Sunday, January 26th
Little Richard, Jerry Lee—they’ve got nothing on this gal.
Rev. Julius Cheeks (lead vocals), Marge Cheeks (piano), Knights of Washington, D.C., “Morning Train,” TV show (TV Gospel Time), early 1960s
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
2014
Saturday, January 25th
sounds of Japan
What do you get when you cross Abba and the Chipmunks?
Perfume, “1 mm,” 2013
2014
Friday, January 24th
sweet soul music
Al Green, live, 1974
2014
Thursday, January 23rd
sweet soul music
Larry Hargrove, “Gone On Pt. 2,” live, c. 2010
2014
Wednesday, January 22nd
Thirty-seven years ago, at a church outside Chicago, my wife Suzanne and I were married. Saxophonist Von Freeman and pianist John Young played at the ceremony.* Afterward, at the nearby reception hall, this guy tickled the ivories. All three are now gone.
Blind John Davis (1913-1985), live, Canada, early ’80s
#1
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#2
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#3
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*Here’s how they sounded that night. (Give it a few seconds.)
2014
Tuesday, January 21st
passings
Claudio Abbado, conductor, June 26, 1933-January 20, 2014
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), Symphony No. 5 (4th Movt.); Lucerne Festival Orchestra (Claudio Abbado, cond.), live, 2004
I love watching him conduct: his hands and arms embody the music, moving with the grace, and the precision, of a ballet dancer.
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lagniappe
reading table
[T]he time of death is every moment . . .
—T. S. Eliot, “The Dry Salvages”
2014
Monday, January 20th
Some people make music even when they speak.
Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream,” Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963
Reading this, instead of hearing it, would be like reading a transcription of a spellbinding saxophone solo.
2014
Sunday, January 19th
Aretha’s daddy
Rev. C. L. Franklin (1915-1984), “I’m Going Through,” recorded live at New Bethel Baptist Church (8430 Linwood St., Detroit, Mich.)
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Rev. C. L. Franklin (right) with Joe Von Battle, owner of Detroit’s JVB Records and Joe’s Records Shop, c. 1950s
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Life is a chronic problem.
2014
Saturday, January 18th
never enough
One-word review: riveting.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Chaconne in D minor for solo violin (Partita for Violin No. 2); Ivry Gitlis (violin), live, Japan (Tokyo), 1990
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lagniappe
art beat
Weegee (AKA Arthur Fellig, 1899-1968)
2014
Friday, January 17th
Chvrches, “Lies,” live, Scotland (Glasgow), 2012
Ever notice how terribly young everyone seems to be getting?
