Monday Recommendation: McNeely & The Frankfurtians
Jim McNeely, The Frankfurt Radio Big Band, Barefoot Dances and Other Visions (Planet Arts)
McNeely fortifies his position in the upper echelon of jazz arrangers in this set of new pieces for … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-23

Brio and Blossom
This week, the Cassatt String Quartet is having its annual Cassatt in the Basin residency, through which they bring the abiding principles of chamber music – effective communication, responsibility to the group, mutual respect, and intimate musical expression … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2018-04-23

Catching Up
When albums come out of the mailbox in batches of five, six, eight a day – or more – it is possible to overlook, set aside or misplace some that are worthy of mention. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-22

 

La Salle Art Museum’s Promo Video Highlights Deaccessioned Works
“Wander through six permanentgalleries [emphasis added],” the caption for the video walk-through on the La Salle University Art Museum’s homepage exhorts potential visitors. But while the galleries may be “permanent,” the installation shown on … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-04-20

‘For Sure Verboten’
U.S. cities with the fastest-growing wealth gaps. Monster Nor’easter The first day of spring a blinding white curtain kidnapped the cit​y. It was a true blast of winter. We solemn jurors braved the … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2018-04-20

Replay: the Benny Goodman Trio plays Gershwin
Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, and Gene Krupa, the original members of the Benny Goodman Trio, play George Gershwin’s “Nice Work if You Can Get It” in an unidentified 1960 video clip: (This is the … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-20

Armstrong And Ellington: Azalea
Until the past couple of days, spring around here was a date on the calendar and a rumor. But now there are tulips in front of the house. And magnolia blossoms 15 feet … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-04-19

Breasting the Wave
The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company Celebrates its 50th Anniversary Season Lar Lubovitch’s Something About Night. (L to R): Barton Cowperthwaite, Brett Perry, Nicole Marie Corea, Tobin Del Cuore, and Belinda McGuire. Photo: Nan Melville Once … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2018-04-19

Breasting the Wave
The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company Celebrates its 50th Anniversary Season … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-04-19

Deaccession Dejection: La Salle’s Sales Slide at Christie’s
This is an I-told-you-so post. Some six of 16 old masters deaccessioned by the La Salle University Art Museum were left stranded on the auction block at Christie’s this afternoon. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-19

A shock from the wider world
About Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer Prize – of course it’s a great moment for the evolution of music as an art. Or rather for the recognition of how music long ago evolved. But then there are … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2018-04-19

 

The Future of Orchestras – Part Five: Kurt Weill, El Paso, and the National Mood
“Wherever I found decency and humanity in the world, it reminded me of America.” Kurt Weill wrote those words after returning from a visit to Germany in 1947. I read them aloud at least a dozen times during the Kurt Weill festival in El Paso last week. Every time I invited my listeners to consider whether or not they still apply. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-04-18

La Salle Sales Shortfall: Two of Five 19th-Century Offerings Fail to Sell
Today’s auction at Christie’s of the first five of 46 deaccessions from the La Salle University Art Museum got off to an inauspicious start … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-18

Propwatch: the plastic bags in Macbeth
Rufus Norris’s bereft, survivalist production of Macbeth was the show that launched a thousand thinkpieces about his regime at the National Theatre. The reviews were overwhelmingly hostile, and this apparently misfired Shakespeare followed on … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2018-04-18

 

Why Max Hollein Was Inevitable as Met’s Director
Put yourself in the position of a member of the Metropolitan Museum’s search committee: Despite all the pressure to choose anyone but another white male – somewhat wrong-headed pressure, imho – I think you’d have picked Max Hollein … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-04-16

Let’s move before they change the parking rate
No, I cannot quit writing about economic-impact-of-the-arts reports. Let’s try something a little more focused, and talk about … parking. Parking is part of the cost of attending a show, if it takes place in … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2018-04-15

Fixing the Actual “Glass Ceiling” at the Metropolitan Museum: My Q&A with Keith Christiansen
With all the recent pushback against the supposed “glass ceiling” at the Metropolitan Museum (occasioned by the naming of an eminently qualified male, Max Hollein, to assume its directorship), let’s take a look at another glass-ceiling problem there, which is unambiguous and needs immediate remediation: … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-16

