No Song is Safe From Us

No Song Is Safe From Us - The NYFOS Blog
 |  Joseph Li

Though this song isn’t a Donny Hathaway original, I agree wholeheartedly with Jack Gulielmetti’s sentiment in his earlier piece for NYFOS on “Someday We’ll All Be Free” – I really, REALLY love him, and likely could have made the entire week about him and his songs. I feel like this week’s tribute to space in […]




 |  Joseph Li

The original Rodgers and Hart tune from their mostly-forgettable musical Jumbo (featuring a flightless elephant unlike the one featured some years later in Disney’s 1941 animated film Dumbo) is a lovely tune. Nina Simone made it irreplaceable 23 years later. (Digression: I know there will be Janis Joplin fans in the room screaming bloody murder, […]




 |  Joseph Li

“But you promised black artists, Joseph.” Yes, yes, I did. And as much as I love and adore Blue Eyes, he’s not the steam engine of this song – Count Basie is, along with his orchestra and the legendary Freddie Green. The arrangement by Quincy Jones is a match made in heaven for this meeting […]




 |  Joseph Li

The original version of this song was called “Death Letter Blues” – it was written and performed by Delta blues artist Son House in 1965. The two versions each give me very different types of chills – the Son House original feels like a declamatory primal sob, whereas the Cassandra Wilson version feels like a […]




 |  Joseph Li

“She’s saying that one has to hold someone in a relationship like one holds sand in their hands. If you simply keep your hands cupped open, the sand will happily stay there. But if you try to close your hands or squeeze them shut, the sand will slip through your fingers. You have to let someone breathe.”




 |  Joseph Li

The first time I listened to Keith Jarrett’s album The Melody at Night, With You marked probably the most significant point in my development, not just as a jazz musician, pianist, or even artist, but as a human being. I don’t think it made me “better” at any of those things, but I know without a doubt the experience turned my world upside-down. The album stands on top of my list of “desert island” items for a multitude of reasons, some too personal to share without you buying me a whiskey (or two) first.




 |  Joseph Li

Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers is a bit of a misnomer for this first song on the album, which should probably fall under the heading of “Paul Foster and the Soul Stirrers.” It’s not that Sam Cooke doesn’t bring his trademark irreplaceable quality to the song, it’s just that Paul Foster’s unvarnished sound wrenches your soul into glorious hope in a way no one could except for Paul Foster.




 |  Joseph Li

‘Son’ can be translated as either “sleep” or “dream” in Russian – in this poem by Feodor Sologub, the former seems not only evident but sensually and powerfully personified. I have included this song, not just because it happens to be one of my favorites, but also because we’ll be featuring it among many things on The Art of Pleasure, Steve’s collaboration with me and four Wolf Trap singers happening at the Barns at Wolf Trap on May 31 and June 1.




 |  Joseph Li

I share the notion with many of you that time is money, but the 11-minute price tag on this song seems like nothing if you’re willing to sit with him as he musically figures out how to breathe again. The space, sparseness, and tender hesitation of every note he plays in the beginning unravel the knots of my heart every time, and in doing so, remind me of why I do what I do.