The best recordings of Claudio Monteverdi‘s madrigals are those directed by Nadia Boulanger, whose studios in Paris were referred to infomally as “La Boulangerie.” Here it is possible to listen to a minute of “Zefiro Torna,” which I am playing now. Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti L’aer fa grato e’l pie discoglie a l’onde … More Zefiro Torna

The radio just played a mountain song, accompanied by a banjo, sung in a minor key. It was first heard during the Civil War, but white caskets are also coming home now.  Activities continue abroad, at black sites. Axé.

I was born and raised in the country, Mama but I’m stayin’ in town. That is a fragment of Pig Meat. Now playing, however, is the Bourgeois Blues, composed around 1935, when Leadbelly also played the MLA Convention in New York. Two of the Leadbelly songs I have had running in the back of my … More Huddy Ledbetter

Now singing is Lupe Fiasco, who is Black, Muslim, from Chicago, and named Lupe. (Which is short for Guadalupe, which is Mexican.) My student said I would like his music, and I do. But I am also very impressed with his website. Click on the street signs, and see how they flicker. Axé.

It is time to thank the Unapologetic Mexican and his marvelously creative site for permission to use the images of Emiliano Zapata and of the UFW flag which now appear in my sidebar. If you click on these, you will go right down the rabbit hole, and end up somewhere very interesting. In honor of … More Take This Hammer

Yesterday in class I learned that there is a rap lyrics database, the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive. This fascinates me because while the electronic sound of rap is not my favorite, I am interested in rap lyrics and narrative structure. Now I can read them, like poems and stories. Rap styles, as we know, are … More Nice White Lady

On my desk is my friend Walter F. Pitts’ posthumously published Old Ship of Zion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Diaspora (Oxford UP). It was reprinted in 1996, but my copy is dated 1993, and signed by Walter’s partner, the Reverend Leroy Davis. Walter’s funeral, at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, … More Old Ship of Zion

I. Our featured singer this weekend is Corey Harris. I first met Corey in connection with anti-death penalty work and academia, before he had recorded his first album. Should he do a Ph.D. in Linguistics or History of Consciousness, he was wondering – or should he play music? “I think I’ll play music.” II. Today … More Ça chante

“The state of Oaxaca has been kidnapped, as has the rest of the country,” begins an article in today’s La Jornada. The state or condition of having been kidnapped is descriptive, of more than one state and more than one country. I had not bought a Dylan album in decades, but I have been listening … More Mystic Garden

Now it is the weekend, so it is time to sing. I am singing this afternoon from a café off Franklin Street in the Faubourg Marigny, where it is exceedingly pleasant. Our song, an old one by Woody Guthrie, is sung in remembrance of the people whose lives will be made more difficult by the … More “Deportees”