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Louis Armstrong recites Clement Moore's "The Night Before Christmas." This was Armstrong's last commercial recording. He made it at his home in Queens on February 26, 1971, five months before his death:
Posted December 25, 2012 12:00 AM
ABOUT "ABOUT LAST NIGHT" AND ITS AUTHORS ABOUT TERRY'S BOOKS ABOUT TERRY'S PLAY AND OPERA LIBRETTI To see John Douglas Thompson on stage in Satchmo at the Waldorf, go here. To watch a Wall Street Journal-produced video interview with Terry, go here. To read Terry's program note, go here. To read the Boston Globe review, go here. To read the New York Times review, go here. To read a New York Times feature about the play, go here. To listen to a radio interview with Terry and John, go here. To see a video of excerpts from the 2011 Orlando production of Satchmo at the Waldorf, starring Dennis Neal, go here. • Terry and Paul Moravec, his operatic collaborator, are currently at work on The King's Man, a one-act drama about Benjamin and William Franklin that will be premiered by Kentucky Opera in the fall of 2013. For more information, go here and here. The King's Man is a companion piece to their second opera, Danse Russe, a one-act backstage comedy about the making of The Rite of Spring that was commissioned by Philadelphia's Center City Opera Theater and premiered there 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 and Paul began their collaboration with The Letter, a full-evening 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, staging, premiere, and reception of the original production of The Letter, click on the link.
THE LONG GOODBYE MORE ABOUT "POPS"
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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 critic-at-large of Commentary. His Wikipedia entry is here.
Terry is finishing Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, which will be published by Gotham Books in the fall of 2013. His latest book is Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S., JR Books in England, Larousse in Brazil, and United Press/Alpina in Russia. 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.
Terry's first play, Satchmo at the Waldorf, was performed in 2012 at Shakespeare & Company of Lenox, Mass., Long Wharf Theatre of New Haven, Conn., and Philadelphia's Wilma Theater. The production was directed by Gordon Edelstein, with John Douglas Thompson appearing in the triple role of Louis Armstrong, Joe Glaser, and Miles Davis.
To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here.
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.
tteachout@artsjournal.com
ogic@artsjournal.com
caaf@artsjournal.com Search
TOP FIVE
Our Town (Huntington Theatre Company, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St., Boston, extended through Jan. 26). David Cromer's staging of Thornton Wilder's masterpiece, which ran off Broadway for more than 600 performance, is now being remounted in Boston. It's the greatest revival of a classic play that I've seen in my entire theatergoing life, a re-creative landmark that at once arrestingly original and fundamentally faithful in its approach to the author's well-loved text. Don't listen if anybody tries to tell you about the surprise ending--and once you've seen the show, don't tell anybody what happens (TT).
Donald Fagen, Sunken Condos (Reprise). A new solo album from the co-founder of Steely Dan, Sunken Condos is very much in the now-familiar vein of Morph the Cat, its immediate predecessor. That is, however, a compliment, not a knock. Sly lyrics, subtle harmonies, richly textured rock/jazz/R&B instrumental tracks, virtuoso playing from all parties concerned--what more could you possibly want? This is rock for grownups, wholly adult in its musical language and emotional concerns (TT).
Matisse: In Search of True Painting (Metropolitan Museum, up through Mar. 17). Forty-nine canvases, subtly arranged to highlight and illuminate the way in which the modern master developed his imaginative ideas from work to work. A richly rewarding show of the highest importance (TT).
Louis Armstrong and the All Stars, Satchmo at Symphony Hall 65th Anniversary: The Complete Performances (Verve, two CDs). Recorded in Boston in 1947 and originally released four years later, this album documents Armstrong's postwar combo mere months after its founding. The lineup is nonpareil (Barney Bigard, Dick Cary, Sid Catlett, Velma Middleton, Arvell Shaw, Jack Teagarden) and the performances are electrifying. Co-produced by Armstrong authority Ricky Riccardi, it contains a half hour's worth of previously unissued material, plus indispensable liner notes by Riccardi. Put it on your short list of must-have Armstrong albums--and order it now, because this is a 3,000-copy limited edition (TT).
The Freedom of the City (Irish Repertory Theatre, on hiatus after Nov. 25, reopening Jan. 2-20). A flawless revival of Brian Friel's 1973 masterpiece about a Northern Ireland protest march that ended in bloodshed. Not so much a history play as a tragic meditation on politics run amok, The Freedom of the City has been staged by Ciarán O'Reilly with a galvanizing blend of force and subtlety, and the cast is as good as it can possibly be (TT).
Out of the Past
A Sonata Recital by Joseph Szigeti and Béla Bartók. Recorded live at the Library of Congress in 1940, this concert features the most interesting violinist of the twentieth century, accompanied by one of the greatest composers of all time. Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, Debussy's G Minor Sonata, and Bartók's own First Rhapsody and Second Sonata are all played with jaw-dropping spontaneity and individuality. The sound is only fair, but who cares? That this performance was recorded for posterity is a blessing (TT).
Canyon Passage. Jacques Tourneur's 1946 Technicolor Western about life in frontier Oregon is now mainly known (if at all) as the film for which Hoagy Carmichael wrote "Ole Buttermilk Sky." In fact it is, along with Robert Wise's Blood on the Moon, one of the two most consistently underrated golden-age Hollywood Westerns, a shrewd character study of loyalty and weakness in which Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, and the unfailingly interesting Brian Donlevy are all at their best and most characteristic. Gorgeous cinematography by Edward Cronjager. Very highly recommended, even if you think you're allergic to Westerns (TT).
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