Friday, January 23rd
basement jukebox
Sonny Boy Williamson (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller, 1912[?]-1965), “Nine Below Zero” (S. B. Williamson), 1951
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Illinois (Conservatory)
music clip of the day
jazz/blues/rock/classical/gospel/more
Tag: Sonny Boy Williamson
2022
Wednesday, January 26th
basement jukebox
Sonny Boy Williamson (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller, 1912[?]-1965), “Nine Below Zero” (S. B. Williamson), 1951
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lagniappe
reading table
Drooping
in this upside-down world,
a bamboo in the snow.—Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), translated from the Japanese by Tom Lowenstein
2019
Friday, February 1st
two takes
Sonny Boy Williamson (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller, 1912[?]-1965), “Lonesome Cabin” (S. B. Williamson)
Recording, 1960
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Live, Copenhagen, 1964
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lagniappe
reading table
on honorable Buddha’s
honorable nose
an icicle—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
2019
Thursday, January 31st
basement jukebox
Sonny Boy Williamson (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller, 1912[?]-1965), “Nine Below Zero” (S. B. Williamson), 1951
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
How it haunts the heart, the unfathomable mystery of other people’s lives, other people’s misfortunes.
—John Banville, Time Pieces: A Dublin Memoir
2013
Friday, November 29th
two takes
“Don’t Start Me Talkin'” (S. Williamson)
Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller), recording, 1955
*****
Bob Dylan, TV show (David Letterman), 1984
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lagniappe
reading table
There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.
—Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
2012
Monday, 2/13/12
There are all kinds of love songs.
Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Aleck [or Alex] “Rice” Miller), “Your Funeral and My Trial,” live, Europe, 1960s
More? Here.
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lagniappe
reading table
Moonlight in the kitchen is a sign of God.
—Anne Carson, “God’s Work” (excerpt)
2011
Tuesday, 2/8/11
three takes
Twenty inches of snow.
Fifty-mile-an-hour winds.
Thunder, lightning.
When the weather’s this bitter, shouldn’t the songs be too?
She wait till it got nine below zero . . .
Sonny Boy Williamson II (AKA Aleck “Rice” Miller), “Nine Below Zero”
Live (introduced by Memphis Slim; with Otis Spann, piano; Matt Murphy, guitar; Willie Dixon, bass; Billy Stepney, drums), Europe (Germany), 1963
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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Recording (with Otis Spann, piano; Robert Jr. Lockwood & Luther Tucker, guitars; Willie Dixon, bass; Odie Payne, drums), Chess Records, Chicago, 12/14/60
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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Recording (with Elmore James, guitar; Willie Love, piano; Cliff Givens, bass; Joe Dyson, drums), Trumpet Records, Jackson, Mississippi, 12/4/51
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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Three Below Zero?
Seven Below Zero?
Ten Below Zero?
Sonny Boy nailed it with nine.
2010
Saturday, 12/25/10
Merry Christmas!
Bessie Smith (with Joe Smith, cornet; Charlie Green, trombone; Fletcher Henderson, piano), “At the Christmas Ball” (1925)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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Lowell Fulson, “Lonesome Christmas (I & II)” (1950)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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Sonny Boy Williamson, “Sonny Boy’s Christmas Blues” (1951)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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lagniappe
radio: all Bach, all the time
WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) is currently in the midst of their annual Bach Festival, which runs through the end of the year.
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reading table
Barn’s burnt down—
now
I can see the moon.—Mitzuta Masahide (trans. Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto), 1657-1723
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going forward
I won’t be here every day; but I’ll be here often.
music clip of the day 