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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

TT: Get happy

November 28, 2011 by Terry Teachout

To go to a basement nightclub in Manhattan and sit ten feet away from a big band in full cry is one of the most exhilarating experiences known to man. Once upon a time I did so fairly often, but nowadays I rarely manage to do it more than once a year, when Mrs. T and I head down to the Jazz Standard on the Sunday after Thanksgiving to hear Maria Schneider‘s band.
jazz_standard.png.jpgEach year we do our best not to miss the last night of Maria’s annual week-long residency at the Jazz Standard, but this time around I felt more strongly than ever before the absolute need to flee from life and immerse myself in the world of art. Too much work, too much stress, too much everything…so we walked away from our worries, lined up at the door, and within minutes found ourselves sitting two tables away from the musicians, the very place where we most wanted to be.
The sound of a big band in a small room hits you like a benign tornado, filling the air with glowing clouds of harmony. It is, I suppose, possible to think of other things in the midst of such a maelstrom, but I didn’t: I let the outside world go and was content.
Eventually the music stopped, as it always does, and we said our farewells to Maria and caught a cab outside the club.
“Why don’t we do that more often?” asked Mrs. T as we pulled away.
“Beats me,” I replied.
* * *
The Maria Schneider Orchestra plays “Journey Home”:

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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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