keep on dancing
Frankie Knuckles (1955-2014) remix: Michael Jackson, “Rock with You”
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lagniappe
art beat: other day, Art Institute of Chicago
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Landscape with Waterfall
two takes
How To Dress Well (Tom Krell), “& It Was U” (2012)
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Bear//Face, “Taste My Sad” (2012)
Nineteen-year-old Bear//Face—his nonvirtual self, that is—lives in Belfast.
keep on dancing
Moodymann, “The Day We Lost The Soul”/ “Tribute! (To The Soul We Lost),” 1995
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Theo Parrish, “The Love I Lost” (Re-edit of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes), 2003
More Theo? Here. And here. And here. And here.
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Dance music holds out the hope, as the beat goes on, and on, and on, that nothing will be lost. Ever. But then it, too, ends.
keep on dancing
Theo Parrish (Detroit-based DJ/producer), live, Spain (Madrid), 2010
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#2
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#3
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#4
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
[I]f you think about it, sound behaves a lot like sculpture except there’s a time limit. Look at that sculpture right there behind you. You look at it and there’s a front, a back, an up, a down, around and through. So you’re talking about volume. You’re talking about spatial relationships.
The thing about sound is that there is a beginning and there is usually an end, there’s a certain amount of space that it takes up, but the big difference is that all of that is merely alluded to. It’s not something that’s concretely in front of you. It’s fluid. You may hear a snare, but the way that it’s presented and the textures that it has, you can bring certain mental images to it. If you’re listening. If you’re listening.
A lot of times you’ll put something on and it’s just another track, but if you’re listening to it you can hear a lot of the nuances that are in there and really start to understand . . . start to really get your head around it . . .
Repetition kind of sets a certain mass in a song. That’s a constant, that’s something you can ‘see’ all the time. Then there’s little bits that come in and out and these changes that kinda shift on that pivot. If you think of it visually, sometimes you’re dealing with almost a mobile-like thing. This is where I go in my head sometimes. Mobile means shifting, spinning, all kinds of stuff.
If you look at it, it could almost be like sculpting air. It’s like you have all of these shapes . . . but you have to rely on a structure, but then again you really don’t have to. So your structure tends to be your time limit—how long your recording is from beginning to end. Anything that happens in that amount of time is on you. Totally up to your creativity.
what you’d be listening to if you were 20*
Lupe Fiasco, “The End of the World” (sampling M83, “Midnight City”), 2011
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Adele, “Rolling in the Deep,” Jamie xx Remix, feat. Childish Gambino, 2011
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Hip-hop is jazz’s great grandson.
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found words
Don’t Die with your Teeth in a Glass.
—Billboard, Chicago Ave. at LaSalle St., Chicago
(Dr. Irfan [Ivan] Atcha, “Chicago’s #1 provider for Teeth-In-A-Day & Teeth-In-An Hour Dental Implants”)
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*Based on a sample of one—my son Luke. What a treat to have a pair of 20-year-old ears back in the house (and car) over the holidays.
more favorites from the past year
passings
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Is any drummer more lyrical?
Paul Motian, drummer, composer, collaborator, bandleader
March 25, 1931-November 22, 2011
Paul Motian Trio (PM, drums; Joe Lovano, saxophone; Bill Frisell, guitar), “It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago” (P. Motian), live, New York (Village Vanguard), 2005
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lagniappe
Sometimes he would strip a beat to absolute basics, the sound of brushes on a dark-toned ride cymbal and the abrupt thump of his low-tuned kick drum. Generally, a listener could locate the form, even when Mr. Motian didn’t state it explicitly.
“With Paul, there was always that ground rhythm, that ancient jazz beat lurking in the background,” said the pianist Ethan Iverson, one of the younger bandleaders who played with and learned from him toward the end.
Mr. Motian’s final week at the [Village] Vanguard was with Mr. Osby and Mr. Kikuchi, in September. “He was an economist: every note and phrase and utterance counted,” Mr. Osby said on Tuesday. “There was nothing disposable.”
—Ben Ratliff, New York Times, 11/22/11
(Originally posted 11/23/11.)
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You’re never too young to die.
Amy Winehouse, September 14, 1983-July 23, 2011
“Tears Dry On Their Own”
Take 1: original recording and video (2006)
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Take 2: remix by Organized Noize Dungeon Family (Big Boi)
(released 7/24/11)
(Originally posted 7/26/11.)
