music clip of the day

Thursday, December 25th

Merry Christmas

Bessie Smith (with Joe Smith, cornet; Charlie Green, trombone; Fletcher Henderson, piano), “At the Christmas Ball,” 1925

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Blind Lemon Jefferson, “Christmas Eve Blues,” 1928

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Victoria Spivey (with Lonnie Johnson, guitar), “Christmas Morning Blues,” 1928

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Leroy Carr, “Christmas In Jail—Ain’t That A Pain,” 1929

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Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers (feat. Charles Brown, vocals, keyboards), “Merry Christmas, Baby,” 1947

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Lowell Fulson, “Lonesome Christmas (I & II),” 1950

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Sonny Boy Williamson II, “Sonny Boy’s Christmas Blues,” 1951

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John Lee Hooker, “Blues For Christmas,” 1959

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Wednesday, December 24th

passings

Joe Cocker, singer, May 20, 1944-December 22, 2014

“The Letter,” live (with Leon Russell, piano, et al.), 1970

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Tuesday, December 23rd

Here are two more takes on the song we heard Sunday (“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”)—both from Hollywood.

Robert Mitchum with Lillian Gish, The Night of the Hunter, 1955

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Van Johnson, et al., A Human Comedy, 1943

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lagniappe

art beat: more from Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), A Peasant Woman Digging in Front of Her Cottage, c. 1885

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Monday, December 22nd

genius at play

Henry Threadgill (alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader) leading a master class (excerpt), Big Indian, N.Y. (Creative Music Studio), 2014

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More.

Henry Threadgill and His Very Very Circus, “Too Much Sugar for a Dime,” live, New York, c. 1993

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Today Henry, who’s been lifting my spirits for over three decades, enters the MCOTD Hall of Fame, joining tenor saxophonist Von Freeman, trumpeter Lester Bowie, poets John Berryman, William Bronk, and Wislawa Szymborska, and gospel singer Dorothy Love Coates.

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lagniappe

art beat: more from Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago

Claude Monet (1840-1926), Irises (1914/17)

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radio

One of my favorite musical events begins tonight: the annual Bach Festival on WKCR (Columbia University), which runs through midnight New Year’s Eve.

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2014

Sunday, December 21st

three takes

“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” (A. Showalter, E. Hoffman)

Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, live (TV show)

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Mahalia Jackson, live (TV show), 1961

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Iris Dement, recording (Lifeline), 2010

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lagniappe

art beat: Friday at the Art Institute of Chicago

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Self-Portrait, 1887

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2014

Saturday, December 20th

Ever feel you can’t find a foothold?

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), Piano Concerto (1942); Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Jeffrey Tate, cond.) with Mitsuko Uchida (piano), live

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lagniappe

reading table

Aspen tree, your leaves glance white into the dark.
My mother’s hair was never white.

Dandelion, so green is the Ukraine.
My yellow-haired mother did not come home.

Rain cloud, above the well do you hover?
My quiet mother weeps for everyone.

Round star, you wind the golden loop.
My mother’s heart was ripped by lead.

Oaken door, who lifted you off your hinges?
My gentle mother cannot return.

—Paul Celan (1920-1970; translated from German by Michael Hamburger)

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2014

Friday, December 19th

what’s new

D’Angelo and the Vanguard (Pino Palladino, bass; Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, drums, et al.), “Ain’t That Easy” (Black Messiah), 12/15/14

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Here’s another take.

Live, Paris, 2012

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lagniappe

art beat

Bruce Davidson (1933-), New York (Subway), 1980

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2014

Thursday, December 18th

When you work on a small scale, a slight shift can seem epic.

Oscar Noriega (alto saxophone), live, New York, 12/7/14

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lagniappe

reading table

Climb Mount Fuji,
O snail,
but slowly, slowly.

—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828; translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)

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2014

Sunday, December 14th

old school

Dixie Hummingbirds, We Love You Like a Rock (excerpts), 1995

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lagniappe

reading table

You would think that living is a kind of scholarship in time, and that the longer we live the more expert we become at coping with it, in the way that, if you play tennis enough, you get used to coping with faster and faster serves. Instead I find that the longer I live the more bemused I become, and the more impenetrable the subject shows itself to be. I sit on a heap of days.

—Samantha Harvey, Dear Thief (James Wood, “Fly Away,” New Yorker, 12/8/14)

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taking a break

I’m taking some time off—back in a while.