music clip of the day

jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more

Category: radio

2011

Sunday, 8/21/11

Ever feel like, each day, you understand less and less?

Davis Sisters (with Jackie Verdell), “We’ll Understand It Better By and By,” live (TV broadcast), early 1960s

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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lagniappe

reading table

So long as that woman from the Rijksmuseum
in painted quiet and concentration
keeps pouring milk day after day
from the pitcher to the bowl
the World hasn’t earned
the world’s end.

—Wislawa Szymborska, “Vermeer”  (trans. Clare Cavanagh & Stanislaw Baranczak, Here [2010])

***

Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid (c. 1658)

*****

Speaking of Szymborska, a charter member, like Von Freeman, of the recently announced MCOTD Hall of Fame (coincidentally, they were both born in 1923), here’s something I just came across:

I am a big admirer of her [Szymborska’s] work. I have read everything she has written, and I keep coming back to it. She is a very witty poet and she has greatly helped me to enjoy life. She exactly fits my definition of an artist. Who shouldn’t only have profound insight and a sharp mind but also remember that his obligation is to entertain the reader. And this is exactly what she does.

—Woody Allen, in the documentary Sometimes Life Is Bearable (2010)

*****

listening room: (some of) what’s playing

• Paul Simon, So Beautiful or So What (Hear Music)

• Shane MacGowan and the Popes, The Snake (ZTT [import])

• Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, Trout Mask Replica (Reprise/Ada)

• The Best of Charlie Patton (Yazoo)

• Charley Patton, The Voice of the Delta (Indigo)

• The Detroiters/The Golden Echoes, Old Time Religion (Specialty)

• The Spiritualaires of Hurtsboro, Alabama, Singing Songs of Praise (CaseQuarter)

• Archie Shepp/Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio, Conversations (Delmark)

• Benny Goodman, The Complete Trios (Capitol)

• Charlie Parker, The Complete Royal Roost Live Recordings on Savoy, Vol. 3 (Savoy/Columbia [import])

• Charles Gayle, Repent (Knitting Factory)

• Steve Lacy-Roswell Rudd Quartet, School Days (hat Art)

• Wadada Leo Smith & Jack DeJohnette, America (Tzadik)

• Kenny Werner, No Beginning, No End (Half Note)

• Bach, Suites for Unaccompanied Cello/Jean-Guihen Queyras (Harmonia Mundi [import])

• Alfred Schnittke, String Quartet No. 3, Piano Quintet, Piano Quartet/
Borodin String Quartet with Ludmilla Berlinsky (Virgin Classics)

• Morton Feldman, Piano and String Quartet/Kronos Quartet with Aki Takahashi (Nonesuch)

• Morton Feldman, For Bunita Marcus, Stephane Ginsburgh, piano (Sub Rosa) (available as a download from Amazon for 89¢)

• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Traditions in Swing (Phil Schaap, jazz)
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)
—Raag Aur Taal (Various, Indian music)

• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)

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2011

Tuesday, 8/9/11

sounds of London
(an occasional series)

Drowned City
(documentary on London’s pirate radio scene [forthcoming])

#1

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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#2

Vodpod videos no longer available.
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2011

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Happy Birthday (Again), Pops!

During his life, Louis Armstrong’s birthday was believed to be July 4, 1900, but, as it turned out, that was a year and a month off—the actual date was August 4, 1901. Given the circumstances, WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) does the only sensible thing: they celebrate both days, playing nothing but Pops 24 hours straight.

 favorites
(an occasional series)

According to Miles Davis, the history of jazz can be told in four words:
here are the first two.

Louis Armstrong, “Dinah,” live, Copenhagen, 1933

(Originally posted January 15, 2010.)

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2011

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Happy (75th) Birthday, Albert!

Albert Ayler, tenor saxophonist, July 13, 1936-November 25, 1970

*****

Albert Ayler Trio (Albert Ayler, ts; Gary Peacock, bass; Sunny Murray, drums), Spiritual Unity (ESP), 1964

“Ghosts: First Variation”

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“The Wizard”

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“Spirits”

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“Ghosts: Second Variation”

More? Here. And here. 

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lagniappe

random thoughts

OK, let’s talk physics. One problem with the term “free jazz” is that it suggests a sound world in which there’s no center of gravity—a world where everything pushes outward, where centrifugal force rules. But the reality, with many of the greatest artists, is different. Centripetal, not centrifugal, force is king. The musicians push inward, not outward, toward a center none ever inhabits individually but, collectively, they are always moving toward.

