Friday, April 17th
like nobody else
Nina Simone ([1933-2003], vocals, piano), “Tomorrow Is My Turn” (Charles Aznavour, “L’amour c’est comme un jour”), live, Netherlands, 1965
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Illinois
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Tag: Nina Simone
2023
Friday, December 22nd
like nobody else
Nina Simone (1933-2003), “To Love Somebody” (B. Gibb, R. Gibb), live, France (Antibes), 1969
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
2022
Tuesday, February 22nd
basement jukebox
Nina Simone (1933-2003), “Come On Back, Jack,” 1961
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
2021
Monday, July 26th
like nobody else
Nina Simone (1933-2003), “Ain’t Got No, I Got Life” (J. Rado, G. Ragni, G. MacDermot), live, London, 1968
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
Rising from sickness, I lean on a cane and stand by the river.
Countless peach petals flow downstream.—Ryokan (1758-1831), from “Upon getting up from sickness in late spring” (translated from the Japanese by Kazuaki Tanahashi)
2019
Saturday, November 30th
like nobody else
Nina Simone (1933-2003, vocals, piano), “Wild Is the Wind” (D. Tiomkin, N. Washington), live, New York, 1964
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
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reading table
The challenge: balance. Keep it steady,
now sniffing daffodils’ aroma,
now Googling a rare sarcoma.—Rachel Hadas (1948-), from “Love and Dread” (New Yorker, 11/18/19)
2018
Sunday, May 20th
six takes
“Nobody’s Fault but Mine” (aka “It’s Nobody’s Fault but Mine”)
Ry Cooder, 2018
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Pops Staples, 2015 (recorded 1998)
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Willie Nelson, 2010
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Nina Simone, 1969
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe, 1949
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Blind Willie Johnson, 1927
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lagniappe
random sights
last night, Oak Park, Ill.
2017
Saturday, December 2nd
two takes
“Feeling Good” (A. Newley, L. Bricusse)
Lauryn Hill (feat. Kamasi Washington, tenor saxophone), live, Italy (Lucca), 2017
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Nina Simone (1933-2003), 1965
2014
Monday, March 24th
like nobody else
Nina Simone (“Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” [Trad.], “To Love Somebody” [B. Gibb, R. Gibb], “Suzanne” [L. Cohen], “Save Me” [A. Franklin], “Porgy, I Is Your Woman Now”/”Today Is A Killer”/”I Loves You Porgy” [G. Gershwin, D. Heyward]), live, Rome, 1969
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, 1940s
2012
Tuesday, 4/3/12
One singer’s garbage is another’s gold.
Nina Simone, “Ain’t Got No/I Got Life” (adapted from Hair)
Live, New York (Harlem Cultural Festival), 1969
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lagniappe
yesterday
Listening to the radio, where they were talking about post-war modernist architecture, I learned a new term for people my age: “mid-century.”
2012
Tuesday, 1/24/12
If you’re looking for sunshine, you’ll have to go elsewhere.
This is one of the saddest, darkest, most chilling things I know.
Nina Simone, “Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair”
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lagniappe
reading table
[L]ife needs a lot of imaginative fixing, since it regularly fails to provide us with wild adventure and comfortable closure. ‘In life,’ Proust wrote in a notebook, ‘novels don’t finish.'”
—Michael Wood, “At the Movies,” London Review of Books, 1/5/12
music clip of the day 