Last night, while Linette and the kids were out with friends, celebrating the coming of the new year, I was home in bed, recovering from a stomach bug. It was a relatively uneventful evening. I watched Arrival (which I’d been saving for a special occasion), listened to some pre-WWII jazz (as I like to do every […]
Tag Archives: pre-war jazz and blues
The first annual YPSI NOW Unconference will be this Saturday
Posted in Mark's Life, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti Also tagged Aras Agalarov, Arrival, Betsy DeVos, call to action, Covfefe, DIYpsi, Donald Trump, Emin Agalarov, emoluments clause, fake news, First Fridays, FLY Children's Art Center, gentrification, New Year's Day, New Year's resolution, Riverside Arts Center, The Bowling Green Massacre, Trevor Stone, unconference, Woody Guthrie, YPSI NOW 31 Comments
Jelly Roll Morton and the gritty origins of jazz
At some point in 1938, while employed by the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song to record and preserve regional American music being put at risk by popular music like jazz, music archivist Alan Lomax found himself at a Washington, DC club by the name of the Jungle Inn, one of the few […]
Posted in Art and Culture, History, Uncategorized Also tagged Alan Lomax, brothels, Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, folk, Jazz, Jelly Roll Blues, Jelly Roll Morton, Jungle Inn, Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song, murder, New Orleans, nothing new under the sun, oral history, rap, sex, Storyville, The Murder Ballad 11 Comments
R. Crumb on the death of authentic American music
While I have friends who play in bands, and, on occasion, even make music myself, I rarely, if ever, listen to anything recorded after the start of World War II. Yes, every once in a while I pull out a record by the Ramones, Television or the Velvet Underground, but, for the most part, I […]
Posted in Art and Culture, Mark's Life, Uncategorized Also tagged 78 rpm records, authenticity, Benny Goodman, Charley Patton, Christmas gifts, comics, comix, commercialization, country music, Dock Boggs, Duke Ellington, jazz blues, Jelly Roll Morton, John Olson, music, music history, New Year's Eve, noise, R Crumb, Radio Dismuke, sophistication, underground comics, Wolf Eyes 20 Comments
alan lomax: better off dead
Maybe western culture does deserve to be taken out back and shot.
Posted in Other Also tagged Alan Lomax, Chan Marshall, Chicago, Daniel Johnston, Deja Vu, Jad Fair, Linette Lao, Matador Records, Meet My Parents, NBC, polygraph, Pylon, Ritalin, taxes, Vietnam 1 Comment