Sunday Playlist - 3/21/2021

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzrVlXh4mc1MFbBO1C7aN4IzS7GybuvVX

In one of the early sutras, a goddess asks the Buddha how he came through a flood. He replies that he crossed by neither halting nor straining. The goddess is puzzled and asks how that could be. The Buddha's reply is that when he stopped, he sank, but when he struggled, he was swept away. So he neither stopped nor struggled.

In a hymn that I've posted before--and have done so again today--Mahalia Jackson asks herself how she got over. How did your soul get over the floods of life? Like the Buddha, or Jesus for that matter, she doesn't answer directly. Instead, she points to her faith practice and implies that's how she got over.

At either end of this week's list are two women who blended gospel and a guitar style that would come to be associated with rock-and-roll: Elizabeth Cotten and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. If you don't know them, treat yourself to their work over the next week.

I've also included a pair of instrumentals that, to my ear, complement each other: Gevorg Dabaghyan (on duduk) and Eric Dolphy (on clarinet, with Mal Waldron's group).