recommendations: March 2008 Archives

Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet (ArtistShare). The trumpeter ranges from placidity to wildness, often within a few bars of the same piece. What may seem near mania on the first hearing resolves into logic and strange beauty as the music becomes familiar. On the outer edge of amplification, Vu, tenor saxophonist Chris Speed, electric bassist Stomu Takeishi and drummer Ted Poor are electric in more than one sense. For all of his adventurousness, Vu is a melodist; "Now I Know (For Vina)" and "I Promise" are gorgeous tunes.
March 11, 2008 1:05 AM | | Comments (0)
Kendra Shank: A Spirit Free, Abbey Lincoln Songbook (Challenge). It would been have natural to assume that Abbey Lincoln's songs are so tied to her personality that no attempt to adapt them could succeed. Ms. Shank, however, manages to pay tribute to Ms. Lincoln and evoke her without imitating or caricaturing her. Given the older singer's individualism, not to say eccentricities, that is an accomplishment. Ms. Shank succeeds entirely. The band accompanying her is first rate, with notable contributions from pianist Frank Kimbrough, saxophonist Billy Drewes and bassist Dean Johnson
March 11, 2008 1:04 AM | | Comments (0)
Sam Yahel Trio: Truth And Beauty (Origin). This trio was called Yaya3 when it debuted in 2002. By whatever name, organist Yahel, tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman and drummer Brian Blade depart from the standard organ trio blockbuster approach into subtlety and taste, without sacrificing propulsion. Yahel has developed impressively from his starting point, the pianistic organ style of the late Larry Young. Yahel's, Redman's and Blade's degree of anticipation and interaction is stunning on the piece called "Bend The Leaves." Pianist Brad Mehldau wrote the literate, helpful liner notes.
March 11, 2008 1:03 AM | | Comments (0)
2 Films: Nonstop Travels With Michel Petrucciani & Trio Live In Stuttgart (Dreyfus Jazz). The documentary film follows the late pianist in Europe and the United States. Beautifully directed and photographed, it captures his musicality, charm, wit and spunk. Memorable moments: a reunion in Big Sur with Charles Lloyd; a visit to the Steinway factory in Hamburg; playing on top of a New York skyscraper. In concert a year before he died in 1999, Petrucciani is in great form with bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Steve Gadd.
March 11, 2008 1:02 AM | | Comments (0)
Howard Mandel: Miles, Ornette, Cecil, Jazz Beyond Jazz (Routledge). Our fellow artsjournal.com blogger also calls his web log Jazz Beyond Jazz. His book further increases listeners' ability to understand the avant garde music he knows so well. Mandel helps clear the way toward appreciation of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, who departed from standard jazz forms in the 1950s, and of Miles Davis's quite different departure in the '60s. It is a successor to and, in a way, a continuation of A.B. Spellman's classic Four Lives In The Bebop Business (retitled--dully--Four Jazz Lives).
March 11, 2008 1:01 AM | | Comments (0)

About this Archive

This page is a archive of entries in the recommendations category from March 2008.

recommendations: February 2008 is the previous archive.

recommendations: April 2008 is the next archive.

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About Last Night
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Artful Manager
Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture
blog riley
rock culture approximately
CultureGulf
Rebuilding Gulf Culture after Katrina
Dewey21C
Richard Kessler on arts education
diacritical
Douglas McLennan's blog
Flyover
Art from the American Outback
Life's a Pitch
For immediate release: the arts are marketable
Mind the Gap
No genre is the new genre
Performance Monkey
David Jays on theatre and dance
Plain English
Paul Levy measures the Angles
Rockwell Matters
John Rockwell on the arts
Straight Up |
Jan Herman - arts, media & culture with 'tude

dance
Foot in Mouth
Apollinaire Scherr talks about dance
Seeing Things
Tobi Tobias on dance et al...

jazz
Jazz Beyond Jazz
Howard Mandel's freelance Urban Improvisation
ListenGood
Focus on New Orleans. Jazz and Other Sounds
Rifftides
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

media
Out There
Jeff Weinstein's Cultural Mixology
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Martha Bayles on Film...

classical music
The Future of Classical Music?
Greg Sandow performs a book-in-progress
On the Record
Exploring Orchestras w/ Henry Fogel
Overflow
Harvey Sachs on music, and various digressions
PostClassic
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
Sandow
Greg Sandow on the future of Classical Music
Slipped Disc
Norman Lebrecht on Shifting Sound Worlds

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book/daddy
Jerome Weeks on Books
Quick Study
Scott McLemee on books, ideas & trash-culture ephemera

theatre
Drama Queen
Wendy Rosenfield: covering drama, onstage and off
lies like truth
Chloe Veltman on how culture will save the world

visual
Aesthetic Grounds
Public Art, Public Space
Artopia
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Lee Rosenbaum's Cultural Commentary
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