Commentary

The Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll — Sharing What We Know at Mid-Year

July 11, 2025
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We are all part of a community with a deep commitment to this extraordinary but way-too-often unappreciated musical art, and the late critic Francis Davis believed we should work together and share what we know. His poll was one important way to do just that

The Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll at Mid-Year — Listomania! Confessions of a Bad Voter

July 11, 2025
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So what am I saying? That the system is imperfect, corrupted by bad voters like me (there must be a few others who didn’t listen to even close to everything on this list — show of hands?)

Music Commentary: Analyzing the Greatness of Brian Wilson’s “God Only Knows”

July 5, 2025
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I hope this close look makes clear the exquisite craftsmanship that went into “God Only Knows.” But for many of us, the song has a magic that goes beyond the mere exercise of compositional skill, even skill of a very high order.

Film Retrospective: “Floating Clouds … The Cinema of Naruse Mikio” — Dedicated to Women’s Passions

July 3, 2025
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Film scholars, programmers, and the many filmmakers influenced by Naruse Miko value him as having crafted well-rounded portraits of women and their lives across decades of Japanese cultural changes.

Culture Commentary: Homemade and Despicable

July 2, 2025
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So now, along with hand-made candles, jewelry, and home goods, Etsy customers can sport tees, caps and download stickers with Alligator Alcatraz names and images.

Arts Commentary: Essential Inquiries — “40 Questions About a Political Play”

July 1, 2025
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“A play is political if its subject is taboo and its story mirrors, exposes, and critiques the suppression and repression that interferes with the treatment of a cultural disease. A political play is a problem that is ignored, denied, maligned. A political play is, by definition, unpopular.”

Jazz Commentary: John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” Turns 60 — A Homage

June 29, 2025
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This year marks the 60th anniversary of the release of John Coltrane’s magisterial album “A Love Supreme,” which has meant so much to so many.

Cultural Commentary: Time for Arts Groups, Large and Small, to Display Some Bona Fide Irreverence

June 25, 2025
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The question before arts organizations and companies is the same one that looms over the rest of us: will they—can they—act before it’s too late?

Arts Remembrance: The Special Legacies of Three Prominent Architects

June 23, 2025
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Though not necessarily for of their buildings, these three prominent architects leave legacies that will be cherished and remembered.

Film Commentary: Zombie Apocalypse, Re-Imagined — The Legacy of “28 Days Later”

June 20, 2025
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Where is the grandiose zombie apocalypse that illuminates the grotesque reality of the death-denying yet death-obsessed beings we’ve become? Ralph Fiennes knows.

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