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"A counterfactual account of history appeals especially to people who are disappointed in the real thing. Settled fact is unsatisfying; history as it occurs seems somehow a cheat."
Andrew Ferguson, "What Does Newt Gingrich Know?" (New York Times Magazine, June 29, 2011)
Posted July 25, 2011 12:00 AM
ABOUT "ABOUT LAST NIGHT" AND ITS AUTHORS ABOUT TERRY'S BOOKS MORE ABOUT "POPS" ABOUT TERRY'S PLAY AND OPERAS Terry collaborated with Paul Moravec on Danse Russe, a backstage comedy about the making of The Rite of Spring that was 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.
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A list of new things we've liked (subject to unexpected and wildly capricious updating). JAZZ NOVEL GALLERY NOVEL CD
Not new, but still worth a look or listen (and no less subject to change without notice).
CD FILM
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.
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. He wrote the introductions to William Bailey on Canvas and the paperback editions of Richard Stark's Flashfire and Firebreak and Elaine Dundy's The Dud Avocado. One of his essays is included in Robert Gottlieb's Reading Dance, and he contributed notes on recordings by Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, and Oscar Peterson to Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology.
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.
Terry's first play, Satchmo at the Waldorf, will have its world premiere in Orlando, Florida, on Sept. 15, 2011. Watch this space for details.
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TOP FIVE
Gene Bertoncini (Bar Henry, 90 W. Houston St., 646-448-4559, Mondays at 7:30-10:30). After a distressingly long hiatus caused by the closing of Le Madeleine three years ago, the great jazz guitarist now has another regular New York gig. If you don't know Bertoncini's playing, go here and marvel at the liquid tone and supple romanticism of his solo style. Then go to Bar Henry and hear him in person--often (TT).
Wesley Stace, Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer (Picador, $15 paper). A bewitchingly clever historical thriller in which the lives and work of Peter Warlock, Constant Lambert, and Carlo Gesualdo are blended into the hair-raising tale of an unworldly music critic who writes an opera libretto for a flint-hearted composer who returns the favor in the most malevolent way imaginable. The author (better known in pop-music circles as John Wesley Harding) has done a virtuosic job of fusing fact with fiction, and the result is one of the few novels with a musical setting in which the background is rendered accurately. Absolutely not for musicians only, though those who already know the dramatis personae will be dazzled by the sure-footed skill with which Stace has put their real-life stories to novelistic use (TT).
Wolf Kahn: Color and Consequence (Ameringer McEnery Yohe, 525 W. 22, up through July 16). New paintings by an underappreciated modern master, a Hans Hofmann pupil who renders the American landscape in high-key colors that recall the luminous palette of Pierre Bonnard. The result is a deeply personal style in which abstraction and representation are so closely intertwined that they can't be teased apart (TT).
Richard Stark, Butcher's Moon (University of Chicago, $15 paper). The best of Donald Westlake's pseudonymous thrillers about Parker, the toughest burglar who ever lived, in which he goes up against an entire big-city crime syndicate--with a little help from a lot of friends. Out of print for years and years, Butcher's Moon is the ultimate Parker novel, best read as an installment in the series as a whole but comprehensible and wholly satisfying on its own (TT).
The Essential Rosanne Cash (Sony Legacy, two CDs). Thirty-six tracks from one of America's most creative singer-songwriters, chosen by Cash herself. An ideal one-stop introduction to her work, especially when heard in tandem with Composed, Cash's 2010 memoir (TT).
Out of the Past
Booker T. and the MGs, The Definitive Soul Collection (Atlantic/WEA, two CDs). This 2006 collection of thirty tracks by the R-&-B counterpart of Count Basie's All-American Rhythm Section contains virtually all of the group's A-side single releases, including "Green Onions" and "Hip Hug-Her," plus a nicely chosen sprinkling of other cuts. Go here for Stax-style instrumental soul at its funkiest (TT).
House Calls. If the situation calls for pure entertainment and you're at a loss, go for Howard Zieff's 1978 romcom about a widowed doctor who decides to play the field but ends up falling for a prickly middle-aged lady with a kid and no money. Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson strike sparks galore, and Art Carney and Richard Benjamin provide sterling support. The witty script is credited to a gaggle of pros, among them Julius J. Epstein, the co-author of Casablanca, and Max Shulman, the creator of Dobie Gillis. Whoever did what, the results are fluffy and fine (TT).
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