old school
Arthur Conley (1946-2003), “Nothing Can Change This Love” (S. Cooke), live (TV show), Netherlands (Amsterdam), 2001
Screwdriver business just gets me confused . . .
Billy Bragg, “Handyman Blues,” 2013
basement jukebox
Tina Harvey, “Nowhere To Run” (Holland-Dozier-Holland), 1972
*****
Ted Taylor, “You Got To Feel It,” 1969
two takes: “Vana Vasesi”
Mancingelani (South Africa), 2010
***
Theo Parrish Remix, 2011
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lagniappe
found words
I love America but America don’t love me.
—a guy sitting in front of me on the ‘L’, over and over
Happy (83rd) Birthday, Ornette!
Ornette Coleman Quartet (OC, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden, bass; Billy Higgins, drums), live, Spain (Barcelona), 1987
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
How can I turn emotion into knowledge? That’s what I try to do with my horn.
***
It’s not that I reject categories. It’s that I don’t really know what categories are.
***
You take the alphabet of the English language. A to Z. A symbol attached to a sound. In music you have what are called notes and the key. In life you’ve got an idea and an emotion. We think of them as different concepts. To me, there is no difference.
***
The violin, the saxophone, the trumpet: Each makes a very different sound but the very same notes. That’s pretty heavy, you know? Imagine how many different races make up the human race. I’m called colored, you’re called white, he’s called something else. We still got an asshole and a mouth. Pardon me.
***
I don’t try to please when I play. I try to cure.
*****
radio
All Ornette, all day: WKCR-FM (Columbia University).
alone
John Cage, Solo for flute, from Concert for Piano (1958); Eric Lamb, flute (International Contemporary Ensemble); Chicago, 2012
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
Music is theater for the ear. Take this performance. The phrasing, the interplay between sound and silence—this unfolds like something by Samuel Beckett.
*****
taking a(nother) break
Back in a while.
Lord, have mercy . . .
Rev. Gary Davis, “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” c. 1970
last night
I heard a concert, at the University of Chicago, devoted to the work of this man, a composer, a longtime professor, a MacArthur “genius” grant recipient. The performances featured different combinations of violin, viola, cello, clarinet, and piano. The music was often thorny. Occasionally whimsical. Frequently emphatic. Sometimes beautiful. And wholly absorbing.
Ralph Shapey (1921-2002), String Quartet No. 6 (1963)
The Lexington Quartet of the Contemporary Players of the University of Chicago
#1
#2
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
To me, [it’s] very important that [the audience] can recall it as an emotional experience; as though it were something they could hold in their hands.
—Ralph Shapey
Let’s end the week where we began—Europe, 1967, Sam & Dave.
“Hold On, I’m Comin'” (with Booker T. & the M.G.’s* and The Mar-Keys**), Norway
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lagniappe
random thoughts
The Internet, which reminds us, repeatedly, that there is here and then is now, may make Buddhists of us all.
*****
*Booker T. Jones, organ; Steve Cropper, guitar; Donald “Duck” Dunn, bass; Al Jackson, Jr., drums.
**Wayne Jackson, trumpet; Andrew Love & Joe Arnold, tenor saxophones.
music clip of the day 