Elizabeth Hardwick:

“Perhaps,” she once observed, “the love of, or the intense need for, reading is psychological, an eccentricity, even something like a neurosis, that is, a pattern of behavior that persists beyond its usefulness, which is controlled by inner forces and which in turn controls.” (quoted in Steve Wasserman, "Steve Wasserman on the Fate of Books After the Age of Print")

Young at Heart

I haven't listened to much Phineas Newborn Jr., but I love this quote:

Before we went to Europe in 1979, I'd asked Phineas what he considered the most important thing for a young musician to keep in mind.

 'Stay young at heart. That's the right idea as far as I'm concerned. Play young at heart. Play the way you feel. A thing of value outlasts a thing that has no value. Attempt to produce things of value as you go along. If it's worthless, it won't last; if it has value, it generally does--an eternity, almost, in minds and hearts.' (Phineas Newborn, Jr., quoted in Stanley Booth, Rhythm Oil)

Bonus Playlist from the Magic Jukebox

When Rodger started his NuVoid, he would post lists of what he'd been listening to each week. I like seeing his playlists; it constantly reminds me of how much I don't know.  I've always liked keeping lists of various things going. Back in 1965, I began keeping a list of every book I read and every movie I watched. I still keep both of those lists, handwritten in a big green ledger book.  So I began submitting my own playlists as comments on Rodger's blog, since I had never been in the habit of actually making note of all that I listened to. For my weekly playlists, I only list full albums that I get through, but that's not the whole story. I also get in at least an hour or two of listening to individual songs on my iPod (affectionately dubbed "The Magic Jukebox," after an old 45 EP I had of Howdy Doody). I tend to play shuffle, so I cover a lot of ground. I don't have the time or inclination to record every single song I listen to there, but every so often I'll stick in a random run from the Magic Jukebox to convey an idea of what else I'm listening to.  So here's a bonus playlist, from earlier this month.

Magic Jukebox Playlist, 1st couple of weeks of November 2013:

