more
Whitney Houston (1963-2012), “I Love The Lord/Joy To The World,” live (with the Georgia Mass Choir), 1996
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
*****
reading table
Since there is nothing but just this moment, the time-being is all the time there is.
—Dōgen (1200-1253), translated from the Japanese (“The Time-Being,” Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dōgen [Kazuaki Tanahashi, ed.])
testify!
Whitney Houston (1963-2012), “God Will Take Care of You,” live, Evangelical Fellowship Church, Pleasantville, N.J., 1998
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lagniappe
random sights
this morning, Oak Park, Ill.
alone
This performance, which I first posted over a decade ago (when she was alive), still takes my breath away. Listen how, after hitting a peak, she pulls back (2:00-, 3:50-).
Whitney Houston (1963-2012), “A Quiet Place” (J. Cleveland), live (TV show), 1987
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lagniappe
random sights
yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.
electrifying
Cissy Houston (1933-, Whitney’s mother, Dionne Warwick’s aunt), “I Do, Don’t You,” live
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lagniappe
random sights
other day, Oak Park, Ill.
mother & daughter
Cissy & Whitney Houston, medley (“(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone,” “Ain’t No Way,” “You Send Me”), live (TV show), 1983
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lagniappe
reading table
He spreads the paper flat and pushes down its dog-eared corners. The paper was once white, and now it is yellow, he thinks. Once flat, now creased. And there is the truth about life: once this, then that.
—Samantha Harvey, The Wilderness
Back to church.
Whitney Houston (1963-2012), “God Will Take Care of You,” live (11:35-16:35), Evangelical Fellowship Church (Dr. Fred Jenkins Jr.), Pleasantville, N.J., 1998
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lagniappe
art beat
Helen Levitt (1913-2009), New York, 1980
There is, it appears, a new addition to the list of activities that threaten national security—channeling Whitney Houston, badly.
An American Airlines pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger refused to stop singing Whitney Houston’s hit song I Will Always Love You.
The solo performance began shortly into the flight from Los Angeles to New York and her crooning quickly became too much for passengers and staff on the domestic flight last Thursday.
The pilot was forced to change course halfway through the six hour flight and make an unscheduled stop at Kansas City so officers could escort the woman from the plane.
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lagniappe
reading table
“Pastoral Harpsichord”
by Charles Simic
A house with a screened-in porch
On the road to nowhere.
The missus topless because of the heat,
A bag of Frito Banditos in her lap.
President Bush on TV
Watching her every bite.Poor reception, that’s the one
Advantage we have here,
I said to the mutt lying at my feet
And sighing in sympathy.
On another channel the preacher
Came chaperoned by his ghost
When he shut his eyes full of tears
To pray for dollars.“Bring me another beer,” I said to her ladyship,
And when she wouldn’t oblige,
I went out to make chamber music
Against the sunflowers in the yard.
William Ferguson, “The Music They Made,” New York Times (12/27/12): Etta James, Dave Brubeck, Davy Jones, Levon Helm, Donna Summer, Chuck Brown, Ed Cassidy, Greg Ham, Jimmy Castor, Ravi Shankar, Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Ronnie Montrose, Jon Lord, Michael Davis, Joe South, Chavela Vargas, Duck Dunn, Johnny Otis, Whitney Houston, Jimmy Ellis, Adam Yauch, Mickey Baker, Bill Doss, Ketty Wells, Bob Babbitt, Robin Gibb, Andy Williams, Terry Callier
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
To love anything—music, literature, comedy, sports, whatever—is to be perpetually saying goodbye.
*****
reading table
clamoring geese—
over there is the year
ending too?—Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1827 (translated from Japanese by David G. Lanoue)
*****
found words
FASTEN SEATBELT WHILE SEATED
USE BOTTOM CUSHION FOR FLOTATION—Saturday morning, on a flight from Chicago to a family gathering in Lincoln, Nebraska, this was on the back of the seat in front of me
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random thoughts
Some things are better left unexamined. Like, for instance, flying on a commercial airplane. If I thought much about it, I’d never do it.
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radio
WKCR-FM’s Bach Festival, mentioned the other day, concludes at midnight.
the first voice Whitney heard
Emily “Cissy” Houston (born Emily Drinkard), singer, 1933-
The Drinkard Singers (Cissy Houston, lead vocals), “Lift Him Up,” live (TV broadcast), c. early 1960s
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lagniappe
Live (TV broadcast), 1970
“Be My Baby” (P. Spector, J. Barry & E. Greenwich)
***
“I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” (B. Bacharach & H. David)
*****
listening room: (some of) what’s playing
• Ambrose Akinmusire, When the Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note)
• Johann Sebastian Bach, Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, Pierre Fournier, cello (Archiv Production)
• Johann Sebastian Bach, Well-Tempered Clavier, Glenn Gould, piano (Sony)
• Johann Sebastian Bach, Partitas Nos. 3, 4, 6, Jeremy Denk, piano (Azica)
• Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonatas Nos. 14 (“Moonlight”), 8 (“Pathetique”), 23 (“Appassionata”), Rudolf Serkin, piano (CBS)
• Alfred Cortot, The Master Pianist (EMI)
• Claude Debussy, Pour Le Piano, Etudes Books 1 & 2, Gordon Fergus-Thompson, piano (Musical Heritage Society)
• The Dirtbombs, Ultraglide In Black (In the Red Records)
• Morton Feldman, For Bunita Marcus, John Tilbury, piano (London Hall)
• Morton Feldman, Piano and String Quartet, Aki Takahashi (piano), Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch)
• Mary Halvorson Quintet, Saturn Sings (Firehouse)
• Slim Harpo, The Best of Slim Harpo (Hip-O)
• Paul Hindemith, Benjamin Britten, Krzysztof Penderecki; Kim Kashkashian (viola), Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Dennis Russell Davies, cond.), Lachrymae (ECM)
• Steve Lehman Octet, Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi Recordings)
• Jimmie Lunceford, The Complete Jimmie Lunceford Decca Sessions (Mosaic)
• Guilliaume de Michaut, Motets, The Hilliard Ensemble (ECM)
• Paul Motian Trio (with Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell), Sound of Love (Winter & Winter)
• Mudd Up!, WFMU-FM (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
• Pee Wee Russell, Swingin’ with Pee Wee (Prestige)
• Pharoah Sanders, Karma (GRP)
• Pharoah Sanders, Live (Evidence)
• Giacinto Scelsi, Natura Renovatur (ECM)
• Arnold Schoenberg, Piano Works, Peter Serkin, piano (Arcana)
• Sinner’s Crossroads, WFMU-FM (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
• Craig Taborn, Avenging Angel (ECM)
• Toru Takemitsu, Peter Serkin Plays the Music of Toru Takemitsu, Peter Serkin, piano (RCA/BMG)
• Anton Webern, Complete Music for String Quartet, Quartetto Italiano (Philips)
• Anton Webern, Works for String Quartet, Emerson Quartet (Deutsche Grammaphon)
• Wild Flag, Wild Flag (Merge)
passings
Whitney Houston, singer, August 9, 1963-February 11, 2012
What takes your breath away isn’t the way she pulls out all the stops—lots of singers do that. It’s how she pulls back (2:00-2:35, 3:00-3:20, etc.).
“A Quiet Place,” TV show (with mother Cissy Houston looking on), 1980s
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As a girl she sang at her family’s church.
New Hope Baptist Church, Newark, New Jersey, 1970s
(First clip originally posted 7/25/10, second 1/18/12.)
music clip of the day 