Sunday, January 28th
timeless
Mahalia Jackson with Louis Armstrong, “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” live, Newport Jazz Festival (Newport, R.I.), 1970
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill. (Oak Park Conservatory)
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Tag: Louis Armstrong
2017
Saturday, January 7th
two takes
“What a Wonderful World” (B. Thiele & G.D. Weiss)
George Adams (1940-1992; tenor saxophone) & Don Pullen (1941-1995; piano), live, Japan (Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival), 1989
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Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), live (TV show), England, 1967
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Chicago (Columbus Park)
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what we’re about to lose
Michelle Obama, speaking to a gathering of school counselors at the White House (excerpt), yesterday
Our glorious diversity—our diversities of faiths, and colors, and creeds—that is not a threat to who we are; it makes us who we are.
2016
Monday, July 4th
Happy Fourth!
Let’s celebrate by remembering three giants.
Ralph Stanley, singer, banjo player, February 25, 1927-June 23, 2016
“Little Maggie,” live (TV show), Austin, Tx., 1980
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Bernie Worrell, keyboard player, April 19, 1944-June 24, 2016
Live (with George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic), Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 2004
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Scotty Moore, guitar player, December 27, 1931-June 28, 2016
“Blue Suede Shoes” (with Elvis Presley), live, 1956
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lagniappe
radio
Today, Louis Armstrong’s adopted birthday, it’s all Louis all day at WKCR (Columbia University).
2015
Saturday, July 4th
Happy 4th of July!
This country has gotten a lot of things wrong—music it got right.
The Blasters, “American Music,” live, Champaign, Ill., 1985
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lagniappe
art beat
Bruce Davidson (1933-), Chicago (south side blues bar), 1962
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radio: WKCR (Columbia University)
What better way to celebrate Louis Armstrong’s adopted birthday than to play his music around the clock?
2013
Sunday, August 4th
Offstage she may be quiet, even shy. Onstage? That’s a different story: she’s filled with the Spirit.
Chicago Mass Choir (feat. Pam Crawford), “He’s Gonna Work It Out”
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lagniappe
radio
Today, his 112th birthday, it’s all Louis Armstrong all day at WKCR-FM (Columbia University).
2013
Thursday, July 4th
Happy 4th of July!
It’s easy, sometimes, to take even great blessings for granted, like, for instance, living within walking distance—yes, walking distance—of a wonderful club (FitzGerald’s), where, last night, at their annual American Music Festival (three stages, four days), now in its thirty-third year, I saw these folks.
Joe Hall & The Louisiana Cane Cutters, live, Louisiana (Breaux Bridge), 2009
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Sleepy LaBeef, “Strange Things Happening Every Day” (plus interview), TV show (Late Night with Conan O’Brien), 1994
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The Paladins, “Kiddeo,” live, Netherlands, 2007
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lagniappe
radio
Today, celebrating one of his birthdays (a long story), WKCR-FM (Columbia University) will be playing Louis Armstrong—and nothing but—all day.
2013
Wednesday, February 13th
a week in New Orleans: day three
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five
“West End Blues” (Joe “King” Oliver), 1928
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King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band
“Dipper Mouth Blues” (Joe “King” Oliver), 1923
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lagniappe
reading table
America, to me, should be shouting all the time, a bunch of shouting voices, most of them wrong, some of them nuts, but please, not just one droning glamorous reasonable voice.
—George Saunders, “My Flamboyant Grandson” (In Persuasion Nation)
2012
Wednesday, 7/4/12
rock ’n’ roll
country
gospel
blues
jazz
A world without American music: what would it sound like?
The Blasters, “American Music,” Champaign, Ill., 1985
(Originally posted 7/5/10.)
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Merle Haggard, “Lonesome Fugitive,” Buck Owens Ranch Show, 1966
(Originally posted 4/6/12.)
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Slim and the Victory Aires, “Alright Now,” Paducah, Ky., 2008
(Originally posted 3/11/12)
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Johnny Shines (1915-1992), vocals, guitar; David “Honeyboy” Edwards (1915-2011), guitar; Big Walter Horton (1917-1981), harmonica; “For The Love of Mike,” 1978
(Originally posted 10/4/11.)
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Von Freeman, tenor saxophone; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone (first solo); Willie Pickens, piano; Dan Shapera, bass; Robert Shy, drums; “Oleo” (S. Rollins), Chicago (Chicago Jazz Festival), 1988
(Originally posted 5/3/12.)
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lagniappe
radio
All Pops, all day:
Tune in on July 4th, Independence Day . . . as we celebrate the professed (although according to historians, not actual) birthday of Jazz great and American Hero, the trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong, by playing 24 hours straight of his music, from midnight to midnight.
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encore*
Dave Alvin with the Blasters, “4th of July,” Berwyn, Ill. (Fitzgerald’s), 2010
*By popular demand (see Comments).
2011
Saturday, 11/19/11
old stuff
Bertha “Chippie” Hill (with Louis Armstrong, cornet), “Trouble In Mind”
Rec. 2/23/1926, Chicago
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Growing up in the 1960s, the 1920s seemed as far away as the other side of the moon. No more—time changes your perspective on time. The distance between, say, 1926 and 1966 is smaller than that between 1966 and today.
The 1920s? They’re just down the block and around the corner.
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reading table
1926
The porchlight coming on again,
Early November, the dead leaves
Raked in piles, the wicker swing
Creaking. Across the lots
A phonograph is playing Ja-Da.An orange moon. I see the lives
Of neighbors, mapped and marred
Like all the wars ahead, and R.
Insane, B. with his throat cut,
Fifteen years from now, in Omaha.I did not know them then.
My airedale scratches at the door.
And I am back from seeing Milton Sills
And Doris Kenyon. Twelve years old.
The porchlight coming on again.—Weldon Kees (1914-1955)
music clip of the day 