music clip of the day

2014

Wednesday, May 7th

basement jukebox

Howlin’ Wolf, “Moanin’ at Midnight,” 1951*

Who needs chord changes?

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Wolf’s harmonica playing was always the right amount. He would never do anything on the harmonica that would detract from you waiting to get back to Wolf’s voice. . . . There is a certain lonesomeness about the harmonica that just fit the Wolf’s character in voice, in song, in lyric; and he just played that just enough to titillate things he was going to do next with his voice.

—Sam Phillips

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*HW (AKA Chester Burnett [1910-1976], vocals, harmonica), Willie Johnson (guitar), Willie Steel, drums.

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2014

Tuesday, May 6th

soundtrack for a dream

Marcos Balter (1974-), Frisson (2011); Chicago Composers Orchestra (Matthew Kasper, cond.) with Eric Lamb (flute), Chicago, 2011

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lagniappe

reading table

Speculative, imaginative writings—texts that ‘open possibility’—help us to live because the definitions by which we live are themselves productions of the cultural imaginary.

—Frances Richard, “Multitudes” (Poetry, May, 2014)

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2014

Monday, May 5th

sounds of New York

M.A.K.U. Sound System, “El Jugo,” 2013

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lagniappe

art beat

Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, 1972

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2014

Sunday, May 4th

two takes

“This May Be The Last Time”

Pastor Brady Blade Sr., Zion Baptist Church, Shreveport, La., April 13, 2014

*****

The Staple Singers, 1961

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lagniappe

art beat

William Eggleston (1939-)

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2014

Saturday, May 3rd

never enough

Three more takes on what we heard Thursday.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor (2nd Movt.)

Henryk Szeryng (1918-1988), live

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Arthur Grumiaux (1921-1986), recording

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Yoojin Jang (1990-), live

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lagniappe

reading table

[A] mad person not helped out of his trouble by anything real begins to trust what is not real because it helps him and he needs it because real things continue not to help him.

—Lydia Davis, “Liminal: The Little Man” (The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis)