alone
Ran Blake (1935-), “Over the Rainbow” (H. Arlen & E. Harburg), live, Portugal (Lisbon), 2010
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lagniappe
reading table
Even in Kyoto—
hearing the cuckoo’s cry—
I long for Kyoto.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694; translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
passings
J.J. Cale, singer, songwriter, guitarist, December 5, 1938-July 26, 2013
Today, remembering him, we revisit an earlier post.
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What was it like growing up in the 1950s in the lonesome state of Oklahoma?
Leon Russell knows.
So does this guy.
J.J. Cale (with Eric Clapton), “After Midnight” (J. Cale), live, Dallas, 2004
Who supplies the juice here?
It ain’t the guitar god from England.
It’s the grizzled guitar player from the state with the funny shape (:38-1:12, 1:41-44, 2:14-48, 3:36-50, 4:20-44).
(Originally posted 11/1/10.)
fire
Boyd Rivers & Ruth May Rivers, “Fire in My Bones,” live, Canton, Miss., 1978
making a joyful noise
Evangelist Rosie Haynes (alto saxophone, vocals), “Because He Lives,” live, Milwaukee, 2005
#1
#2
*****
taking a break
I’m taking some time off—back in a while.
alone
The world seems, sometimes, like an uncatalogued collection of miracles.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita No. 6 in E minor; Glenn Gould (1932-1982), piano
what’s new
The Flaming Lips, “Turning Violent”
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Given all the things that can go wrong with the human mind, it’s a wonder any of us function at all.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918), String Quartet in G minor (1893), first movement; Cypress String Quartet, 2006
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
I wouldn’t want to listen to the same kind of music every day any more than I’d want to eat the same kind of food.
What’s needed sometimes, like, for instance, the other morning, when I was driving to court for a hearing in a murder case, slid this into the CD player, and cranked up the volume, is something to get your juices going.
Mark Ernestus, “Mark Ernestus Meets BBC,” 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
“Come see
the crappy house at night!”
croak the frogs—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), 1807 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
baseball and boogie–woogie
In advance of tonight’s All-Star game, here’s the answer to a baseball trivia question: Who’s the finest musician ever to work between the foul lines? This guy, “the progenitor of boogie-woogie piano,” played for the Chicago All-Americans, a Negro league team, during World War I, then worked for twenty-five years as a groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox.
Jimmy Yancey (1894 [or 1898]-1951), piano, “Yancey Stomp,” 1939
only rock ’n’ roll
Phil Lee & The Sly Dogs, “A Night in the Box”
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Yesterday, a perfect summer day, walking in the woods with my son’s dog Roscoe, I was reminded, repeatedly, that the thing about nature—the thing that makes an experience like this fundamentally different from, say, sitting in my living room reading a book—is this: it’s buggy.
