Friday, 11/26/10
Deep, wide, strong: the groove, with this guy at the drums, is like a river.
The Levon Helm Band with guest Jim Keltner (drums), “Deep Ellum Blues,” live, Los Angeles (Greek Theater), 8/15/10
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Category: trombone
2010
Monday, 11/22/10
Walk into a blues bar on Chicago’s south or west side in the mid-1970s:
this would jump out of the jukebox.
Syl Johnson, “Take Me To The River,” live, 1975, Memphis
2010
Tuesday, 11/9/10
Gregory Isaacs, July 15, 1951-October 25, 2010
[Gregory Isaacs’ friend and former manager Don Hewitt] said of Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones that when he was introduced to Mr. Isaacs, “he carried on like he’d met Jesus.”
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In a 2001 interview, Mr. Isaacs reflected on his legacy. “Look at me as a man who performed works musically,” he said. “Who uplift people who need upliftment, mentally, physically, economically—all forms. Who told the people to live with love ’cause only love can conquer war, and to understand themselves so that they can understand others.”
—Rob Kenner, New York Times (obituary, 10/25/10)
Live, London (Brixton Academy), 1984
“Number One”
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“Night Nurse”
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“Border”
*****
“Sad Mood Tonight” (1994)
*****
“Kingston 14” (Made in Jamaica, 2006)
*****
Want more? Here: “Gregory Isaacs Memorial Broadcast,” Eastern Standard Time, WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University), 11/6/10.
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lagniappe
reading table
No battle that can be won is worth fighting.
2010
Friday, 11/5/10
Time travel’s easy on the net. With this guy we started, the other day, with music he made just last month. Then we headed back to the ’70s. Today we go back even farther—to the ’60s.
Leon Russell, Shindig! (TV)
“Hi-Heel Sneakers,” 10/28/1964
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“Roll Over Beethoven,” 11/18/1964
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“Jambalaya,” 2/3/1965
(Yeah, the guy in front with the banjo—that’s Glen Campbell.)
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lagniappe
reading table
Gregory Corso, “Marriage”
Want to read this yourself? Here.
2010
Monday, 10/25/10
The story behind their new album is a sweet one.
Elton John & Leon Russell
Making The Union (2010)
*****
Live (TV broadcast [Good Morning America], with Marc Ribot, guitar), New York (Beacon Theatre), 10/20/10
Part 1 (music begins at 4:10), “If It Wasn’t For Bad”
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Part 2, “Hearts Have Turned To Stone,” “Tiny Dancer”
2010
Saturday, 10/23/10
Your 16-year-old daughter dies, suddenly, in a car accident.
What do you do?
If you’re pianist/composer Kenny Werner, what you do is create music.
Kenny Werner, No Beginning No End (featuring Joe Lovano, tenor saxophone), recording session, New York (NYU), 2009
2010
Monday, 10/11/10
Solomon Burke, March 21, 1940-October 10, 2010
Live (TV broadcast), England, 2003
“Everybody Needs Somebody To Love”
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“None Of Us Are Free”
*****
“Cry To Me,” live, Spain (Vitoria), 2004
*****
“Don’t Give Up On Me,” live
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lagniappe
The best soul singer of all time.
—Jerry Wexler, Solomon Burke’s producer at Atlantic Records (also produced Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, et al.)
*****
Every day I’m on the phone ministering to people. I’ve had so many people say to me, “What should I believe in?” I tell ’em, “Just believe in what’s real and makes you feel good. Whatever moves you, go there.”
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Every day they had a service [at my grandmother’s House of Prayer for All People], and the music never stopped. There was always a band with two or three trombones, tambourines, cymbals, guitars, pianos. When I speak of music, I get choked up. It was a message to God, something you feel down to your bones and your soul and your heart.
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I’ve learned to forgive Jerry [Wexler] . . . I’m also waiting for my check.
—Solomon Burke (in Charles M. Young, “King Solomon’s Sweet Thunder,” Rolling Stone, 5/27/10)
2010
Tuesday, 10/5/10
beauty from behind bars
Tadd Dameron wrote and arranged this while serving time for a federal drug crime.
Blue Mitchell Orchestra (Blue Mitchell, trumpet, with [among others] Clark Terry, trumpet; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Willie Ruff, French horn; Philly Joe Jones, drums), “Smooth as the Wind” (1961)
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Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Medical Center (as it’s now called)
Lexington, Kentucky
***
Tadd Dameron
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lagniappe
Sarah Vaughan, live, “If You Could See Me Now” (Tadd Dameron)
*****
radio gems: jazz
Bird Flight
WKCR-FM
New York (Columbia University)
Monday-Friday, 8:20-9:30 a.m. (EST)
I know of nothing, in radio or anywhere else, like Phil Schaap’s daily meditations on the music of Charlie Parker, which he’s been offering now, five days a week, for over twenty-five years. At its best, his show enthralls. At its worst, well, sometimes you wish Phil would play a little more music and talk a little less. But even when he goes on longer than perhaps he should, your tendency, as with a charmingly eccentric uncle, is to excuse his excesses.
2010
Friday, 9/17/10
Many years ago, when I was younger than my sons are now (22, 19), I listened to this album (Forever Changes) day after day after day.
Arthur Lee and Love, “Alone Again Or,” “A House Is Not A Motel,” England (London), 2003
2010
Saturday, 9/11/10
To these ears, this is just inches shy of insufferable—too cute, too precious, too fey. But those inches make all the difference. As it is, I find it beguiling.
Clare and the Reasons, “Wake Up (You Sleepyhead),” 2009
For those who’re interested in such genealogical details (and are old enough to remember), Clare is the daughter of Geoff Muldaur.
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lagniappe
reading table
Utterly unbelievable, incontrovertibly real: his poems, at their best, have the associative logic of a dream.
Russell Edson, “Let Us Consider”
music clip of the day 