Jazz
For a genre that supposedly expired in the 1950’s, the big band’s vital signs seem remarkably robust here in Boston. By J. R. Carroll A welcome recent addition has been the compositions and arrangements of tenor saxophonist Florencia Gonzalez, which layer vivid sonorities and intricate counterpoint atop Afro-Uruguayan candombe and Argentinian tango. She brings her…
Read MoreBy J. R. Carroll Violinists are a fortunate lot. Granted, many years of painstaking study and practice are required to master the instrument, but once achieved, that mastery can be taken in almost any direction–or in many directions. As part of what she describes as her “never-ending quest for new vocabulary,” Mimi Rabson has headed…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx “Boston is adrift in the brave new competition among big American cities vying for tourist dollars.” Maureen Dezell, WBUR Maureen made that charge back in July 2006 in an article that turned out to be one of the last posts on the late WBUR Arts Online. Now that the quote, along with…
Read Moreby Bill Marx A recent study in Editor & Publisher delivers the lowdown; with its circulation down about 20% in four years, The Boston Globe is in free fall. Two major investors in The New York Times, which owns the Globe, are “challenging the company’s investment decisions, including its commitment to the struggling newspaper industry…
Read MoreBy J. R. Carroll This review/commentary will focus on Coltrane’s recordings with the Miles Davis Quintet for Columbia (in October 1955 and June and September 1956) and Prestige (in November 1955 and May and October 1956), as well as a variety of sideman dates and nominally leaderless sessions, many of which have recently been reissued…
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