West Side Story and Leonard Bernstein at 100
CultureCrash’s guest columnist, Lawrence Christon, remembers the Broadway roots of the film West Side Story, and has this to say about the forces that made it all possible. … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2018-04-16

Music by the Second
Sometimes I’m amazed when I realize the number of clocks I encounter every day:  on the wall, on the stove, on the phone, on the screen I’m typing on now. …  Unlike the clocks I grew up with – clocks with faces and arms and reference points around a circle – the clocks that surround me now designate only the moment I am in, without context, without motion. … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2018-04-16

Monday Book Recommendation: Lilian Terry’s Jazz Friends
Lilian Terry, Dizzy Duke Brother Ray And Friends (Illinois)
Lilian Terry’s book is full of anecdotes about her friendships with the musicians mentioned in the title – and dozens of others. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-16

 

Filthy Rotten T.S. Eliot
When my staff of thousands sent me this book cover, APRIL IS A MOTHERFUCKER, by none other than T.S. Eliot, it put me in mind of Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917,which includes … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2018-04-15

Martha Graham: Sacred and Profane
The Martha Graham Dance Company at New York City Center, April 11 through 14 Martha Graham’s Embattled Garden.Left: Lorenzo Pagano; right: Anne O’Donnell and Lloyd Knight. Photo: Melissa Sherwood I assume that Isamu Noguchi … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2018-04-13

Replay: the Rolling Stones on The Mike Douglas Show
The Rolling Stones meet three young fans and perform Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” on The Mike Douglas Showin 1964: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-13

Recent Listening In Brief (short…capsulesque…itty-bitty…not long)
Danny GreenTrio Plus Strings, One Day It Will (OA2) Pianist Green’s earlier album Altered Narratives put strings with his trio on three tracks. The melding with a string quartet worked nicely. One Day … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-04-12

Fear and loathing in the Renaissance church: Stile Antico sings Victoria’s Holy Week music
Sacred music began tumbling from heaven to earth in the late 16th century, when the words it was sung to became something more than liturgical reference points. It took on more qualities of human speech … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to MusicPublished 2018-04-12

Fear and loathing in the Renaissance church: Stile Antico sings Victoria’s Holy Week music
Sacred music began tumbling from heaven to earth in the late 16th century, when the words it was sung to became something more than liturgical reference points. It took on more qualities of human speech … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-04-12

What Obstacles Will Max Hollein Need to Surmount as Metropolitan Museum’s New Director?
Max Hollein will have two strikes against him — one insignificant, one potentially serious — when he walks in the door this summer as the Metropolitan Museum’s new director. The first liability is irremediable, unless he’s planning a sex-change: … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-12

Recent Listening In Brief (short…capsulesque…itty-bitty…not long)
Danny Green Trio Plus Strings, One Day It Will (OA2)
Jeremy Pelt, Noir en Rouge Live In Paris (High Note)
Kairos Sextet, Transition (Dafnison Music)
The Three Sounds, Groovin’ Hard, Live At The Penthouse 1964-1968 (Resonance) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-12

 

Berkshire Blurbs: Lucas Museum Buys “Shuffleton’s”; Sotheby’s Lowers Some Estimates
No surprise here: The planned Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, which broke ground last month, today announced its acquisition of Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop from the Berkshire Museum (price undisclosed). This means that … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-11

 

Market Madness: Sotheby’s to Auction 13 Berkshire Museum Works this May
Notwithstanding its direct relevance to the Berkshire Museum’s mission (which includes both history and art) and the museum’s professed concern for the education of schoolchildren, a portrait of our first President is among its works to be sold at Sotheby’s American Art sale on May 23. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-10

Denny Zeitlin’s Birthday
As you will momentarily see and hear, Zeitlin has retained the vigor and style that have helped keep him one of the most consistently interesting pianists of his generation. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-10

 

Rehabilitating Stockhausen with a KLANG: Does less mystique enhance his stature?
Karlheinz Stockhausen has only been gone a little over ten years, but the infamous, trailblazing composer (1928-2007) seems like a name from the past, provoking as much suspicion as awe … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-04-09>

Celebrating a 40-Year Career
In 1978, Jane Comfort and I were both forty years younger. Not a surprise? I guess not. But that sentence may prove a snappier lead than my starting off by recounting what Comfort has accomplished over those forty years and how many dances of hers I’ve seen. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-04-09

