sounds of joy
This I could listen to all day.
Hariprasad Chaurasia (1938-; bansuri [bamboo flute]) & Vijay Ghate (1964-; tabla), Raag Jog, live, Italy (Cabella), 2007
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music offers an escape from the swamp of the self.
alone
Charley Patton (1891-1934), “Prayer of Death,” 1929
only rock ’n’ roll
The Ex & Brass Unbound,* “Cold Weather Is Back,” live, London, 2010
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lagniappe
art beat: yesterday at the Art Institute of Chicago
Christopher Wool (1955-)
*****
*Roy Paci (trumpet), Wolkter Wierbos (trombone), Ken Vandermark (tenor saxophone), Mats Gustaffson (baritone saxophone).
sounds of New York
Raya Brass Band, live, New York, 2014
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, 1972
basement jukebox
Howlin’ Wolf, “Moanin’ at Midnight,” 1951*
Who needs chord changes?
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Wolf’s harmonica playing was always the right amount. He would never do anything on the harmonica that would detract from you waiting to get back to Wolf’s voice. . . . There is a certain lonesomeness about the harmonica that just fit the Wolf’s character in voice, in song, in lyric; and he just played that just enough to titillate things he was going to do next with his voice.
***
*HW (AKA Chester Burnett [1910-1976], vocals, harmonica), Willie Johnson (guitar), Willie Steel, drums.
soundtrack for a dream
Marcos Balter (1974-), Frisson (2011); Chicago Composers Orchestra (Matthew Kasper, cond.) with Eric Lamb (flute), Chicago, 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
Speculative, imaginative writings—texts that ‘open possibility’—help us to live because the definitions by which we live are themselves productions of the cultural imaginary.
—Frances Richard, “Multitudes” (Poetry, May, 2014)
sounds of New York
M.A.K.U. Sound System, “El Jugo,” 2013
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, 1972
two takes
“This May Be The Last Time”
Pastor Brady Blade Sr., Zion Baptist Church, Shreveport, La., April 13, 2014
*****
The Staple Singers, 1961
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lagniappe
art beat
William Eggleston (1939-)
never enough
Three more takes on what we heard Thursday.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor (2nd Movt.)
Henryk Szeryng (1918-1988), live
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Arthur Grumiaux (1921-1986), recording
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Yoojin Jang (1990-), live
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lagniappe
reading table
[A] mad person not helped out of his trouble by anything real begins to trust what is not real because it helps him and he needs it because real things continue not to help him.
—Lydia Davis, “Liminal: The Little Man” (The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis)
music clip of the day 