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
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
2014
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)
2014
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
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Sun Ra & His Arkestra, live, Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival, 1974
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Sun Ra Arkestra (SR, piano; June Tyson, vocals; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, et al.), “Springtime Again,” live, Rome, 1980
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Sun Ra (piano) & Walt Dickerson (vibraphone), “Astro” (Visions, 1978)
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lagniappe
radio
WKCR (Columbia University): Sun Ra all day—tomorrow, too.
2014
Tuesday, May 20th
what’s new
M.I.A. & The Partysquad, “Double Bubble Trouble” (directed by M.I.A.)
2014
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
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lagniappe
art beat
Garry Winogrand (1928-1984), New York, 1969
2014
Sunday, May 18th
testify!
Lee Williams & the Spirtual QC’s, “I Can’t Give Up,” live, Brownsville, Tenn.
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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.
2014
Saturday, May 17th
beyond category
John Zorn, Book of Angels (excerpts); Uri Caine, piano; Masada String Trio (Mark Feldman, violin; Erik Friedlander, cello;* Greg Cohen, bass); live, France (Marciac), 2008
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lagniappe
reading table
There’s a line in Tarkovsky’s Solaris: we never know when we’re going to die and because of that we are, at any given moment, immortal.
—Geoff Dyer, “Diary,” London Review of Books, 4/3/14
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*It’s all related: Erik’s the son of photographer Lee Friedlander, whose work is often featured here.
2014
Friday, May 16th
two takes
“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (B. Dylan)
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rosanne Cash, Shawn Colvin (with G. E. Smith, guitar), live, New York, 1992
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Bob Dylan, live, England (Bournemouth), 1997
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lagniappe
art beat
Lee Friedlander (1934-), Cherokee Park, Louisville, Kentucky, 1994
2014
Thursday, May 15th
sounds of Surry County, North Carolina
Tommy Jarrell (fiddle, vocals), Chester McMillan (guitar), Frank Bodie (guitar), Ray Chatfield (banjo), “Let Me Fall,” live, Mt. Airy, North Carolina, 1983