Picking on the Frick: Is It Shortchanged by Its Significantly Downsized Expansion Plan?
“We’re able to achieve everything we need,” Ian Wardropper, the Frick Collection’s browbeaten director, told Robin Pogrebin of the NY Times about his institution’s revised renovation and expansion plans. Not exactly. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-08

“The Art and Alchemy of Conducting” — and Mahler’s Fourth
As all Mahlerites know, the opening of the Fourth Symphony is both magical and mutable. A preamble of chiming sleigh bells and flutes dissipates to a cheerful violin ditty that coyly … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-04-08

Monday Recommendation: Oscar Peterson Plays 10 Composers
Oscar Peterson Plays (Verve)
In this five-CD reissue, the formidable pianist plays pieces by ten composers who dominated American popular music for decades. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-09

 

Cecil Taylor Is Gone
Cecil Taylor, a pianist who fashioned his music from myriad styles and sources, died yesterday in New York. He was 89. From his earliest recordings in the mid-1950s with bassist Buell Nieidlinger, … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-04-06

Cecil Taylor, dead at 89, as celebrated nine years ago
Cecil Taylor in 2014, photo by Sánta István Csaba The brilliant, challenging, perplexing and incomparable pianist/improviser/composer Cecil Taylor died April 5, 2018, at age 89. Here’s what I wrote of him to celebrate his 80th … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond JazzPublished 2018-04-06

Almanac: Shakespeare on the function of music
Preposterous ass, that never read so far To know the cause why music was ordain’d! Was it not to refresh the mind of man, After his studies or his usual pain? William Shakespeare, The Taming … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-06

Historically informed performance: How does it translate into the real world?
Are we there yet? That classic question that comes with long-delayed arrival was inevitable after a weekend packed with early-music concerts in New York … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-04-05

Deaccession Dejection: Court Allows Berkshire Museum Sales
Justice David Lowy of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has just handed down a lamentable decision that rubber-stamps the devil’s bargain between the Attorney General and the trustees of the Berkshire Museum … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-05

Bill Kirchner: Two Views
Composer, saxophonist, bandleader and author Bill Kirchner is the subject of two new articles that recognize his decades of creativity. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-05

 

Can Orchestras Be Re-Invented?
Theater companies have dramaturges. Museums are staffed by scholars. But orchestras, despite their reverence for great music of the past, don’t even care about their own backstories. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-04-04

Juilliard Dancers Predicting Spring
Watching the Juilliard School’s annual Spring Dances, I think of young racehorses turned loose on a course. The Juilliard performers aren’t as young as those ballet dancers who join companies while still in high school; after four years at the school, they’ll graduate with BFAs. However, all that they’ve learned, and are still learning, is on the line in these performances, and often, they’re being shown in choreographic masterpieces. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-04-04

 

Post-Racial? Puhleeze!
I recently attended a production of Our Town presented by Triad Stage, a professional theater company based in Greensboro, NC. It had been decades since I had seen the play but I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for it. I thought it was very well done, but this is not a review. What this is … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-04-03

Morbid Fascination: The Undead Haunt the Met Breuer’s “Like Life” (with video)
“Ewww, gross!” exclaimed a seasoned critic (not me), disconcerted by one of many creepy, gruesome works that affront delicate sensibilities in the Met Breuer’s Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300–Now), … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-03

April 3 Birthdays, Scott LaFaro’s Among Them
The Jazz West Coast listserve often begins its posts with the names of jazz people born on the current date. The April 3 list is a profusion of such names. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-03

 

Who is Kirill Petrenko? The incoming Berlin Phil chief conductor – at least for the moment – can do no wrong
Though not a stranger to New York, Kirill Petrenko showed every sign of being discovered by some highly engaged Carnegie Hall audiences in a two-day visit by the Bavarian State Opera, … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-04-02

Propwatch: the book in The Inheritance
A companionable slump of young men sits on the floor and frown over notebooks and laptops. They squirm to tell their story, but they’re struggling. One clutches a cherished volume – Howard’s End by E.M. Forster, … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2018-04-02

