what’s new
Los Lobos, “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?”, “Llegó Navidad,” “Christmas and You,” “It’s Christmas Time in Texas,” live, Washington, D.C., 12/18/19
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lagniappe
reading table
Along my journey
through this temporal world, people
new-year-house-cleaning—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from Japanese by Sam Hamill
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random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
basement jukebox
Desmond Dekker (1941-2006) & The Aces, “Israelites” (D. Dekker, L. Kong), 1968
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
Merry Christmas
Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893-1929), “Christmas Eve Blues,” 1928
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Victoria Spivey (1906-1976) with Lonnie Johnson (guitar), “Christmas Morning Blues,” 1928
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Bessie Smith (1894-1937) with Joe Smith (cornet), Charlie Green (trombone), Fletcher Henderson (piano), “At the Christmas Ball,” 1925,
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Leroy Carr (1905-1935), “Christmas in Jail—Ain’t That a Pain,” 1929
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Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers with Charles Brown (1922-1999, vocals, keyboards), “Merry Christmas, Baby,” 1947
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Lowell Fulson (1921-1999), “Lonesome Christmas (I & II),” 1950
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Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Alex or Aleck Miller, 1912-1965), “Sonny Boy’s Christmas Blues,” 1951
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John Lee Hooker (1917-2001), “Blues for Christmas,” 1959
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor; Shunske Sato (violin), live, Netherlands (Haarlem), published 10/24/19
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lagniappe
radio
One of my favorite musical events begins today: the annual Bachfest on WKCR (Columbia University); all Bach, all the time, until midnight New Year’s Eve.
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random sights
other day, Chicago (Monadnock Building)
Why not begin the week with something that will take you somewhere you haven’t been before?
Philippe Manoury (1952-), Melencolia (third string quartet), 2012; Arditti Quartet
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
never enough
Gospel Harmonettes (featuring Dorothy Love Coates, 1928-2002, MCOTD Hall of Fame), “I Won’t Let Go” (D. Coates), live (TV show), 1964
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lagniappe
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
To limber your sensibility, stalk the aesthetic everywhere: cracks in a sidewalk, people’s ways of walking. The aesthetic isn’t bounded by art, which merely concentrates it for efficient consumption. If you can’t put a mental frame around, and relish, the accidental aspect of a street or a person, or really of anything, you will respond to art only sluggishly.
—Peter Schjeldahl, “The Art of Dying,” New Yorker, 12/23/19
never enough
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), String Quartet No. 13, excerpt (Mvt. V, Cavatina), 1826; Guarneri Quartet
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
During a fraught 17-day stay in the hospital because of post-surgical infections 10 years ago, Beethoven’s Cavatina furnished the only moments during which I was released from suffering.
—Susan Gubar, “When Music Is the Best Medicine,” New York Times, 9/26/19
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random sights
yesterday, Chicago
only rock ‘n’ roll
Superchunk, “Break the Glass,” “Lost My Brain,” “What a Time to Be Alive,” “Throwing Things,” live (studio), Seattle, 2018
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Chicago
never enough
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor; Shunske Sato (violin), live, Netherlands (Haarlem), published 12/5/19
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
sounds of New York
Lei Liang (1972-), Ascension (for brass quintet and percussion, 2008); Andy Kozar (trumpet), Gareth Flowers (trumpet), David Byrd-Marrow (horn), William Lang (trombone), Dan Peck (tuba), Russell Greenberg (percussion), live, New York, 2016
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Chicago
music clip of the day 