There seem to be two possibilities here. One is that you’ll find this mesmerizing, as I do. The other is that it’ll drive you bonkers.
Roscoe Mitchell, alto saxophone, live, Italy (Bologna, Angelica Festival), 2011
**********
lagniappe
reading table
Wang Wei (699-759), “Deer Park”
(translated from Chinese by Gary Snyder)
Empty mountains:no one to be seen.Yet—hear—human sounds and echoes.Returning sunlightenters the dark woods;Again shiningon the green moss, above.
Let’s listen, after a week of bombings and explosions and earthquakes, to something spare, something quiet.
Erik Satie (1866-1925), Sonneries de la Rose + Croix – Air du Grand Prieur (1892); Reinbert de Leeuw, piano
**********
lagniappe
radio
Happy Birthday, Charles Mingus!
Today it’s all Mingus, all day at WKCR-FM (Columbia University).
Once I start listening to this I don’t want to stop, ever.
The Original Gospel Harmonettes (featuring MCOTD Hall of Famer Dorothy Love Coates), “He’s Calling Me,” 1955
**********
lagniappe
art beat: Tuesday at the Chicago Cultural Center
Hale Woodruff (1900-1980), Old Farmhouse in Beauce Valley, 1928 (featured, through June 16th, in Rising Up: Hale Woodruff’s Murals at Talladega College)
*****
random thoughts
It seems to be difficult, if not impossible, for me to grasp the apparent fact that the distance between, say, 2010 and 1960, when I was eight years old, is just as great as that between 1960 and 1910.
basement jukebox
three by Randy Newman
“I Don’t Want To Hear Anymore” (AKA “I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore”), Jerry Butler, 1964
*****
“I’ve Been Wrong Before,” Cilla Black, 1965
*****
“Just One Smile,” Gene Pitney, 1966
**********
lagniappe
found words
Best of the Web: Celebs Who Are Older Than You Think
Chicago: 1970s
Junior Wells (vocals, harmonica), Buddy Guy (guitar), et al., live, Theresa’s, 48th & Indiana, Chicago, 1970s
keep on dancing
Hieroglyphic Being (AKA Jamal Moss), Imaginary Soundscapes (B1), 2013
Who knew electronic music could be so warm, so joyous?
late yesterday afternoon
After a court hearing and a client meeting, I stopped at the Chicago Cultural Center, where this piece—on a scale many times larger than this—is installed through May 5th. One-word review: go.
Shawn Decker, Prairie
*****
As with an outdoor prairie, what the current installation looks like—and sounds like—depends on where you’re situated. Here’s one view:
He knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, his understatement.
Ahmad Jamal Trio (AJ [1930-], piano; Israel Crosby [1919-1962], bass; Vernel Fournier [1928-2000], drums), “Excerpts From The Blues” (not “Ahmad’s Blues”), TV show, 1959
A friend, forwarding a link to this clip, writes:
If anything, even better than John Lee . . .
Lightnin’ Hopkins (1912-1982), “Lightnin’s Blues,” live, England, 1964
**********
lagniappe
more Lightnin’
From The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins (1967) by Les Blank, who was remembered here last week:
*****
free music
Another friend, with whom I worked, thirty-some years ago, at Alligator Records, writes:
Hi Richard,
I continue to receive these [notices of new blog posts] and explore them as I can. I wonder if you might share this with your email list?
It’s a free, downloadable sampler from Alligator Records to celebrate Public Radio Music Month! Seventeen soulful free blues, roots rock and R&B performances by some of the stars of Alligator Records’ current artist roster and a few of our beloved heritage artists. From Chicago to Texas, from New Orleans to California, a collection of some of Alligator’s best “Genuine Houserockin’ Music.” Join us in celebrating Public Radio Music Month! Download it here: http://tinyurl.com/AlligSampler.
Thanks. Of course you’ve heard this music yourself, but there might be some good things you had forgotten.
See you down the road.
Bruce [Iglauer]
back to church
Heavenly Gospel Singers, “Let Jesus Fix It”
Live, St. James Missionary Baptist Church, Canton, Miss., 1978
**********
lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music, the greatest good that mortals know,/And all of heaven we have here below.
—Joseph Addison (1672-1719), “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day”
music clip of the day 