Commentary
During his career as the founder and artistic director of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence (from 1964 to 1989), Adrian Hall achieved a lasting place in the American theater as a visionary director.
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What emerges from even a cursory study of Anna May Wong’s life is that her complexity and depth were rarely acknowledged but she used her intelligence to control the narrative as much as she could.
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This is the Catch-22 of American constitutional politics. We the people are free to propose any structural reform we want except that they’ll all suffer the same fate: strangulation at the hands of petty politicians in Washington or the state capitals.
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Tom Verlaine will be most remembered for Marquee Moon, both the album and title track, which alone would be enough to seal any legacy.
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Wadada Leo Smith is among the most prolific composers of string quartets in the modern era, the only Black composer to have written so many, and one of the most adventurous writers of quartets in terms of his notation system and the distinctiveness of his musical language.
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Engagingly written by a limpid stylist, The Call of the Tribe marshals a corps of sparkling intellectuals who have in common first-hand experience of dictatorship, a commitment to individual freedom, a belief in reasonably regulated free-market economies, and a rejection of the political zealotry of religion or the doctrinaire left and right.
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When I glorify or romanticize an artist like David Crosby it is because the performer has a gift for alchemizing songs into something huge, powerful, spiritual, and communal.
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Given that the Climate Emergency will grow more challenging over time, we (including literary novelists) shouldn’t be so cavalier about not eating our spinach.
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George Takei’s musical, Allegiance, projects American democracy as it might have become.
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Music Remembrance: Burt Bacharach — Stealth Pop Composer
Without us even knowing it, Burt Bacharach opened up our ears.
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