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Today we remember him with a mix of new clips and old favorites.
Gil Scott-Heron, April 1, 1949-May 27, 2011
“The Bottle,” live, Jamaica (Montego Bay, Reggae Sunsplash), 1983
Cool Runnings: The Reggae Movie (1983)
*****
I’m New Here (2010)
“Where Did The Night Go”
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“Me And The Devil” (Robert Johnson)
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It’s a remix world.
“New York Is Killing Me” (2010), Chris Cunningham remix
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Here’s the original track, followed by a couple more remixes.
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
With Nas
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
With Mos Def
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
langiappe
musical thoughts
In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times.
—Bertolt Brecht
(Originally posted 5/30/11.)
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Lloyd Knibb, drummer (Skatalites, et al.)
March 8, 1931-May 12, 2011
Lloyd Knibb’s importance to Jamaican music can’t be overstated. The inventor of the ska beat at Coxson Dodd’s Studio One, Knibb created a sound that spread like wildfire the world over.
—Carter Van Pelt, host, Eastern Standard Time, WKCR-FM
“Freedom Sound,” live, Belgium (Lokerse Festival), 1997
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Live, Los Angeles, 2007
#1
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#2
(Originally posted 5/18/11.)
favorites
(an occasional series)
She’s going to be a big star someday.
Nneka, live
Vodpod videos no longer available.(Originally posted 2/15/11.)
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It used to be that music came from a particular place. No more. Whether it’s Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi (the Iranian saxophonist who’s lived in Germany, in Japan, and now in New York City [2/18/10]), or Burkina Electric (whose members come from Burkina Faso, from Germany, and from New York City [by way of Austria] [2/22/10]), or this singer, who’s lived (and has homes) in Nigeria and in Germany, much of today’s most intriguing music has its ears and heart and feet on more than one continent.
Nneka, “Heartbeat”
Take 1: recording/video
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Take 2: live, Philadelphia, 2009
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Take 3: J. Period Remix, featuring Talib Kweli
(Originally posted 2/27/10.)
Today we remember him with a mix of new clips and old favorites.
Gil Scott-Heron, April 1, 1949-May 27, 2011
new clips
“The Bottle,” live, Jamaica (Montego Bay, Reggae Sunsplash), 1983
Cool Runnings: The Reggae Movie (1983)
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“We Almost Lost Detroit,” live, Austria (Vienna), 2010
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Interview, England (London), 2010
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old favorites
Here’s a voice I didn’t know if I’d ever hear again.
Gil Scott-Heron, I’m New Here (out this week)
“Where Did The Night Go” (Gil Scott-Heron)
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“Me And The Devil” (Robert Johnson)
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lagniappe
I’ve had bad times in my life when I’d rather be somewhere else doing something else, for sure. But you get to my age, that shit happens. You get in trouble; you maybe lose some folks—a parent or a friend. Maybe your marriage breaks up, you lose your wife, lose touch with your kid. But what life does not have those things in it?—Gil Scott-Heron (in yesterday’s Guardian)
(Orignially posted 2/8/10.)
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I’m the person I see least of over the course of my life, and even what I see is not accurate.
—Gil Scott-Heron (New Yorker, 8/9/2010 [Alec Wilkinson, “New York Is Killing Me”])
Gil Scott-Heron, “I’m New Here” (2010)
(Originally posted 8/24/10.)
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It’s a remix world.
Gil Scott-Heron, “New York Is Killing Me” (2010), Chris Cunningham remix
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lagniappe
Here’s the original track, followed by a couple more remixes.
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
With Nas
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
With Mos Def
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
langiappe
musical thoughts
In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times.
—Bertolt Brecht
(Originally posted 12/16/10.)
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langiappe
remembrances
Richard Russell (XL Recordings; produced and released GSH’s last album)
Don’t forget the Motor City
Theo Parrish, Detroit-based DJ & producer
Collecting sounds around Detroit
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Live, New York (Brooklyn Yard), 8/23/09
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Live, Paris (Elysee Montmarte), 4/30/10
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Recording, “Soul Control”
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Recording (with Marcellus Pittman), “Equality of Patience”
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
langiappe
thoughts on music
Music history as a whole has been drastically misnamed. Jazz is just as rugged as hip-hop is, and hip-hop is just as elegant as classical. These things are present, but the language we’re using to talk about them tends to be outdated, outmoded.
—Theo Parrish (in The Wire, 3/11)
music clip of the day 