Shostakovich and Film — Take Two
I spent the last two days repeatedly viewing – and (as the orchestra’s pianist) participating in – screenings of the 1929 Soviet silent film The New Babylon, … [and] I have no doubt that Shostakovich’s score, however little known (there is no suite by the composer), is one of the most formidable ever composed for film. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-04-02

Recent Listening In Brief
Edward Simon, Sorrows & Triumphs (Sunnyside)
Rich DeRosa, Perseverence (North Texas Jazz)
Azar Lawrence, Elementals (High Note)
Willie Nelson, American Classic (Blue Note) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-04-02

 

Sultanof Arrangements, Part 2
Today, Rifftides offers the second installment of scholar, teacher and historian Jeff Sultanof’s essay on pleasures and challenges in the craft of correcting arrangements.  Exploring Buried Treasure in Plain Sight, Part 2 … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-03-31

Jeff Sultanof On The Archeology Of Arrangements
Rifftides is delighted that Jeff Sultanof has agreed to contribute another piece. A distinguished expert on arrangers and arranging, Mr. Sultanof is the author of the invaluable book Experiencing Big Band Jazz: A … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-03-30

Replay: Angels in America on Broadway in 1993
Excerpts from a live performance of the original 1993 Broadway production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, shot for use by the press. The cast included Ron Leibman as Roy Cohn, Joe Mantello as Louis, … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-03-30

Almanac: Steve Gadd on art and craftsmanship
“I don’t consider myself an artist. I go out there and I try to play what’s right for the music. It seems to be a much more open approach and it would seem to allow … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-03-30

April Showers: 28 La Salle University Deaccessions in Three Christie’s Auctions (with estimates)
Without a press release, let alone any fanfare, Christie’s has now published the complete catalogue information (including presale estimates) for 28 of the 46 works that were deaccessioned by La Salle University to bankroll its … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-03-28

Chummy MacGregor And “Moon Dreams”
Chummy MacGregor was born on this day in 1903 and died on March 9, 1973. It’s the rare listener to modern jazz who doesn’t know of the MacGregor composition “Moon Dreams,” which … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-28

 

Frames
There are two basic facts I must acknowledge in my work: … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-03-27

 

Stephen Petronio: Honoring His Heritage, Moving On
The Stephen Petronio Company performs new and historic works. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-03-25

Other people’s stories: art by parents
We all have a strong inclination to view ourselves as the protagonists of our own stories. People in committed relationships have an increased incentive to view themselves as serving supporting roles in someone else’s narrative. Parents have an even stronger incentive to see themselves in supporting roles, and even as backdrop. What does this mean for artists? … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2018-03-26

Shostakovich and the Fool: Boris Godunov and King Lear
The most galvanizing Shakespeare experience I know is the 1971 Soviet film version of King Lear directed by Grigory Kozintsev with music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Its dimensions are such that … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-03-25

Monday Recommendation: DIVA At 25
The DIVA Jazz Orchestra 25th Anniversary Project (ArtistShare)
It has been a quarter of a century since Buddy Rich’s manager and relief drummer Stanley Kay found himself conducting a band whose drummer was young Sherrie Maricle. Intrigued by her playing, Kay set out to find whether there were other women jazz musicians of comparable talent. There were. DIVA was soon born and … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-26

 

Replay: Pierre Boulez conducts Debussy’s Jeux
Pierre Boulez and the New Philharmonia Orchestra perform Claude Debussy’s Jeux on the BBC in 1966: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-03-23

Almanac: Winston Churchill on how to live
“Nature is merciful and does not try her children, man or beast, beyond their compass. It is only where the cruelty of man intervenes that hellish torments appear. For the rest—live dangerously; take things as … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-03-23

Catching Up (Well…Giving It A Good Try)
The John Coltrane project described in this post is completed and awaiting release by Concord Jazz. However—I am happy to report—other free lance assignments have developed. Rifftides progress slows a bit while … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-03-22

Paul Taylor and His Cohort
Paul Taylor American Modern Dance at Lincoln Center through March 25th. The Paul Taylor Dance Company in Doug Varone’s Half Life. Photo: Paul B. Goode I think I finally got it straight: Paul Taylor American … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2018-03-22

