I’m not sure Can You Imagine? will be able to summon back Dizzy Gillespie from the great beyond, but it’s not a bad way to pass the time while we wait.
Music
Opera Album Review: The Operatic Artistry of Leonardo (Not “da”) Vinci
A world-premiere recording of Siroe, King of Persia makes it clear that Leonardo Vinci (1690-1730) was as fine a craftsman as the painter with a similar name.
Rock CD Review: The First Punk Rockers? The Damned Release “Black Is The Night”
Melody is one of the things that keeps a song from floundering, no matter how in-your-face its rhythm and chord structure might be, which is something a lot of spunky punk bands tend to forget. The Damned always kept that well in mind.
Country Music CD Review: Marcus King’s “El Dorado” — An Inspired Detour
In this disc, Marcus King takes a step back from the big, hard-charging sound he has been pursuing to great effect with his namesake band over the past few years.
Opera CD Review: The Greatest Spanish Opera? — A New Recording of Enrique Granados’s “Goyescas”
Imagine the excitement of experiencing, for the first time, an opera by one of the greatest composers to have come out of the Spanish-speaking world!
Arts Remembrance: Neil Peart — An Appreciation
Neil Peart was a thinking man’s octopus behind a massive drum and percussion kit that he played with blazing speed and peerless precision.
Opera CD Review: Carl Maria von Weber’s Wildly Assorted Candy Box — A Spiffy New Recording
The rarely staged Oberon is easy to love and will fascinate admirers of early nineteenth-century music.
Opera CD Review: A Young, Immensely Assured Joan Sutherland in Weber’s “Euryanthe”
The oft-neglected “other” great opera by Carl Maria von Weber, splendidly performed in 1955 and in remarkably clear and vivid sound. I hope this opera’s day will yet come.
Book Review: “Rocking the Closet” — Queering the Mainstream
Audiences knew (or at least thought they knew) something was up, and that something was what made these performers unique.
Music Feature: Best Non-Jazz Albums of 2019 – A Semi-Chronological Constellation
Milo Miles tests a long-held theory: that critic comments on why entries made it onto lists have little or nothing to do with whether readers track down and listen to the selected music.