like nobody else
Nina Simone (“Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” [Trad.], “To Love Somebody” [B. Gibb, R. Gibb], “Suzanne” [L. Cohen], “Save Me” [A. Franklin], “Porgy, I Is Your Woman Now”/”Today Is A Killer”/”I Loves You Porgy” [G. Gershwin, D. Heyward]), live, Rome, 1969
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, 1940s
sweet soul music
D’Angelo and The Soultronics (Questlove, drums; Pino Palladino, bass; Chalmers “Spanky” Alford, guitar; Frank Lacy, trombone, trumpet; Anthony Hamilton, vocals, et al.), “Send It On,” live, London, 2000
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, c. 1940
two takes
“Strange Man” (D. L. Coates)
Patty Griffin, live, London, 2013
***
Dorothy Love Coates (1928-2002; MCOTD Hall of Famer), recording, 1968
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, c. 1940
three takes
This guy, like Monk, could take a familiar form, open it up, and create something both old and new.
Julius Hemphill (1938-1995), “The Hard Blues”
Live (with members of the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra and the Either/Orchestra), Boston, 1989
***
Recording (JH, alto saxophone, flute; Baikida E.J. Carroll, trumpet; Hamiet Bluiett, baritone saxophone; Abdul Wadud, cello; Philip Wilson, drums), recorded 1972 (first released on Coon Bid’ness, 1975)
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Recording (Julius Hemphill, alto saxophone; Marty Ehrlich, soprano and alto saxophone, flute; Carl Grubbs, soprano and alto saxophone; James Carter, tenor saxophone; Andrew White. tenor saxophone; Sam Furnace, baritone saxophone, flute), 1991
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, c. 1940
five takes
“Where We’ll Never Grow Old,” AKA “Never Grow Old” (J. Moore, 1914)
Patty Griffin with Buddy Miller, live, 2010
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The Canton Spirituals, live, c. 1990
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The Carter Family, recording, 1932
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Aretha Franklin, live, Detroit, 1996
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Johnny Cash, recording, 2004
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York
adlib-ability
Drummer Big Black (AKA Daniel Ray, 1934-), talking and playing (with Go: Organic Orchestra, Venice, Calif., 2005)
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, c. 1940
sounds of Chicago
Here’s another track I co-produced long ago, in a world without CDs, or MP3s, or Internet.
Pinetop Perkins (1913-2011), “Blues After Hours” (Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 2, Alligator Records, 1978)
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, c. 1940
sounds of Chicago
The Staple Singers, “Sit Down Servant,” live (TV show), 1963
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, c. 1940
sounds of Chicago
Baby Huey, “Hard Times” (C. Mayfield), 1971
Stand Up Guys, 2012
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, c. 1940
three takes
“Move On Up A Little Higher” (W. Herbert Brewster)
Mahalia Jackson, radio broadcast, early 1950s
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Brother Joe May, live, early 1950s
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Rev. Timothy Flemming Sr., live, Atlanta, 1976
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago (with my son Alex)
Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee, In the Street (1948), featured in the exhibit Film and Photo in New York (through 11/25/12)
(For better quality go to the “Settings” icon [lower right] and select 480p.)
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random thoughts
Sixty years ago today Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected the thirty-fourth President of the United States and, closer to home, my parents’ second son was born. What’s it like turning sixty? Surprising. But no more surprising, I suppose, than finding oneself entwined, in perpetuity, with Ike.
music clip of the day 