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
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.
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
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)
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
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)
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.
Bach cello festival (final day)
Cello Suite No. 6 in D major; Matt Haimovitz (cello), live, Montreal, 2011
Prelude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gavottes 1 and 2
Gigue
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Joy sometimes comes not in waves but droplets.
Bach cello festival (day five)
Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor; Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007), live, France (Vezelay), 1991
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lagniappe
art beat: Sunday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Oribe-Type Ewer (glazed stoneware), early 17th century, Japan
Bach cello festival (day four)
Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major; Pablo Casals (cello), recording, 1939
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lagniappe
art beat
Paul Strand (1890-1976), Toward the Sugar House, Vermont, 1944