Why Did the Attorney General Cave in Berkshire Museum Case? My Q&A with the Rockwells’ Lawyer
Those, like me, who were caught off-guard by the astonishing deal (now awaiting court validation) cut last month by the Berkshire Museum and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey feel justifiably blindsided by the AG’s about-face. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-03-21

Paul Taylor and His Cohort
Paul Taylor American Modern Dance at Lincoln Center through March 25th.
I think I finally got it straight: Paul Taylor American Modern Dance is  … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-03-22

Catching Up (Well … Giving It A Good Try)
The John Coltrane project described in this post is completed and awaiting release by Concord Jazz. However,… in the next few posts we’ll call your attention to recent listening that may interest you. Some of the albums have been out a while. Others are quite new. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-22

 

Getting Picasso Right: You Think It’s Easy?
In London a few weeks back, I was fortunate to be there on the day of the press preview for Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy at the Tate Modern. You might think. at first, that doing a Picasso show is easy, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-03-21

Why Did the Attorney General Cave in Berkshire Museum Case? My Q&A with the Rockwells’ Lawyer
Those, like me, who were caught off-guard by the astonishing deal (now awaiting court validation) cut last month by the Berkshire Museum and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey feel justifiably blindsided by the AG’s about-face. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-03-21

Maija Kauhanen sings about Child Brides
As you might have noticed from my last posting, this past year’s WOMEX had some pretty powerful women performing. Among them was most certainly Finland’s Maija Kauhanen, whose day case was exceptionally compelling. … read more
AJBlog: OtherWorldly Published 2018-03-21

 

What They Want
There is an unfortunate tendency on the part of some in the nonprofit arts industry to believe that it is their responsibility to provide to the public art that they think the public needs. This is usually based on little to no understanding of what those needs might actually be. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging MattersPublished 2018-03-20

Is there an ethical case against deaccessioning by museums?
In response to a post by artsjournal.com blog neighbor Lee Rosenbaum on proposed sales of works by the Berkshire Museum and the Lasalle University Art Museum, I asked via Twitter whether there was a coherent case to be made that  … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2018-03-20

Berkshire Museum in Court: Pointed Questions, No Resolution (plus, a push for a deaccession law)
While the Berkshire Eagle’s Larry Parnass rushes off to file his story on the just concluded court hearing on the Berkshire Museum’s art-sale plans, let’s interpret what we’ve learned from Larry’s live tweets on how the proceedings went. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-03-20

Meredith Monk’s Journey
Meredith Monk’s Cellular Songs at the BAM Harvey Theater, March 14 through 18. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-03-20

Old friends
I go back a long way with Laura Demanski, my best friend, who blogged with me as “Our Girl in Chicago” for many years. We met some three decades ago. Back then she was the … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2018-03-20

 

 

Court Hearing/Protest Demonstration: Crucial Week in Berkshire/La Salle Deaccession Deliberations
Coming to a boil this week, the heated controversies over the fate of endangered collections at two small, little-known museums pose a huge potential threat to museums around the country. And there’s only one sure … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-03-19

The Pleasure of Context
Like many people, when I read a great book, I immediately cast about for other titles by the same author.  When I see a film that catches my attention, I look for more by the same creative team. Part of this practice is a desire to get … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2018-03-19

Old friends
I go back a long way with Laura Demanski, my best friend, who blogged with me as “Our Girl in Chicago” for many years. We met some three decades ago. Back then she was … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2018-03-20

Propwatch: the axe in Buggy Baby
It was Chekhov who defined the essential rule of theatre props. ‘If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall,’ he told a friend in 1889, ‘then in the … read more
AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2018-03-16

Fallen Giants: Richard Meier at Cornell University & the Getty Center (and other besmirched luminaries)
“He’s a giant. We are all basking in the glow of his legacy.” So said Kent Kleinman, Cornell University’s Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, as quoted in a Cornell Chronicle article … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-03-16

Dream academy
What happened to the genre of academic satire? In the Chronicle Review, Andrew Kay has some ideas; I’d like to offer a different take. Disclaimer: I’m no literary critic. But (a) I am an academic, … read more
AJBlog: For What it’s WorthPublished 2018-03-16

Almanac: Rex Stout on secrets
“You should know that your only safe secrets are those you yourself have forgotten.” Rex Stout, Death of a Doxy… read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-03-16

