music clip of the day

jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
2011

Tuesday, 2/8/11

three takes

Twenty inches of snow.

Fifty-mile-an-hour winds.

Thunder, lightning.

When the weather’s this bitter, shouldn’t the songs be too?

She wait till it got nine below zero . . .

Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Aleck “Rice” Miller), “Nine Below Zero”

Live (introduced by Memphis Slim; with Otis Spann, piano; Matt Murphy, guitar; Willie Dixon, bass; Billy Stepney, drums), Europe (Germany), 1963

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Recording (with Otis Spann, piano; Robert Jr. Lockwood & Luther Tucker, guitars; Willie Dixon, bass; Odie Payne, drums), Chess Records, Chicago, 12/14/60

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Recording (with Elmore James, guitar; Willie Love, piano; Cliff Givens, bass; Joe Dyson, drums), Trumpet Records, Jackson, Mississippi, 12/4/51

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Three Below Zero?

Seven Below Zero?

Ten Below Zero?

Sonny Boy nailed it with nine.

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2011

Monday, 2/7/11

You weren’t there Saturday (neither was I); but, hey, we’re here now.

North Mississippi Allstars (Luther [guitar] & Cody [drums] Dickinson [sons of the wonderful Jim Dickinson]), “Let It Roll,” “Ain’t No Grave,” live, Atlanta (Criminal Records), 2/5/11

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lagniappe

Keys to the Kingdom (new album)

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*****

reading table

Country Fair

If you didn’t see the six-legged dog,
It doesn’t matter.
We did, and he mostly lay in the corner.
As for the extra legs,

One got used to them quickly
And thought of other things.
Like, what a cold, dark night
To be out at the fair.

Then the keeper threw a stick
And the dog went after it
On four legs, the other two flapping behind,
Which made one girl shriek with laughter.

She was drunk and so was the man
Who kept kissing her neck.
The dog got the stick and looked back at us.
And that was the whole show.

—Charles Simic

Simic reads this here, beginning at 2:08:

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2011

Sunday, 2/6/11

In March of 1977, when he was 49 and I was 24 (and newly married),
my father died of a brain tumor; at his funeral, this filled the air.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo, “Amazing Grace” (with “Nearer My God To Thee”)

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More?

Here (Al Green).

Here (Grandpa Elliott).

And here (Aaron Neville).

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2011

Saturday, 2/5/11

three takes

I’ve got a band you should listen to . . .

—my (23-year-old) son Alex

Smith Westerns, “Tonight”

Live, Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania), 2010

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Live, Chicago, 2010

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Recording (Smith Westerns), 2009

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More Alex picks?

Here. And here. And here. And here.

And here. And here. And here.

And here. And here.

And here.

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2011

Friday, 2/4/11

fringe dress festival (cont’d)

Wanda Jackson, live (TV broadcast [Town Hall Party]), 1958

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2011

Thursday, 2/3/11

Music, like people, comes in all kinds. Some is easy to embrace, some thorny. I wouldn’t want to live without either.

Milton Babbitt, May 10, 1916-January 29, 2011

About Time, Alan Feinberg, piano

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String Quartet No. 2, Composers Quartet

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lagniappe

His music can be playful, too.

Semi-Simple Variations, The Bad Plus

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*****

If you know anybody who knows more popular music of the ’20s or ’30s than I do, I want to know who it is. I grew up playing every kind of music in the world, and I know more pop music from the ’20s and ’30s, it’s because of where I grew up. We had to imitate Jan Garber one night; we had to imitate Jean Goldkette the next night. We heard everything from the radio; we had to do it all by ear. We took down their arrangements; we stole their arrangements; we transcribed them, approximately. We played them for a country club dance one night and for a high school dance the next.

—Milton Babbitt

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2011

Wednesday, 2/2/11

How many musicians are so at home, and give so much pleasure,
in so many styles?

Marc Ribot, guitar

Border Music, with David Hidalgo (Los Lobos, Latin Playboys)

Live (with Anthony Coleman, organ; Brad Jones, bass; Cougar Estrada, drums; Fabian Hevia, percussion), Australia (Sydney), 6/2/10

“Choserita Plena” (Marc Ribot)

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“Chinese Surprize” (David Hidalgo)

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*****

Live (with Rob Burger, keyboards; Greg Cohen, bass; Cougar Estrada, drums; with guests Juan Medrano Cotito, cajon, and Hugo Bravo, congas),
Germany, 11/10/09

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More? Here. And here. And here.

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2011

Tuesday, 2/1/11

I can’t make up my mind about the Internet.

Does it make it possible, with simply a click, to travel anywhere in the world?

Or is it just a vast collection of electronic wallpaper?

Are these the right questions?

Baloji, “Tout Ceci Ne Vous Rendra Pas le Congo” (Hotel Impala), 2007

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lagniappe

radio

Having just completed two days of trumpeter Roy Eldridge’s music, WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) begins a 24-hour Memorial Broadcast honoring composer Milton Babbitt, who passed away Saturday at the age of 94.

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2011

Monday, 1/31/11

Roy Eldridge, January 30, 1911-February 26, 1989

No you, no me.

—Dizzy Gillespie

“I Can’t Get Started,” live (TV broadcast), 1958

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“After You’ve Gone,” 1937

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“Wabash Stomp,” 1937

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“Let Me Off Uptown” (Gene Krupa Orchestra with Anita O’Day), 1942

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lagniappe

radio Roy Eldridge

WKCR-FM’s centennial birthday celebration, mentioned yesterday, continues until midnight.

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2011

Sunday, 1/30/11

They don’t just sing about—they take you on—a journey.

“Heavenly Home (Got to Take a Journey),” live, Langrun Branch Baptist Church, York, South Carolina

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More? Here. And here.

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lagniappe

Happy (100th) Birthday, Roy!

For two full days—all day today and tomorrow—WCKR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) celebrates the birthday of trumpeter Roy Eldridge. (I’m listening as I type this—delicious!)


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