***

The contributions of Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray are hard to overstate. Sidemen? There are none.

***

Like Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler is at heart a blues musician—one who, like Ornette, expanded the blues vocabulary.

*****

radio

Today, from noon to 9 p.m. (EST), WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) is all Albert Ayler.

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2011

Wednesday, 7/6/11

People Like Us (aka Vicki Bennett), “DrivingFlyingRisingFalling”

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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lagniappe

listening room

What did I listen to last night?

A radio show I’d never heard before—Antique Phonograph Music Program with MAC (WFMU-FM), which features old (really old, like 90, 100, 110 years old) 78s and cylinders, played on period hand-cranked players. Last night’s program, as well as previous shows, can be heard here.

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2011

Sunday, 7/3/11

This guy I can’t get enough of.

Vernard Johnson, “Don’t Wait ’Til The Battle Is Over, Shout Now!”; live, TV broadcast (Bobby Jones Gospel)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Time for just one note? 6:23.

More? Here. And here.

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lagniappe

art beat

Lee Friedlander, Cherry Blossom Time in Japan (2006)

*****

reading table

Yesterday, opening my Emily Dickinson collection (The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin) at random, I came upon this.

We do not play on Graves —
Because there isn’t Room —
Besides — it isn’t even — it slants
And People come —

And put a Flower on it —
And hang their faces so —
We’re fearing that their Hearts will drop —
And crush our pretty play —

And so we move as far
As Enemies — away —
Just looking round to see how far
It is — Occasionally —

—Emily Dickinson (#599)

***

*****

listening room: what’s playing

• Echocord Jubilee Comp. (Echocord)

• Art Ensemble of Chicago, Full Force (ECM)

• Art Ensemble of Chicago, Urban Bushmen (ECM)

• Paul Motian (with Lee Konitz, soprano & alto saxophones; Joe Lovano, tenor saxophone; Bill Frisell, guitar; Charlie Haden, bass), On Broadway Vol. 3 (Winter & Winter)

• Rebirth Brass Band, Feel Like Funkin’ It Up (Rounder)

• Marc Ribot, Silent Movies (Pi Recordings)

• Wadada Leo Smith, Kabell Years: 1971-1979 (Tzadik)

• Charles “Baron” Mingus, West Coast, 1945-49 (Uptown Jazz)

• John Alexander’s Sterling Jubilee Singers, Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb (New World Records)

• Rev. Johnny L. Jones, The Hurricane That Hit Atlanta (Dust-to-Digital)

• Elliott Carter, composer; Ursula Oppens, piano; Oppens Plays Carter (Cedille)

• Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, composers; Maurizio Pollini, piano, piano works (Schoenberg), Variations Op. 27 (Webern) (Deutsche Grammophon)

• Morton Feldman, For Bunita Marcus, Stephane Ginsburgh, piano (Sub Rosa)

• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Traditions in Swing (Phil Schaap, jazz)
—Daybreak Express (Various, jazz)
—Out to Lunch (Various, jazz)
—Jazz Profiles (Various, jazz)
—Jazz Alternatives (Various, jazz)
—Morning Classical (Various, classical)
—Afternoon New Music (Various, classical and hard-to-peg)
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)

• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Give The Drummer Some (Doug Schulkind, sui generis)
—Downtown Soulville with Mr. Fine Wine (soul)

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2011

Thursday, 6/30/11

two questions

1. Why would anyone create a piece of music that lasts not one, or two, or three, or four, or five, but six hours?

2. Why don’t more more people?

Morton Feldman, String Quartet No. 2 (1983), excerpts, Flux Quartet

***

On June 12th the Flux Quartet performed this piece in Philadelphia, the finale of American Sublime, a festival devoted to Feldman’s late music. The concert, which took place in the sanctuary of Philadelphia Cathedral, began at 2 p.m.; it ended around 8 p.m. The program notes said: “Audience may come and go as they please.”

More? Here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

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lagniappe

this & that

I don’t win stuff. I don’t even enter things—contests, sweepstakes, lotteries—that would give me a shot at winning stuff. Until yesterday, that is.

Yesterday morning, driving home after dropping my son Luke off at work (7 a.m. can be a pretty brutal starting time for a 20-year-old), I was listening, as I often do while driving, to our local public radio station (WBEZ-FM), which, I learned, was in the midst of a fundraising drive. “Pledge,” they said, and “you’ll be entered in drawings for an iPad 2,” which were going to be made throughout the day. The earlier you pledge, they said, with what seemed unassailable logic, the better your chances of winning. I hadn’t sent them any money in a while so, when I got home, I went on-line and pledged. A couple hours later, a friend sent me an email: “Congratulations on your iPad.”

