alone
The world seems, sometimes, like an uncatalogued collection of miracles.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Partita No. 6 in E minor; Glenn Gould (1932-1982), piano
what’s new
The Flaming Lips, “Turning Violent”
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Given all the things that can go wrong with the human mind, it’s a wonder any of us function at all.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918), String Quartet in G minor (1893), first movement; Cypress String Quartet, 2006
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
I wouldn’t want to listen to the same kind of music every day any more than I’d want to eat the same kind of food.
What’s needed sometimes, like, for instance, the other morning, when I was driving to court for a hearing in a murder case, slid this into the CD player, and cranked up the volume, is something to get your juices going.
Mark Ernestus, “Mark Ernestus Meets BBC,” 2011
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lagniappe
reading table
“Come see
the crappy house at night!”
croak the frogs—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), 1807 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
baseball and boogie–woogie
In advance of tonight’s All-Star game, here’s the answer to a baseball trivia question: Who’s the finest musician ever to work between the foul lines? This guy, “the progenitor of boogie-woogie piano,” played for the Chicago All-Americans, a Negro league team, during World War I, then worked for twenty-five years as a groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox.
Jimmy Yancey (1894 [or 1898]-1951), piano, “Yancey Stomp,” 1939
only rock ’n’ roll
Phil Lee & The Sly Dogs, “A Night in the Box”
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lagniappe
random thoughts
Yesterday, a perfect summer day, walking in the woods with my son’s dog Roscoe, I was reminded, repeatedly, that the thing about nature—the thing that makes an experience like this fundamentally different from, say, sitting in my living room reading a book—is this: it’s buggy.
This guy played with everyone from The Mighty Clouds of Joy to Al Green to The Canton Spirituals to The Roots to (as we heard Friday) D’Angelo.
Chalmers “Spanky” Alford (1955-2008), guitar, “The Lord’s Prayer”
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lagniappe
reading table
We are never all of a piece . . .
—Marcel Proust (1871-1922), Sodom and Gomorrah (translated from French by John Sturrock)
D’Angelo (with Questlove, drums; Pino Palladino, bass; Kuumba Frank Lacy, trombone, trumpet; Chalmers “Spanky” Alford, guitar; Anthony Hamilton, vocals, et al.), live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 2000
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
No stage anywhere in the world can compare with the one that exists in the imagination. Where else can you find Jimi Hendrix jamming with Miles Davis? Sam Cooke singing with Smokey Robinson? Sly Stone taking everybody higher with Sun Ra?
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Happy Birthday, Suzanne!
No piano or organ. No guitar. No bass, no drums. So many things aren’t here. But nothing’s missing.
Heavenly Gospel Singers, “Sit Down Servant and Rest Awhile,” live, St. James Missionary Baptist Church, Canton, Mississippi, 1978
music clip of the day 