two takes
“Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (Gerry Goffin & Carole King)
This could go wrong in so many ways. But it doesn’t.
Bryan Ferry, live, TV broadcast (Later with Jools Holland, BBC), 1993
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
The Shirelles, 1960
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
sight seen
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, sitting on a brick sidewalk in Harvard Square, a panhandler with a large sign:
I HAVE A
DREAM
OF A
CHEESEBURGERHold the Pickle
Happy (96th) Birthday, Billie!
Tune in to WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) and you’ll swear you must’ve died and gone to heaven—it’s all Billie, all day.
Billie Holiday, “The Blues Are Brewin'” (with Louis Armstrong, trumpet), New Orleans (1947)
Vodpod videos no longer available.More? Here. And here. And here.
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lagniappe
art beat
Joan Mitchell, Chamonix (c. 1962), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
I’m surprised that I got this old and know so little.
—Terry Riley
Terry Riley, talking and playing, California, 2010
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
In C (excerpt), Terry Riley, 1964
Take 1
Terry Riley, Center of Creative and Performing Arts (SUNY-Buffalo), 1968
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Take 2
Ars Nova, Percurama Percussion Ensemble, Paul Hillier (cond.), 2007
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts
Hiroshige, The City Flourishing, Tanabata Festival (1857)
Feeling glum?
Not for long.
Albert Ammons, Lena Horne, Pete Johnson, Teddy Wilson
Boogie-Woogie Dream (1944)
Part 1
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Part 2
Vodpod videos no longer available.basement jukebox*
(an occasional series)
Fontella Bass, “Rescue Me” (1965)
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Tyrone Davis, “Can I Change My Mind” (1969)
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Otis Clay, “The Only Way Is Up” (1980)
Vodpod videos no longer available.*When I was a little boy, a big bright shiny jukebox lit up our basement. Daily it granted our wishes, communicated with just the touch of a finger, for “Wake Up, Little Susie” (Everly Brothers) and “The Battle of New Orleans” (Johnny Horton) and “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance” (Gene Pitney). It taught me something I’ve never forgotten—music is magic.
The notes are easy enough to replicate—the touch impossible.
Pinetop Perkins (piano, vocals), July 7, 1913-March 21, 2011
“Grindin’ Man” (with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, harmonica), live, New Jersey (New Brunswick), 2008
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
“How Long Blues,” live
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
He was one of the last great Mississippi Bluesmen. He had such a distinctive voice, and he sure could play the piano. He will be missed not only by me, but by lovers of music all over the world.
*****
If you don’t want to die, don’t be born.
—Red Paden, owner of Red’s Blues Club, Clarksdale, Mississippi
*****
my back pages
Many years ago I had the pleasure of working with him, co-producing his tracks on Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 2 (Alligator 1978). Warm, amiable, unassuming—he was easy to like.
*****
listening room: what’s playing
• Ornette Coleman, Town Hall 1962
• Mos Def, The Ecstatic
• Lupe Fiasco, Lasers
• Steve Reich, Double Sextet, 2×5
• Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green, Apex
• Nneka, Concrete Jungle
• Theo Parrish, Sound Sculptures, Vol. 1
• Powerhouse Gospel On Independent Labels, 1946-1959
• WFMU-FM: Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt), Mudd Up! (DJ/rupture)
• WKCR-FM: Bird Flight (Phil Schapp), Jazz Alternatives (various), Out To Lunch (various), Western Swing Festival (various)
Western Swing Festival
Beginning on Friday, March 25th at 8:00 a.m. . . . [we] will honor the legacy of Western Swing with 64 hours of continuous programming, running until midnight on Sunday, March 27th (this will preempt all regularly scheduled programming). We will explore the genre’s entire history, from its roots in the 1920s and 1930s to bands still performing today. The festival will also include live performances and interviews with several Western Swing experts. Grab your ten-gallon hat, lace up those dancin’ boots, and come swing with us!
—WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
“I Hear Ya Talkin'”
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
“San Antonio Rose”
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
“Take Me Back To Tulsa”
Vodpod videos no longer available.More Lester
The world became a less interesting place the day Lester Bowie died.
Digable Planets with Lester Bowie (trumpet), Joe Sample (keyboard), Melvin “Wah-Wah Watson” Ragin (guitar), “Flying High in the Brooklyn Sky,” live
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lagniappe
Part of the job of a musician is that of a messenger. If you ain’t ready to be a messenger, forget it. You need to get a job in the post office or somewhere. If you ain’t ready to travel, pack up your family, or pack up yourself and hit the road, you’re in the wrong business. Because that’s what music is about. It’s about spreading knowledge and education, and re-education. It’s about spreading. You have got to travel with it to spread the word. Like all the people in the past that have had to travel to spread the music.
*****
It’s life itself that this [music] is about.
—Lester Bowie (in George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music [2008])
(Previously posted 10/28/09.)
If I could dance like this, I’d never sit down.
Geri Allen Quartet (GA, piano; Kenny Davis, bass; Kassa Overall, drums; Maurice Chestnut, tap percussionist), “Philly Joe,” live, Detroit, 2009
Vodpod videos no longer available.More? Here.
music clip of the day 