th) Birthday, Emily!

I’d subscribe to her Twitter feed in a heartbeat.

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

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Escape is such a thankful Word

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Our lives are Swiss –

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I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

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My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –

—Emily Dickinson (first lines)

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Thursday, 12/9/10

Some music asks nothing more than to be a source of delight.

Wim Mertens Ensemble, “Maximizing the Audience,” live, Spain (Madrid), 1998

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Thursday, 12/2/10

Memphis.

1953.

A little studio—Memphis Recording Service—over on Union Avenue.

Little Junior Parker, “Feel So Bad” (1953), “Sittin’ at the Bar” (1954), Sun Records, Memphis

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lagniappe

I’d like to dedicate this song to Little Junior Parker, a cousin of mine who’s gone on, but we’d like to kind of carry on in his name . . . .

Al Green, “Take Me To The River,” Hi Records, Memphis, 1974

Al wrote this, with guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, and recorded it first; Hi labelmate Syl Johnson had the hit.

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Subtlety and delicacy aren’t usually associated with hard rock. But those are the qualities that (to these ears) stand out when you unpack this recording and hear the tracks separately. Listen to the guitar, the bass. Sledgehammers? More like sushi knives.

Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter,” 1969

voice (Mick Jagger & Merry Clayton)

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guitar/1 (Keith Richards)

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guitar/2 and piano (Keith Richards & Nicky Hopkins)

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bass (Bill Wyman)

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drums (Charlie Watts)

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all of it

(Yo, Don: Thanks for the tip!)

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2010

Saturday, 11/27/10

This guy and the guy we heard Monday (Syl Johnson) are brothers.

Speaking of Syl, he’s getting a lot of attention right now: the cover story in this week’s Chicago Reader; a big new boxed set on the Numero label; and a concert tonight, in Chicago, with a top-flight band and guest Otis Clay (yeah, I’ll be there).

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replay: a clip too good for just one day

This take?

Or that?

Move the voice forward?

Back?

Make the guitar brighter?

Darker?

Enough bass?

Too much?

Enough room sound?

Mixing a record, as I learned when I worked at Alligator Records (back in the 1970s), involves a seemingly countless number of decisions. After a few hours, everyone starts to get a little punch-drunk. By the end of the night, for instance, this track had morphed—in the warped warble of engineer Freddie Breitberg (AKA, in his personal mythology, Eddie B. Flick)—into “Serve Me Rice For Supper.”

Jimmy Johnson, “Serves Me Right To Suffer” (Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1, Alligator Records, 1977 [Grammy Nominee])

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lagniappe

reading table

The ’net’s filled with enough dreck for a thousand lifetimes; but then, as happened the other day (after hearing about it on the radio), you come across something that’s simply stunning—like the new, complete collection of the letters of Vincent van Gogh.

. . . Van Gogh’s letters are the best written by any artist . . . Their mixture of humble detail and heroic aspiration is quite simply life-affirming.—Andrew Motion, The Guardian (11/21/09)

(Originally posted a year ago [11/27/09].)