Two albums, from a late master and a newbie, are notable additions to the current wave of introspective solo piano excursions.
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Jazz Album Review: Miguel Zenón’s Law Years Band & Christian McBride’s New Jawn Band
Two pianoless quartets + two restless leaders = some of the best music of the last few years.
Classical CD Review: György Ligeti’s “Études” — Well Played and Clearly Lived In
Throughout these Études, Driver’s playing marries tonal warmth with textural precision.
Television Review: “Exterminate All the Brutes” — A Familiar, and Partial, History Lesson
As an introduction to the progress of colonization and the horrors that white people have inflicted on BIPOC, Exterminate All the Brutes achieves its admirable mission.
Book Commentary: Literary Legacies — Children’s Literature
2020 and 2021 saw the deaths of five titans of children’s and young adult literature. Here’s to revisiting old “classics” and discovering new ones.
April Short Fuses – Materia Critica
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Arts Reconsideration: The 1971 Project — Celebrating a Great Year in Music (April Entry)
Arts Fuse writers continue their countdown of great music celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the list includes Marvin Gaye, Link Wray, David Bowie, Jean Knight, and The Rolling Stones.
Book Review: “The Search for John Lennon” — Going Down the Wrong Road
In her search for John Lennon, the author follows her fancy and picks and chooses which rocks she wants to look under, all the while giving herself the space to wax poetic on whatever theme moves her. It’s an appealing approach. Too bad then that the book is a let down.
Book Review: Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt” — Closing the Circle, Perfectly
This is a great work, more linear than Tom Stoppard’s earlier dramas, yet filled with such intelligence and compassion that it will be read and seen for years and years and, perhaps, over time be regarded as his richest, most haunting play.
Poetry Review: “Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth” — Yusef Komunyakaa, A Poet Who Expresses the World
It is always a pleasure to read the poems of a writer who has an ear for language and an eye for form, a voice of their own, and an interest in a world beyond the reach of their own person.