He's still alive.

Against all odds, Keith Richards turns 75 today.

Lots of commentary and memories going around today, including this from The Federalist (fer cryin' out loud).

Missy Mazzoli: Vespers for a New Dark Age

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Put A Woman In Charge

Natalia Lafourcade - Hasta la Raíz

Music to Drown Out the World

Stephen Thompson of NPR has created a Spotify playlist of music to help you concentrate and subdue external distractions. Some I have heard, some I have not. Here goes, for some excerpts (login to Spotify for the full-length pieces):

Malea Emma Covers Radiohead's "Creep"

And this:

Aretha, The Queen of Soul, R.I.P.

Today, Aretha passes.  And today, Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air, reprises her 1999 interview:

For more on Aretha, one of the particularly noteworthy tributes that I find are these pieces from today's The New Yorker.

And Quartz gives us these stats:

BY THE DIGITS

#1: Aretha’s ranking among the greatest singers of all time, according to Rolling Stone

8: Consecutive years that Aretha won a Grammy for “Best Rhythm and Blues Performance, Female” (1968-1975)

18: Total number of Grammys she won

73: Number of her songs that reached the Billboard Top 100 list

14: Aretha’s age when she released her first album

1983: Year that Aretha quit flying after a turbulent flight, traveling henceforth in a custom tour bus

2 million: Albums sold of Aretha’s live album Amazing Grace, making it her best-selling album and easily the best-selling gospel album of all time.

75 million: Albums sold overall

Satchmo in Ghana

read more here

Tell Me How You Really Feel

If you ever look at this blog, you may know that Courtney Barnett has made my personal album of the year listings a few times. Here, she responds to listeners' reactions to her latest, "Tell Me How You Really Feel".

Car Pool Karaoke with Sir Paul

Yoyoka

『Hit Like A Girl Contest 2018』Good Times Bad Times - LED ZEPPELIN / Cover by Yoyoka , 8 year old drummer from よよか on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday, Bob

Today is Bob Dylan's birthday.  He's seventy-seven.  I know that because my own birthday occurred in the same month, in the same year.  You've heard plenty of his music by now, probably, unless you are much, much younger.  So try reading this 1964 piece in The New Yorker by critic Nat Hentoff:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/10/24/the-crackin-shakin-breakin-sounds

Friday the 13th, From Stephen Thompson

A bit of music criticism that made me Laugh Out Loud ..
https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/04/13/602149081/you-know-what-fine-taylor-swift-covers-earth-wind-fires-september

And for anybody who doesn't remember the Earth, Wind and Fires original:

Cecil Taylor, R.I.P.

Cecil, a man way ahead of his time, passes away on April 6 at age 89.  Here is one of many remembrances.

And here is a 1960 performance with Archie Shepp, Buell Neidlinger and Dennis Charles:

The Story of Saul Chandler

Read the astonishing story here.

And let's listen to the young Itzak Perlman's take on the Bach E Major Partita:

Patti Smith on Mountain Stage

Meshell Ndegeocello: 'Ventriloquism'

  Here and here are a couple of NPR pieces on this excellent, imo, Ndegeocello album.

South X Lullaby: Max Richter

https://www.npr.org/event/music/589337022/south-x-lullaby-max-richter

The Elgar Enigma

Discovering Sam Baker

Today, hearing a reprise of a 2014 interview with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air, I discover Sam Baker, survivor of a 1986 terrorist bombing of a passenger train in Peru.  How I never knew of him before astonishes me.   One of the songs inspired by his experience:


Direct link to the NPR interview and performance of several songs.

Evolution of Music

Hugh Masekela, R.I.P.

The legendary South African singer, trumpeter and activist has passed away at age 78.  Read more here.