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ABOUT "ABOUT LAST NIGHT" AND ITS AUTHORS 
This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout, Laura Demanski (otherwise known as Our Girl in Chicago, or "OGIC" for short), and Carrie Frye (who signs her postings "CAAF"). Terry, who lives in New York, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the chief culture critic of Commentary. His Wikipedia entry is here. more

ABOUT TERRY'S BOOKS 
Terry's latest book is Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S., JR Books in England, and Larousse in Brazil. He is currently at work on Mood Indigo: A Life of Duke Ellington. One of his essays is included in Robert Gottlieb's Reading Dance. He contributed notes on recordings by Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, and Oscar Peterson to Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology and wrote the introductions to William Bailey on Canvas and the paperback edition of Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado. more

MORE ABOUT "POPS" 
To read reviews of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, watch TV interviews and listen to radio interviews and podcasts about the book, and find out the answers to frequently asked questions about Armstrong and Pops, click on the link. more

ABOUT TERRY'S OPERAS 
Terry is collaborating with Paul Moravec on Danse Russe, a backstage comedy about the making of The Rite of Spring that will be premiered by Philadelphia's Center City Opera Theater on April 28, 2011. To read more about Danse Russe, go here and here. To view excerpts from the opera and see Paul and Terry talk about its creation, go here.

Terry previously collaborated with Paul on The Letter, an operatic version of Somerset Maugham's 1927 play that was commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera in 2006 and opened there on July 25, 2009. To see excerpts from the opera, go here. To read Terry's reports on the writing, production, premiere, and reception of The Letter, click on the link. more

TERRY'S TWITTERS 

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CONTACT
tteachout@artsjournal.com
ogic@artsjournal.com
caaf@artsjournal.com

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TOP FIVE

A list of new things we've liked (subject to unexpected and wildly capricious updating).

CD 
Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology (Smithsonian Folkways, six CDs). No "canonical" collection of important jazz recordings can hope to be definitive, but this one, which contains 111 tracks and is accompanied by a two-hundred-page book, comes as close as you're likely to get, certain startling omissions notwithstanding (mostly, I regret to say, of such important white instrumentalists as Bobby Hackett, Red Nichols, Pee Wee Russell, Red Norvo, and Dave Tough). The accompanying notes are by a cross-section of well-known jazz scholars and commentators, myself among them. Several distressing flaws notwithstanding, this is a serious and largely admirable piece of work (TT).

PLAY 
The Motherf**ker with the Hat (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W. 45, closes June 26). Don't be put off by the dumb title--Stephen Adly Guirgis' new play is a smart, tightly written comedy of working-class manners, crisply staged by Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County) and performed by a superlative ensemble cast led by Bobby Cannavale (Win Win). Chris Rock, who is making his stage debut, is the draw, and he's pretty good, too, for the most part. The play's the thing, though, and it won't let you down, not even for a split-second (TT).

DVD 
Car 54 Where Are You?: Complete First Season (Shanachie, four DVDs). All thirty episodes of the 1961-62 season of one of the most clever and well-made situation comedies ever to appear on American television. Nat Hiken, who made Phil Silvers a TV star, did the same for Fred Gwynne and Joe E. Ross in this zany portrait of a squad-car team who troll the Bronx in search of trouble--all of which happens to them. An absolute must for golden-age TV buffs (TT).

GALLERY 
Romare Bearden Collage: A Centennial Celebration (Michael Rosenfeld, 24 W. 57, up through May 21). Twenty-one richly colored, rewardingly complex, and beautifully hung collages made between 1964 and 1983 by one of the great American modernists. Essential viewing (TT).

CD 
Percy Grainger, The Complete 78-RPM Solo Recordings 1908-1945 (Appian, five CDs). The composer of "Country Gardens" and "Molly on the Shore" was also one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, a marvelously idiosyncratic virtuoso whose style ranged from tender lyricism to explosive extroversion. Most of his 78s have been unavailable in any format since their original release. This much-needed box set solves that problem--and does it right. Ward Marston's digital transfers of such classic Grainger recordings as Chopin's B Minor Sonata, Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, and Grieg's "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" are crystal-clear and scratch-free. The liner notes are by Grainger biographer John Bird. I doubt there'll be a more important classical reissue in 2011 (TT).

Out of the Past

Not new, but still worth a look or listen (and no less subject to change without notice).

BOOK 
Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. This is the first installment of a two-volume biography originally published in 1995. In it, Guralnick follows Presley through the death of his mother in 1958. Last Train to Memphis might just be the best book ever written about an American musician, and it definitely belongs at the top of the short list of first-rate rock biographies, not just because Guralnick's research is impeccable but because his gifts as a storyteller are extraordinary. I reread it before starting work on Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong in order to remind myself of how good a musical biography can be (TT).

DVD 
Topsy-Turvy (Criterion Collection, out Mar. 29). Mike Leigh's 1999 film about Gilbert, Sullivan, and the making of The Mikado, newly remastered and reissued by the Criterion Collection with all the usual goodies, is the best backstage movie ever made, as well as a surpassingly fine exercise in cinematic time travel. To watch it is to feel closer to the tone and texture of Victorian life than you ever thought possible. Intelligent, provocative, hugely entertaining...what's not to like? (TT).

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