1. Anthony Braxton Quartet: No. 23N (Willisau)

2. Boston Spaceships: Inspiration Points

3. Circulatory System: Diary of Wood

4. Touch: Miss Teach

5. Impressions: Little Young Lover

6. Funkadelic: Butt-to-Butt Resuscitation

7. Charlie Parker: Ah-Leu-Cha

8. Louis Armstrong & Clarence Williams: Coal Cart Blues

9. Sun Ra: Early Autumn

10. Beach Boys: Won’t You Tell Me

11. Billie Holiday: Your Mother’s Son-in-Law

12. Marvelettes: Danger Heartbreak Ahead

13. XTC: Washaway

14. Olivia Tremor Control: Green Typewriters

15. Pavement: Grave Architecture

16. Circulatory System: Forever

17. Collegians: Zoom Zoom Zoom

18. Rolling Stones: Out of Time

19. Negro Problem: Peter Jennings

20. Sun Ra: Somebody Else’s Idea (Nightstage, 1989)

21. Sun Ra: El Viktor

22. Beach Boys: Good Good Good Vibrations (1st version w/overdubs)

23. Husker Du: 59 Times the Pain

24. Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas: I’ll Be on My Way

25. Sun Ra: Bygones

26. Charles Mingus: Pipe Dream

27. Beatles: Shimmy SHake (Star Club)

28. Duke Ellington: The Mystery Song

29. Marvelettes: Twistin’ Postman

30. Robert Wyatt: Life Is Sheep

31. Raymond Scott: The Paperwork Explosion

32. Beatles: Only a Northern Song (ant mix)

33. Tad Thaddock: Clunky Funky

34. Beatles: While My Guitar Gently Weeps

35. Howlin’ Wolf: Baby Ride with Me

36. Robert Pollard: The Original Heart

37. Bettye Swann: Time to Say Goodbye

38. Breeders: Lime House

39. Robert Pollard: How Many Stations

40. Beatles: You Can’t Do That (live Philadelphia)

41. Marvelettes: Beechwood 4-5789

42. Beatles: Lady Madonna

43. OOIOO: [Japanese title]

44. Carla Thomas: Little Boy

45. Billie Holiday: That’s Life I Guess

46. Funkadelic: She Loves You

47. Bud Powell: Somebody Loves Me

48. Weather Report: Man in the Green Shirt

49. Freddie Scott: He Ain’t Give You None

50. Miles Davis Quintet: This (live ‘69)

51. Beatles: Mean Mr. Mustard (demo)

52. Rodger Coleman/Sam Byrd: Number 1 (from “Eras”)

53. Beatles: Think for Yourself

54. Patsy Montana: Cowboy’s Sweetheart

55. Jerry Lee Lewis: What’d I Say

56. Anthony Braxton: Comp. 8 A/B Blues/8E

57. Mike Ladd: Untitled

58. Quiet Elegance: I Need Love

59. Parliament: Peek-a-Groove

60. Bettye Swann: Today I Started Loving You Again

61. Art Tatum: Tiger Rag

62. Wilson Pickett: You Can’t Stand Alone

63. John Lennon: Oh Yoko

64. Bubble Puppy: Hot Smoke and Sassafras

65. Beatles: She’s a Woman (take 4)

66. Jimi Hendrix Experience: Can You See Me

67. Kim Weston: Take Me in Your Arms

68. Jackie Wilson: Open the Door to Your Heart

69. Mothers of Invention: You Didn’t Try to Call Me

70. Fela: Eko

71. Lata Mangeshkar: Sari Sari Raat

72. Beach Boys: caroline No (stereo, original speed)

73. Duke Ellington: Ko-Ko

74. Lesley Gore: I Just Don’t Know If I Can

75. Steely Dan: Peg

76. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: Real Emotional Trash

77. Premiers: Farmer John

78. Dubs: Don’t Ask Me to Be Lonely

79. Louis Armstrong: Oriental Strut

80. Bootsy Collins: Munchies for Your Love

81. Frank Zappa: Lather

82. Duke Ellington: Hayfoot Strawfoot

83. Beatles: Strawberry Fields Forever (“Let It Be” sessions)

84. Beatles: 8 Days a Week (take 2, partial)

85. Jimi Hendrix: I Don’t Live Today (live Berkeley)

86. Zach Hill: Memo to the Man

87. Sir Mack Rice: Love Sickness

88. Deerhoof: Heart Failure

89. John Coltrane: Configuration

90. Steely Dan: This All Too Mobile Home (live)

91. Louis Armstrong: Muskrat Ramble

92. Deerhoof: Kidz Are So Small

93. Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs: Stay

94. Beatles: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (takes 6-8)

95. Hatfield and the North: Rifferama

96. Southern Serenaders: I Miss My Swiss

97. High Llamas: Nomads (live)

98. Soft Machine: Dedicated to Hugh (But You Weren’t Listening)

99. UYA: Void Dancing

100. Miles Davis Quintet: The Theme (take 1)

101. Lou Johnson: Always Something There to Remind Me

102. Grateful Dead: “Live/Dead” radio ad

103. Surfaris: Wipe Out

104. Billie Holiday: Good Morning Heartache

105. Beatles: With a Little Help from My Friends (backing track)

106. XTC: You’re the Wish You Are I Had

107. Andy Partidge: I Defy You Gravity

108. Dennis Wilson: Are You Real

109. Anthony Braxton: Comp. 69K

110. Neil Young: When You Dance You Can Really Love

111. Tad Thaddock: Toasted Baby

112. Duke Ellington: Sonnet in Search of a Moor

113. Kingpins: It Won’t Be This Way (Always)

114. Louis Armstrong: Jazz Lips

115. Harvey Scales & the Seven Sounds: It’s Too Good to Be True

116. Bee Gees: Birdie Told Me

117. Bob Dylan: Outlaw Blues

118. Guided By Voices: Sot

119. Dr. Dog: The Girl

120. Anthony Braxton: Comp. 40O

Playlist, Week of 2013-11-24

Playlist 2013-11-25:

