Sunday Playlist - 10/4/2020

Here is the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1O2_b2dBGK8dFq7jzLE4yoO

What shall we say about these days? Increasingly, it seems wise to say less.

In one of my courses this week, we finished Shakespeare’s The Tempest. “We are such stuff/ As dreams are made on, and our little life/ Is rounded with a sleep.”

And in prepping for an advisory, I came again to this tanka by the Zen master Saigyo,

Raindrops, I first thought

as I lay awake in my bed—

but what I heard

was the unbroken patter

of leaves giving in to storms.

(trans. Stephen Carter)

A few notes on the music:

Listen for the “ooh” in the first chorus of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” Perfect ornamentation because (I want to believe) spontaneous.

When Jimmie Strothers says, “children!”, something similar happens. Likewise, when Paul Foster of the Soul Stirrers begins to say “yes!” around 2:06.

“The Peacocks” and “Bring Us, O Lord God” are meditative pieces, the first with a young Branford Marsalis alongside the legendary Herbie Hancock and Buster Williams, the second rendered by an a cappella ensemble I’ve often featured, VOCES8.