The Big Crack
Oh oh no, it’s Bonomo. Not the wrapper I remember. The polite ones pretend to remember, because they don’t want to show they aren’t down with your age. “Down with” is their age. And … read more
AJBlog: Out TherePublished 2018-03-15

The Big Crack
The vintage-candy vault is a Brooklyn cliché, like stoop ball, stickball, new pink Spaldings (Spawl-DEENS) down the grate. … read more
AJBlog: Out There Published 2018-03-15

Bill Frisell And Brad Mehldau: Alone
Their recording histories encompass dozens of collaborations, but in their new albums two of the most prolific recording artists in modern music go it alone. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-15

Mieczyslaw Weinberg on Film
Is Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996) a third Soviet composer to set beside Shostakovich and Prokofiev? An increasing number of musicians seem to think so, including the peerless Latvian-born violinist Gidon Kremer, himself a product of Soviet training. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-03-15

Beware the Eve of the Ides of March
Today is the Ides of March, so I should have known better than to go to a performance yesterday of Julius Caesar at London’s new theatre, The Bridge. Remember, it was on … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2018-03-15

Doin’ What You Do
In ‘Present What You Do’ I advocated for early engagement work to flow, where possible, from programming already planned and contextualized around the interests of communities. Serendipitously (there’s a word I don’t often get to use), … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-03-13

“Plundering the Art Museum”: La Salle University Faculty Senate Blasts Planned Art Sales (full text)
In a statement approved unanimously by those attending its Mar. 6 meeting, the Faculty Senate of La Salle University, Philadelphia, blasted the proposed sale through Christie’s of 46 highlights of from the collection of the … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-03-13

Spike, Smalls, and Mezzrow
Spike Wilner is a ragtime jazz pianist with an unusual background. He’s also the major-domo of not one but two great jazz clubs across the street from each other in Manhattan. … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2018-03-13

Reassembling A Bird Post (And Hoping For The Best)
(This post originally ran in 2014, but a record company or an agent or a publicist or fate removed the videos. The Rifftides staff has patiently reassembled the piece and restored the music. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-13

Decorative but not useful: the instrumental benefits of the arts
What good are the arts beyond the personal aesthetic pleasure we gain from them? There is quite a list out there, of these so-called instrumental benefits of the arts … But you don’t have to work in the art world long to know that these instrumental benefits are not seen as a purely intellectual enquiry, but are a tool for advocacy … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2018-03-11

TEFAF Maastricht: Changing, But the Same
The world’s best art fair – Tefaf Maastricht. whose 275 participating galleries show the art of seven millennia, all told – got underway last Thursday, as usual. Fair organizers are keen to point out what’s different this year: … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-03-12

Monday Recommendation, Keith Jarrett Trio: After The Fall
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, After The Fall (ECM)
In 1998 Keith Jarrett was emerging from a siege of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that had sidelined him for two years. As he … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-12

Disruption
Life is full of small pleasures, and I do my best not to undervalue them. For me, many of life’s pleasures are solitary. … Sometimes, though, events capture my attention, pull me out of my self and away from my solitary activities.   Last spring was such a time.  Like many others, I found national and world events disrupting my routines.  That disruption was a good thing: … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2018-03-12

 

Taylor Made
Paul Taylor American Modern Dance at Lincoln Center, March 6 through 25. Eran Bugge and Michael Trusnovec in Paul Taylor’s Roses. Photo: Paul B. Goode When Paul Taylor’s Roses premiered in 1985, fake petals drifted … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2018-03-10

Weekend Listening Tip: SRJO On Brubeck And Desmond
Jazz Northwest airs at 2 PM PST Sunday on KNKX-FM in the Seattle-Tacoma region. It streams online at  knkx.org   … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-03-09

Replay: Tony Bennett and Dave McKenna perform “The Very Thought of You”
Tony Bennett and Dave McKenna perform Ray Noble’s “The Very Thought of You” at Boston’s Copley Plaza Hotel in 1982: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-03-09

Sultanof On His Big Band Book
A few weeks ago the Rifftides Monday Recommendation was Jeff Sultanof’s new book Experiencing Big Band Jazz. You can read the recommendation here. Sultanof (pictured right) was recently the guest on Michael … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-03-08