music clip of the day

jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more

Tuesday, May 27th

the other night

The sky’s all thunder and lightning, and it’s almost midnight, and I’m sitting in a Walgreens parking lot near Midway Airport, waiting for my son Alex’s long-delayed flight to arrive, and if it weren’t for Rubinstein’s recordings of Chopin’s nocturnes, which I keep playing over and over amidst the rain and the neon, I’d be going absolutely bonkers.

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849), Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 1; Arthur [Artur] Rubinstein (1887-1982), piano

**********

lagniappe

random thoughts

Listening to Chopin, reading Chekhov: if I ever retire, maybe I’ll relocate to the 19th century.

Monday, May 26th

This piece had its world premiere in 1941; the venue wasn’t fancy—a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), live, ChamberFest Cleveland (Franklin Cohen, clarinet; Yura Lee, violin; Gabriel Cabezas, cello; Orion Weiss, piano), 2013

Sunday, May 25th

testify!

This old world is not my home. I’m just passing through. But while I’m down here, I’ve got a job to do. . . . I’m just working—singing—for my train fare back home.

—Willie Rogers

Willie Rogers (Soul Stirrers), “When the Gates Swing Open,” live

Saturday, May 24th

more

Sun Ra & His Arkestra (with John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Take the ‘A’ Train” (B. Strayhorn), live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 1976

Friday, May 23rd

what’s new

Where would Western civilization be without the invention of the three-minute pop song?

Dream Chart Top 40 Songs: May 2014 (5/24/14)

Thursday, May 22nd

Happy (100th) Birthday, Sonny!

Sun Ra (AKA Herman “Sonny” Blount), May 22, 1914-May 30, 1993, keyboard player, composer, bandleader, singular spirit

Today, celebrating his centennial, we revisit a few favorites.

Sun Ra All Stars (SR, keyboards; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet, vocals; Lester Bowie, trumpet; Archie Shepp, tenor saxophone, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Marshall Allen, alto saxophone, percussion; Philly Joe Jones, drums; Clifford Jarvis, drums; Famadou Don Moye, drums, percussion), live, Germany (Berlin), 1983


***

Sun Ra & His Arkestra, live, Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, 1974


***

Sun Ra Arkestra (SR, piano; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again,” live, Rome, 1980


***

Sun Ra (piano) & Walt Dickerson (vibraphone), “Astro” (Visions, 1978)


**********

lagniappe

radio

WKCR (Columbia University): Sun Ra all day—tomorrow, too.

Wednesday, May 21st

two takes

Grace Jones with Sly & Robbie, “My Jamaican Guy”

Live, Jamaica (Kingston), late ’80s


***

Recording, 1982

Tuesday, May 20th

what’s new

M.I.A. & The Partysquad, “Double Bubble Trouble” (directed by M.I.A.)

Monday, May 19th

Some people behave strangely in their own living rooms. Others do it on national TV.

Van Morrison, Sinead O’Connor, The Chieftains, “Have I Told You Lately,” live (Late Show with David Letterman), 1997


**********

lagniappe

art beat

Garry Winogrand (1928-1984), New York, 1969

o-GARRY-WINOGRAND-facebook

 

Sunday, May 18th

testify!

Lee Williams & the Spirtual QC’s, “I Can’t Give Up,” live, Brownsville, Tenn.


**********

lagniappe

reading table

Please Give This Seat to an Elderly or Disabled Person
by Nina Cassian (1924-2014; translated from Romanian by Naomi Lazard)

I stood during the entire journey:
nobody offered me a seat
although I was at least a hundred years older than anyone else on board,
although the signs of at least three major afflictions
were visible on me:
Pride, Loneliness, and Art.