Celebrating Community
Smart, simple pleasures. On Only the Void Stands Between Us (LP and download released last month by Silver Current Records), Julie Beth Napolin sings of distance and intimacy. She sings quizzically of a fire coming to burn, it seems, those who don’t deserve to survive, and she sings very directly about praying for the living and the dead. In other […]
Last spring I wrote in these pages about my discovery of Bay Ridge’s Regina Opera Company. While I did grow up in a house where the Metropolitan Opera was on the radio every Saturday, that was not my cup of tea. The idea of dressing up and paying lots of money to hear a musical show was not my scene. […]
This is just one calendar year, which may be sufficient time in the pop music manufacturing industry to spot a trend, but is a far less meaningful span in music that wrestles with its own history—the old is constantly being renewed and incorporated with ideas from other genres—as jazz does, and that is so free of commercial pressures (unfortunately) that […]
Mothers of reinvention. “It’s never too late to be what you might have been,” according to writer George Eliot, who spoke from experience. Born in the UK in 1819, Mary Ann Evans found her audience using the masculine pen name in order to avoid the scrutiny of the patriarchal literati. Reinvention, of style if not self, is in the air […]
Kaizers Return Kaizers Orchestra has always marched to the beat of their own drum. Now, after their first U.S. performance in years, the legendary Norwegian rock band made it clear they haven’t missed a step. Fresh off a triumphant show at Sony Hall, where their theatrical mix of rock, folk, and energy electrified the crowd, I had the chance to […]
Afrobeats vs. Amapiano Takeover at Barclays Center On Sunday, August 4, the plaza at Barclays Center echoed with the sounds of Afrobeats and Amapiano as the two genres took center stage at the third annual Africa Everything: Afrobeats vs. Amapiano Takeover. From 12:00 to 6:00 PM, music lovers, undeterred by the cloudy weather, gathered to experience the best of these […]
On June 28, 2024, the acclaimed singer-songwriter Troy Ramey released his latest single, “Pick Up Truck.” Known for his soul-stirring voice and evocative lyrics, Ramey’s new song, which began as a light-hearted jest, has evolved into a heartfelt piece that captures the essence of summer drives and the joy of music. Backstory The story of “Pick Up Truck” began […]
Another music in a different chamber. The term “chamber pop” has been tossed about at least since the 1960s, when such prophetic composers as Burt Bacharach and Brian Wilson—as well as producers Shadow Morton, Billy Sherrill and Phil Spector, although they tend to be left out of the story—started crafting three-minute, orchestral gems in the pop tradition. Chamber music has […]
Gatekeeping gets a bad rap—and it should! Guarding information and experiences to keep them away from people is generally bad. At the very least, it’s a petty and infantile exercising of very limited and temporary power, trying to create an artificial sense of exclusivity and prestige in a pluralistic, democratic culture—snobbery in other words. At worst, you get self-perpetuating, smug […]
Music making is a social activity. Anyone with a laptop and a bedroom can make an album, but there’s limits to that, not the least how far one’s imagination can go without the stimulus of other personalities. When musicians get together to play it’s a social activity, they make something together whether or not they’re in front of an audience. […]