Some singers put their arms around you and hold you.
Gospel Challengers, “The Storm Is Passing Over,” live (TV show), early ’60s
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lagniappe
reading table
even an old man
has New Year’s eyes . . .
cherry blossoms—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828; translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
mother & daughter
Cissy & Whitney Houston, medley (“(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone,” “Ain’t No Way,” “You Send Me”), live (TV show), 1983
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reading table
He spreads the paper flat and pushes down its dog-eared corners. The paper was once white, and now it is yellow, he thinks. Once flat, now creased. And there is the truth about life: once this, then that.
—Samantha Harvey, The Wilderness
two takes
“I Don’t Claim To Be An Angel”
Laura Cantrell, live (studio performance), New York, 2011
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Kitty Wells (1919-2012), live (TV show), c. 1953
What better way to start the year than with the music of Sly Stone?
Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra (Steven Bernstein, trumpet; John Medeski, organ, et al.), live, Paris, 2011
“Stand” (feat. Sandra St. Victor, vocals)
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“Everyday People” (feat. Eric Mingus, vocals)
*****
Still, after four decades, this album remains on my desert-island list.
Sly and the Family Stone, Fresh, 1973
1. In Time (0:00)
2. If You Want Me To Stay (5:48)
3. Let Me Have It All (8:48)
4. Frisky (11:43)
5. Thankful ‘N’ Thoughtful (14:54)
6. Skin I’m In (19:36)
7. I Don’t Know (Satisfaction) (22:29)
8. Keep On Dancin’ (26:23)
9. Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) (28:45)
10. If It Were Left Up To Me (34:07)
11. Babies Makin’ Babies (36:07)
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random thoughts: New Year’s resolution #5
Each day: begin, again.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Patterns in a Chromatic Field (1981)
Arne Deforce (cello) & Yutaka Oya (piano)
Live (excerpts), Belgium (Kortrijk), 2013
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Charles Curtis (cello) & Aleck Karis (piano)
Recording, 2004
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lagniappe
random thoughts: New Year’s resolution #4
No matter how much I get out, it never fails. Whenever I experience live music, as I did Sunday when I heard this otherworldly piece played, wonderfully, by cellist Mira Luxion and pianist Andy Costello (Constellation, Chicago), I leave with the same thought—you really ought to do this more often.
what’s new
Dirty Beaches, “Time Washes Everything Away,” 12/14 (video)
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lagniappe
random thoughts: New Year’s resolution #3
Give up the wish to live in a world where making New Year’s resolutions would be something more than a reminder of how laughably little is within our control.
three takes
“His Eye Is on the Sparrow” (C. Martin, C. Gabriel)
Soul Stirrers (feat. R. H. Harris, lead vocals), recording, 1946
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Harmonizing Four (feat. Jimmy Jones, bass), recording, 1958
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Kathleen Battle, Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Michael Tilson Thomas, cond.), live, Vienna, 1983
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random thoughts: New Year’s resolution #2
Take nothing for granted.
Five hours?
As far as I’m concerned, this could go on forever.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), For Philip Guston (1984); Claire Chase (flute, alto flute, piccolo), Steven Schick (percussion), Sarah Rothenberg (piano, celesta), live (3:50-), Houston (Rothko Chapel), 11/2/14
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lagniappe
random thoughts: New Year’s resolution #1
Quit thinking other people should be more like me—if anything, be thankful they aren’t.
sounds of New Orleans
Henry Butler (piano, vocals), Steven Bernstein (trumpet), Herlin Riley (drums), et al., “Some Iko,” recording session (Viper’s Drag, 2014)
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lagniappe
reading table
One must always fight back, not in the hope of winning but just to delay the moment of losing.
—Samantha Harvey, The Wilderness
music clip of the day 