*Bach: Goldberg Variations (Glenn Gould, 1955)
*Chilingirian String Quartet: Ravel String Quartet in F Major/Debussy String Quartet in G Minor
*Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Vladimir Ashenazy/London Symphony Orchestra, Previn, cond.)
*Rashied Ali/Charles Gayle/Sirone: 2008-03-08 Burghausen, Germany (CDR)
*AMM: 2001-04-15 Chicago (CDR)
*Daniel Barbiero/Steve Hilmy: Take a Sound
*Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet & 7-tette: Navigation (The Complete Firehouse 12 Recordings)
*Miles Davis: The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 (discs 4-7)
*Mahavishnu Orchestra: Between Nothingness & Eternity
*Tom Rainey Trio: 2013-10-19 Brooklyn NY (CDR)
*Wayne Shorter: Native Dancer
*Stark Reality: Acting, Thinking, Feeling (disc 1)
*Sun Ra & His Solar-Myth Arkestra: The Solar-Myth Approach (Vol. 1)
*Acid Mothers Temple: Born To Be Wild in the USA 2000
*Lily Allen: It’s Not Me, It’s You
*Michael Bass: Parchesi Pie
*Cognition: The Road (side 1)
*Dark Carpet: Dark Carpet (Bandcamp)
*Dr. Dog: B-Room
*Bob Dylan/Grateful Dead: Dylan & the Dead
*Mike Elder/Harry Forrest/Sam Byrd: 2013-11-15 (wav)
*Faust: Faust IV (disc 1)
*Flaming Lips: The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends
*Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream (selections)
*Grateful Dead: 1989-10-26 Miami (CDR) “Dark Star”
*Jimi Hendrix: Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story (selections)
*Pere Ubu: Lady from Shanghai
*Various artists: Mojo Presents: We’re with the Beatles
*Various artists: Pomegranates: Persian Pop, Funk, Folk, and Psych of the 60s and 70s
*Various artists: That Devilin' Tune (Vol. 2, disc 6)

Reading List, Week of 2013-11-24

Source: http://jessicahische.is.

Reading List 2013-11-25:

*Eggers, Dave. The Circle (started/finished)
*Hyde, Lewis. Common as Air (in progress)
*Moore, Steven. The Novel: An Alternative History, 1600-1800 (in progress)
*Weldon, Michael J. Psychotronic Video Guide (in progress)

The Turn Signal Test

There’s a wonderful book about drumming called Life in Double Time: Confessions of an American Drummer, by Mike Lankford.  I read it years ago and don’t own it, so my memory is hazy, but I recall it really resonating with me in terms of how he learned to play, his experiences playing drums in bands, and his overall drumming philosophy.  One thing I haven’t forgotten is the Turn Signal Test, which I think about every time I’m in the car.  I found the relevant passage on google books:

There's a simple test one can apply to ex-drummers to see if any residual rhythm remains in their system. I call this the "Turn Signal Test." Watch any ex-drummer while he waits at a traffic light in a quiet car, his turn signal clicking away like a metronome. If he is alive to his calling, that steady click...click...click...will begin filling up for him and getting complicated. A person can play any rhythm imaginable between the clicks of a turn signal. His fingers will fall in with the pulse and he will begin to keep time and cut time and rearrange time and jazz up that turn signal until it sounds like a Brazilian orchestra. There is so much potential rhythm in a turn signal you can exhaust yourself finding it, or be called awake by the driver behind you. (p. 252)

The only time I’ve been an ex-drummer was when I stopped playing in college (and even then, I sat in with some guys one time...I sucked, but that’s another story), but I invariably find myself playing along every time I’m turning at an intersection and there’s no music playing in the car. And I always think of this passage. I need to read that book again.

Playlist, Week of 2013-11-17

Playlist 2013-11-18:

*Miles Davis: The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 (discs 2a, 2b, 3)
*Jack DeJohnette’s Directions: New Rags
*Duke Ellington: The Private Collection “Studio Sessions NY, 1963”
*Coleman Hawkins: Classic Coleman Hawkins Sessions 1922-1947 (disc 1)
*Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane: The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings
*Stark Reality: Acting, Thinking, Feeling (disc 3)
*Sun Ra: Continuation (Saturn/Corbett vs. Dempsey 2CD)
*Various artists: That Devilin' Tune (Vol. 2, disc 6)
*John Zorn: Ipsissimus
*Michael Bass and His Moderately Sized Orchestra: Painting by Numbers
*Beatles: Mono Masters (2009 mono remaster) disc 1
*Beatles: Hard Day's Night (2009 mono remaster)
*Beatles: Rubber Soul (Capitol CD stereo)
*Bob Dylan: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971): The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 (disc 2)
*Mike Elder/Harry Forrest/Sam Byrd: 2013-11-15 (wav)
*Nine Inch Nails: Hesitation Marks
*XTC: Transistor Blast: The Best of the BBC Sessions (disc 4)
*Various artists: OHM+: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, 1948-1980 (disc 2)
*Various artists: The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968 (disc 3)