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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

TT: A masterpiece moratorium

May 28, 2010 by Terry Teachout

kindofblue-team.jpgA new book about Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue has just been published–the third to appear in the past decade. Granted that Kind of Blue is a masterpiece and thus by definition worthy of extended discussion and analysis, that still strikes me as a bit excessive, and in light of the album’s undiminished cultural ubiquity, I was inspired to write a “Sightings” column for Saturday’s Wall Street Journal in which I suggest that one of the best things we can do with masterpieces is give them an occasional rest.
Would the world end if we all agreed not to listen to Kind of Blue for the next twelve months, or watch Citizen Kane? Or might such a moratorium actually sharpen our responses to these over-familiar works of art? If those questions pique your interest, pick up a copy of tomorrow’s Journal and see what I have to say.
UPDATE: Read the whole thing here.

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Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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