When bad stuff happens, particularly bad stuff that’s unexpected and outside my control (as often seems to be the case), my tendency is to try to let it go. Why invest bad experiences with ill-fitting, after-the-fact meanings? This is different. This experience I’d like to invest with all kinds of after-the-fact-meanings, ill-fitting or not. I’d like to see this as a favorable omen, one that portends all sorts of wonderful stuff—things that, at the moment, I can’t even begin to imagine. Goofy? Yeah, I suppose. But is it any nuttier than any number of other stories we tell ourselves to get us through the day?

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2011

Tuesday, 6/21/11

one man’s meat, etc.
(an occasional series)

The other night I happened upon a live set by this guy on WKCR-FM’s Live Constructions—after a few minutes, it felt as though someone had poured a bottle of Drano down my ears (which, actually, I mean as a compliment).

Rust Worship (Paul Haney), live, New York, 2009

Music? Noise? What’s the difference?

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2011

Thursday, 6/16/11

serendipity
(an occasional series)

One of the things I love about radio—and, for my money, being able to tune in to radio stations from all over the world is one of the greatest things about the ’net—is that you can listen for hours, while doing this and that, as I was last night (WFMU-FM, The Push Bin with Lou), and not hear a single track, or even a single artist, that you’ve ever heard before, knowing all the while that whatever is playing means enough to at least one person (the DJ, that is) that, at that moment, it’s being shared, eagerly, with whoever happens to be listening.

Onmutu Mechanicks, “Calyx” (Echocord Jubilee Comp., Echocord, 2011)

Vodpod videos no longer available.
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2011

Sunday, 6/5/11

Some folks sing when they speak.

Bishop Robert Manley, Jr., Bethesda Temple Church of the Living God, Frankfort, Kentucky, 2008

Part 1

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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Part 2

Vodpod videos no longer available.

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

I think there are certain aspects of music which do not have any equivalent in speech, in particular the pulse of music, the steady rhythm, and its synchronization with movement.

—Oliver Sacks, M.D.

With all due respect to Dr. Sacks (whom I admire greatly), I think maybe he should get out more often—to, for instance, churches in Harlem.

*****

listening room: what’s playing

• Professor Longhair, Crawfish Fiesta (Alligator); House Party New Orleans Style (Rounder); No Buts, No Maybes: The 1949-1957 Recordings (Hoodoo Records)

• Arthur Russell, Calling Out Of Context (Audika)

• Theo Parrish, Sound Sculptures Volume 1 (Sound Signature)

• Eddie Jefferson at Ali’s Alley with Rashied Ali Quintet (Blue Music Group)

• Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quartet, Tabligh (Cuneiform)

• Henry Grimes & Rashied Ali, Going To The Ritual (Porter Records)

• Paul Motian, Lost In A Dream (ECM) (with Chris Potter, Jason Moran); Rarum (ECM); Garden of Eden (ECM); Time and Time Again (ECM) (with Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell)

• Jason Moran, Ten (Blue Note)

• Various Artists, Gospel Music (Hyena Records)

• The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi: 1947-1954 (Acrobat)

• Brother Claude Ely, Ain’t No Grave (Dust-to-Digital)

• The Skatalites, Ball of Fire (Island)

• Tinariwen: Imidiwan: Companions (World Village)

• Ali Akbar Khan, Peerless (Navras)

• Bach: Cello Suites, Nos. 1-3, Jean-Guinen Queyras (Harmonia Mundi)

• Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 15, Borodin Quartet (BMG Classics/Melodiya)

• Music of Stefan Wolpe: Volume Six, David Holzman (Bridge Records)

• Gyorgy Ligeti: String Quartets and Duets, Arditti String Quartet (Sony)

• Morton Feldman: For Bunita Marcus, Stephane Ginsburgh (Sub Rosa); John Tilbury, Morton Feldman, All Piano (London HALL)

• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Out to Lunch (Various, jazz)
—Afternoon New Music (Various, classical and hard-to-peg)
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)

• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Give The Drummer Some (Doug Schulkind, sui generis)
—Reggae Schoolhouse (Jeff Sarge)
—Transpacific Sound Paradise (Rob Weisberg, “popular and unpopular music from around the world”)
—Daniel Blumin (sui generis)
—Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona (live sets)

*****

mail

Richard:

Thanks and despite its brevity it is quite touching.

David [Holzman, in response to an email letting him know that he was featured here yesterday]

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