IN THE SPRING WE MADE MEAT MASKS

I've been listening to Dave Holland Quintet's EXTENDED PLAY, a magnificent twofer on ECM, recently nominated for a Grammy. It's heading straight for my list. The recording alone is masterful: each instrument beautifully placed in the spectrum, and the drumming is beyond crisp. Even in slower passages, Barry Kilson is attentive to the point of exhileration. Here's John Fordham in the GUARDIAN: "This remarkable double-album is, surprisingly, the bassist's first live recording for his regular label, ECM, in 30 years. Recorded over four nights at New York's Birdland, this set features Holland's regular quintet, built around the long-established relationship between his own low-register mobility and that of trombonist Robin Eubanks, and the immense melodic, textural and rhythm variety provided by saxophonist Chris Potter, vibraharpist Steve Nelson and drummer Billy Kilson. All five also compose well, which gives the quintet an idiomatic variety missing in most contemporary jazz bands that concentrate on originals. ... The live feel sparks such an arresting sense of being present at a Holland concert, and so successfully illuminates the flexibility of the shifting inner relationships that you wonder why they haven't recorded this way before."

Jan Herman responds to my ANGELS posting (below) in his blogcritics column, arguing that Kushner's play works if you get past the first 3 hours (and he knows that sounds ridiculous). Yeah, well, I actually kinda like all the setup, especially Cohn's entrance, the "I wish I was an octopus speech," and I thought Streep was hilarious as the Rabbi (had to go back and replay that one, once you identify her voice, you realize what made him sorta eery, as if he spoke from another time and space). But this "closet" theme Herman identifies is lame: sure, closeted Gays are "moral cowards," untrustworthy, etc. But come on, Cohn was all those things BEFORE we even consider him as a Gay Man, I mean PULLEEEEZE. Kushner does Cohn a FAVOR by giving him a conscience. And while there's something DELICIOUS about a monster like Cohn getting his comeuppance from a life of vile deeds, the closet seems to me the least of his problems. Plus what moral tension is there when all your good characters get some kind of "redemption" and all your evil characters get admonished? I mean, do you really need 6 or 8 scattered hours to demonstrate that this closet life is a bad thing? Even the Very Great Emma Thompson can't pull off that closing to Part 1. I'd be curious to see the essay on all the Christian symbolism afforded these folks (angel visitations, redemption through death)...Even one of my favs, Richard Goldstein, doesn't go there.

AND ANOTHER THING
There's a big essay to be written on what a radical act ER has taken by moving some major characters to Africa for episodes about the burgeoning AIDS epidemic. I can't think of another top-rated prime-time show that's ever been so committed to shoving our noses in the rest of the world while we fritter away our surplus in Iraq.