For a generation of Russians, Joseph Brodsky was the poet, almost a code-word in the discourse of the intelligentsia, like Nabokov.
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Jazz Album Review: The Ultimate Peggy Lee — A Woman in Control
Peggy Lee’s career took her far from the bifurcated sexual image expected of a canary — 40% coy seductiveness and 60% “I just want to settle down but will entertain you until the right guy comes along.”
Performing Arts Series: Stories of Surviving COVID-19 — New England Conservatory
What lies beyond COVID-19 for the arts community?
Music Album Review: Phoebe Bridgers’s “Punisher” — A Stunning Sophomore Album
Phoebe Bridgers has crafted a disc filled with pristine, meditative songs that carry a brutal emotional weight.
Jazz Album Review: Pianist Erroll Garner — The Best Tunes Played with Mucho Gusto
Thanks to Octave and Mack Avenue Records, a significant section of pianist Erroll Garner’s storied career is back, sounding better than ever before.
Book Review: “The Family Clause” — Tribulations of a Family with No Name
Jonas Hassen Khemiri does little in The Family Clause to put his own spin on the usual domestic showdown of repression versus dreams of liberation.
Film Review: “Mr. Jones” — Independent Journalism Is a Very Good Thing
Director Agnieszka Holland deftly presents a vision of genocide that is hard-hitting but never manipulative: the horror pervades the monochrome beauty of snow, skeletal trees, and pale, sunken faces.
Television Review: “Beecham House” — A Steamy Passage to India
As a potentially thoughtful drama (hey, this is PBS) set during a revolutionary and colonialist era, Beecham House falls as flat as papadum.
Jazz Album Review: Rudresh Mahanthappa’s “Hero Trio” — To the Rescue
Adventurous jazz is not always as much fun to listen to as it is on Hero Trio, a stellar meeting of compositions, arrangements, and astute performances propelled by real passion.
Dance Commentary: Sally Banes (1950-2020)
Dance critic, scholar, performer, activist Sally Banes died on 14 June in Philadelphia.