Music
Soprano saxophonist Emile Parisien’s new disc is deliberately, and satisfyingly, international.
The rewards of these and other recordings provide ample proof that, with its shape-shifting qualities, the string quartet will continue to be a powerful asset for talented jazz composers.
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Newly recorded in the original German, Anton Reicha’s Lenore offers a vivid response to Bürger’s famous “Gothic” ballad from 1774.
Whether playing together or apart, on this 1981 recording the two saxophonists couldn’t sound more gracefully inspired or more compatible.
The Cave of Winds and Breath By Breath amply confirm that, regardless of the stress of COVID, jazz’s life-force remains strong as we venture into a brave new year.
Joseph Horowitz’s short, punchy, well-sourced, and compulsively readable book argues for bringing back the forgotten works of important Black composers.
The trio shares Cecil Taylor’s love of rational freedom and adventure, but it doesn’t try to reproduce the pianist’s rip-roaring intensity.
The Kick album cycle drives home the essence of Arca’s musical vision: constant, relentless transformation.
Arts Commentary: The Kennedy Center and the Boston Symphony Orchestra — A Tale of Two Crises