two minutes of joy
I’m gonna sing while I’m here . . .
Bessie Jones (1902-1984), “So Glad I’m Here”
Sometimes you can’t help but shout (3:05-).
Rev. James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir (with guest Albertina Walker), live, Chicago, 1972*
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Life isn’t short. It isn’t long, either. It’s nothing more, or less, than a series of moments, each beyond measure.
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*That same year Rev. Cleveland and his choir backed Aretha Franklin on Amazing Grace.
timeless
Sly and the Family Stone
“Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again),” TV Show (Soul Train), 1974
*****
“In Time,” Fresh, 1973
Jazz legend Miles Davis was so impressed by the song “In Time” . . . that he made his band listen to the track repeatedly for a full 30 minutes. Composer and music theorist Brian Eno cited Fresh as having heralded a shift in the history of recording, “where the rhythm instruments, particularly the bass drum and bass, suddenly [became] the important instruments in the mix.”
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lagniappe
art beat: more from Tuesday’s stop at the Art Institute of Chicago
Roy Lichtenstein, Landscape in Fog (1996)
summer in the city
Jack White, “Take Me With You When You Go”
Lollapalooza, Chicago (Grant Park), 8/5/12
One singer’s garbage is another’s gold.
Nina Simone, “Ain’t Got No/I Got Life” (adapted from Hair)
Live, New York (Harlem Cultural Festival), 1969
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lagniappe
yesterday
Listening to the radio, where they were talking about post-war modernist architecture, I learned a new term for people my age: “mid-century.”
Some places actually exist because they could never be imagined.
Treme Sidewalk Steppers Second Line, Rebirth Brass Band (with guest Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, trumpet), New Orleans, 2/1/09
Happy Mardi Gras!
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lagniappe
Mardi Gras in New Orleans (with Arthur Hardy)
the ecstatic impulse
Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophonist, composer, bandleader, 1940-
“You’ve Got To Have Freedom” (P. Sanders)
Take 1: Live (with William Henderson, piano; James Leary, bass; Kharon Harrison, drums), Los Angeles, 2011
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Take 2: Live (with John Hicks, piano; Walter Booker, bass; Idris Muhammad, drums), Los Angeles, 1981 (Live [Evidence])
More? Here.
Jazz, R&B, gospel—listening to him you’re reminded, again, that they all come from the same place.
He does covers, too.
“Pale Blue Eyes” (L. Reed)
Alejandro Escovedo, live, Paris, 2007
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Velvet Underground (The Velvet Underground, 1969)
only rock ’n roll
The Dirtbombs, “Ode to a Black Man” (P. Lynott), live
Seattle, 2008
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New York, 2008
music clip of the day 