A Jonathan Richman song for the season, via good old WFMU: Rockin’ Shopping Center

…you always learn a little…
…doink doink doink diddle

(see a fuller version of the lyrics, with “doit doit doit” where I hear “doink doink doink”)

I’m just downloading these to listen to over the next few days, so I can’t speak to their quality yet, but I’m betting that Chris Lydon has done his usual exemplary job of bringing out the eloquence of his interviewees in this collection of dialogs on Coltrane, in which he talks with Ben Ratliff, Amiri Baraka, Alain Pacowski, Bill Pierce and Michael Harper (107 MB altogether, about 1:45 of Real School). As for me, I’ve never fully appreciated jazz of the Coltrane era –I know there’s plenty of nourishment there, but I’ve never devoted the ears to the effort to grok the essence. High time, I suppose. Anyway, it’s REALLY nice to have Chris Lydon back again. I’ve missed him during the Summer Hiatus, and I am eagerly anticipating what he’ll do next.

Musical argonauts need to keep their eyes and ears peeled for the ummmmm unexpected. Today’s prime candidate: Paul Dateh’s Hip Hop Violin in duet with Inka One (via Doc Searls, who got it from Steve Woolf, who is probably hipper than you or … ). Turntablism isn’t a genre that I’ve paid much attention to, but that’s pretty much due to my limitations and blindspots.