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Performances of such zest and sensitivity deserve to be rewarded with rapt enthusiasm, even love.
Cockeyed anecdotes roam merrily through a satiric tale set in an East Germany that’s too larky to be oppressive.
Now in its 18th season, the membership of the Worcester Chamber Music Society has remained remarkably consistent, boasting a number of familiar faces from Boston’s chamber music and orchestral scenes.
Four recent releases illustrate what can happen when the only limits are the imagination of the composer and the passion of the performers.
Valerie Duff’s polished style is thoughtful and observant, her fluent voice compressed and controlled. She constructs meticulous lines with (to borrow one of her phrases from these pages) a “stonecutter’s precision.”
Big band leader Arturo O’Farrill points out that “Santiago Brooklyn Santiago” makes a forceful argument that the embargo between Cuba and the United States should be done away with.
In “Fat Ham,” Black pain and repressed desire are transformed into a celebration of liberation and empowerment — once the villain du jour, the patriarchy, has been dispatched.
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Jazz Commentary: Three More Recent Composer-Driven Jazz Releases — Stretching the Boundaries of the “Conventional”
These projects are more conventionally jazzish in their sounds than the four in the companion post, but that does not make their ambitions less worthwhile or less adventurous.
Read More about Jazz Commentary: Three More Recent Composer-Driven Jazz Releases — Stretching the Boundaries of the “Conventional”