Celebrating Community
Would jazz have anywhere the accumulated history if its development had not coincided with that of audio recording and reproduction technology? As an art form, it’s gloriously impure, not only stitched together at its base with musical ideas from multiple traditions but integrated into the rise of the record business from the very start – two important early jazz labels, […]
Well I ain’t broke but I’m badly bent, everybody loves them dead presidents – Willie Dixon* As the Presidential electoral season shifts into full-throttle Aristotle mode, we need to gird ourselves for the incoming bombardment, and I can guarantee it will be vein-bursting. Candidates will glom onto anything that might give them an edge in the popularity stakes. Don’t expect […]
Sunn O))) – Pyroclasts (Southern Lord) LIke Drone Razors Through Flesh Sphere – Sacred Quietus (Zazen Sounds) Every so often, a band comes along the greatness of which is beyond its own measure, a band that stands as a gateway to discovery. Miles Davis’s groups, the Yardbirds, the various incarnations of Acid Mothers Temple, all lead to multiple – and […]
Scott Sharrard has told me that he’s like the Yo-Yo Ma of Americana music. In other words, he’s playing music which is sadly slipping into history. He said that as many younger people drift away from roots music, music with traditions, they are often looking for music with a beat, music made on a laptop, music that sounds like a […]
Now a resident of rural Pennsylvania, Miriam Clancy hails all the way from New Zealand, home of musical luminaries Lorde, Neil Finn, and Flight of the Conchords (and who could forget OMC’s “How Bizarre”?). Clancy has recently released her new album Astronomy after a long creative and geographical journey. While developing a musical career, being the recipient of a major […]
Recently a song came on the radio that stopped me in my tracks. The singer’s arresting voice was at once soothing and eerie, not unlike Grace Slick’s part in “White Rabbit.” The vocals rested upon complex country blues guitar picking with a British sensibility reminiscent of Fairport Convention. All combined it gave me goosebumps. The tune was “Strange Country” by […]
There’s always a specific feeling as you enter a space built for performance theater. It’s not as casual as a movie theater, yet not quite as dynamic as an arena. History seems to cling to architectural details, washing over the slick, shiny tiled floor. An established sense of pride lingers in air. As I entered The Public Theater on a […]
It’s never “just a movie.” No matter the pedigree, quality, or budget, filmmakers use their medium not just to tell stories and entertain but to engage viewers in some kind of sociopolitical-economic commentary, regardless if it’s Steven Spielberg or Jane Campion or Roger Corman or Ed Wood behind the camera. And when some director deflects with “it’s just a movie,” […]
As October was here, the time had finally arrived. With the crisp and cool autumn air in my lungs, I set foot in a museum which, like much of the rest of New York’s art-loving public,I had eagerly awaited following its four-month, $450-million, and additional-47,000-square-foot makeover. Would New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, a seminal institution for the collection […]
Everyone knows the Mona Lisa. Some have seen the Mona Lisa from behind a rope after queuing up at the Louvre. Only few have gazed upon it up close. Now, due to technological advances, all can linger on extraordinary digital presentations of the Mona Lisa along with Leonard’s other paintings, drawings and sketches. We can see the cracks on the […]