If you’d been in the back seat the other night, as my son Luke was zooming down the Kennedy Expressway—he was taking me home before heading back to school in Bloomington—here’s one of the things you would’ve heard jumping out of the radio.
J. Cole, “Power Trip” (feat. Miguel), 2013
keep on dancing
Moodymann (AKA Moody), “Anotha Black Sunday” (2009)
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lagniappe
random thoughts
One benefit of getting older, I’ve found, is that you develop a keener appreciation for just how much you have to be humble about.
two takes
“When Something Is Wrong With My Baby” (I. Hayes & D. Porter)
Sam & Dave, live, Germany (Offenbach), 1967
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Isaac Hayes, TV Show (Top of the Pops), England, 1995
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lagniappe
reading table
“The World Contracted to a Recognizable Image”
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)at the small end of an illness
there was a picture
probably Japanese
which filled my eyean idiotic picture
except it was all I recognized
the wall lived for me in that picture
I clung to it as a fly
back to church
The Wings of Faith, of Waynesboro, Mississippi (pop. 5,197), live, 2012
This seems, somehow, to these ears, anyway, to fit a day when the ashes of my mother-in-law are being buried.
Revolutionary Ensemble (Leroy Jenkins, violin; Sirone, bass; Jerome Cooper, drums), “Chicago” (Live at Moosham Castle, 1977)
basement jukebox
Magic Sam (AKA Samuel Maghett, 1937-1969), Cobra Records, Chicago
“All Your Love,” 1957
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“Love Me with a Feeling,” 1957
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“Everything Gonna Be Alright,” 1958
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“21 Days In Jail,” 1958
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taking a break
I’m taking some time off—back soon.
Kidd Jordan Quartet (KJ, tenor saxophone; Billy Bang, violin; William Parker, bass; Hamid Drake, drums), New York (Vision Festival), 2008
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
We tend to take musical instruments for granted, as if their existence were inevitable. But the fact that something exists doesn’t mean it had to. We could’ve been born into a world that never heard a violin.
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reading table
“What kind of heaven is that, you can’t have your records?”
—Michael Chabon, Telegraph Avenue
yesterday afternoon
I took a journey that began in late 18th-century Austria, proceeded to mid-20th-century Russia, and concluded in early 20th-century France. Joseph Haydn, Dmitri Shostakovich, Maurice Ravel—they were the hosts. These folks, playing at the University of Chicago’s new Logan Arts Center, were the guides. If one day I learned that my life would be over at midnight, I’d be happy to spend the afternoon, after lunching at a Mexican restaurant (maybe Nuevo Leon on 18th Street), listening to a string quartet.
Pacifica Quartet, New York, 2009; Leo Janacek (1854-1928), String Quartet No. 2 (“Intimate Letters”), first movement
Voices, hands.
Guitar, bass, drums.
And soul.
Sensational Friendly Brothers, Canton, Mississippi (St. James Missionary Baptist Church), 1978
“Where Shall I Be (When the First Trumpet Sounds)”
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“Heaven Is My Goal”
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lagniappe
Thanks, Richard—great clips too.
—George Saunders, featured here the other day
alone
Johann Sebastian Bach, Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, 2nd movement (fugue)
Henryk Szeryng (1918-1988), violin
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
A world where Bach could be heard via the internet by anyone, anywhere, anytime, could seem, so long as other things were overlooked, a paradise.
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From an interview with composer and conductor Pierre Boulez:
Q. What is the main problem with young conducting students?
A. They think too much or too little.
music clip of the day 