[contextly_auto_sidebar id="nSfJU3F4qca0WNdrRd2gjfF0g8ANwvpR"] WELL, this time it seems to be for real: Jazz pianist, songwriter and founding Jazz Messenger Horace Silver has died at 85. Silver's recordings, under his own name and in his 1950s group with Art Blakey, were some of the first jazz I got into, and I've been marveling at his genius all over again since I've learned to play his "Song … [Read more...]
Archives for 2014
How Silicon Valley’s Disruptors Defend Themselves
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="CoNTgysgG97fFP472ViQZnWcE75qU22x"] I EXPECT the big car companies were as defensive, back when reformers suggested seat belts and the like, as digital-disruptor types are when they receive any bit of criticism. In this case, the Silicon Valley types lash back that anyone who doesn't buy their cyber-utopian vision is "anti-technology." Salon's Andrew Leonard gets … [Read more...]
Taking Stock of the Ojai Music Festival
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="JFTV8kkscmtLKx5Wmj1BWgosRiTRBgVg"] YOUR humble correspondent has just returned from the Ojai Music Festival, which continues to be a great place to see classical music. Here are a few highlights of this year's festival. On one major piece I break from the critical consensus and will get into that tomorrow. Music director Jeremy Denk is both a consummate … [Read more...]
World Premiere: Donald Margulies’ “The Country House”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="RH5YHXCUmB0pge4N88BDwP9g0cBKqKe3"] IS there a wittier writer working today than Donald Margulies? Could be, but the New Haven-based, Pulitzer-winning playwright is so consistently on in his best work, and his brand-new play, The Country House, which I caught on opening night at the Geffen Playhouse, is often irresistibly funny. The play is set in a big, open house … [Read more...]
Memories of the Sasquatch! Music Festival
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="e8nNtZOoMQ1FttKvUUS4FJDZ3Ver3Pl8"] TODAY I am going to take a break from spreading bad news about the world of culture to offer some photographs of rock and hip-hop musicians. These shots are by Steven Dewall, an old colleague and friend, and former resident of Seattle, who travels back every year for the Sasquatch! festival and photographs a huge range of … [Read more...]
LA Artists of the ’60s at LACMA
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="pFkvNxQ3v2mm1VEKfWCa48kouHd3cwqj"] FOR the next few weeks, we have an unusual and probably accidental correspondence: Two important but often unseen artists of Los Angeles' great 60s flowering are up at the LACMA. For admirers of John Altoon -- one of the original Ferus Gallery bad boys -- and Helen Pashgian, a pioneer of the Light and Space movement -- it's a rare … [Read more...]
What if Music Streaming Collapses?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="0C90MFj4yUbo92uYGLlqaqHIa9YPI4AC"] MOST critical coverage of Spotify, Pandora and the like has concentrated on the frustration of musicians. But a tough, provocative new piece asks, What if these streaming companies simply fail to make profits, and disappear? Here is Michael St. James -- extending the recent David Carr story -- on RebelMouse: Not one of the music … [Read more...]
The Ojai Music Festival and Uri Caine
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Scx4VCooDHhyWVBgymxHy3X9hGhGh8Y4"] LATER this week, one of our spring rituals arrives: The Ojai Music Festival kicks off on Thursday. It’s always a good time up there, and this year we’re doubly excited because of the artistic directorship by pianist Jeremy Denk, one of my generation’s most imaginative players, a gifted writer of prose on his blog and elsewhere, and … [Read more...]
Lonnie Johnson’s “St. Louis Blues”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="OQ7hhJaMXdBfZrz7JBJRrdOxXWzxib1D"] WHAT's the most influential song in history? The Atlantic Monthly recently asked Ted Gioia for his answer, and he suggested this W.C. Handy classic, for all the blues songs it engendered, its enduring melody, and partly for its "Spanish tinge." I don't think Ted, a longtime friend of CultureCrash, was thinking of this version; … [Read more...]
Celebrating Route 66
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="1HoMw0eKbPzQBS6WAPogsGZlqRRM0XrN"] WELL, that sure was an unexpected pleasure. I thought I knew a bit about Route 66, but there are apparently dimensions to the legendary historic highway I'd not considered. The press preview I walked out of this morning left me thinking that this medium-sized exhibit at the Autry was the best social-history show I've seen in … [Read more...]