The caliber of Richard Thompson’s voice is undiminished. His always expressive, frequently soothing timbre was perfectly intact.
Music
Jazz Preview: Aardvark at 50 Sparks a Jazz Scene Sputtering Back to Life in Eastern Massachusetts
The pandemic clouds over the Boston / Cambridge jazz scene are breaking up – not completely by any means – but at last you have a broad menu of live music here to pull you away from your TV bingeing.
Arts Remembrance: Pharoah Sanders, A Primordial Saxophone Deity, (1940-2022)
Sometimes Pharoah Sanders came back and played like a primordial saxophone deity, cutting into the rhythm section like an act of penetration.
Concert Review: Boston Symphony plays Williams, Bach, Montgomery, and Holst
Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds is a testament to her impressive compositional chops. Let’s have more from her here, and often.
Concert Review: Roxy Music — A Stylish Pioneer of Art-Rock Celebrates its 50th Anniversary
Once the original Roxy Music core took the stage with their nine supporting musicians, most concerns melted into 100 sublime minutes of music.
Concert Review: My Morning Jacket — An Evening of Mystery, Majesty, and Murk
The veteran band from Louisville, Kentucky, kicked into the millennium with a wild and woolly mix of Southern rock, alt-country, space-prog, and electro-funk that grew weirder over time.
Arts Remembrance: Eric Jackson, Boston’s Voice of Jazz (1950-2022)
Longtime GBH host Eric Jackson passed away earlier this morning.
Concert Review: The High Standards of Michael Formanek’s Elusion Quartet
To hear free music so beautifully contained and expressed in such inventive forms isn’t unheard of (Henry Threadgill? Vijay Iyer? Wadada Leo Smith?). But bassist Michael Formanek has his own way.
Book Review: Steve Reich’s “Conversations” — Something Special
At its best, Steve Reich’s Conversations is illuminating and engaging, an honest discussion of the creative process by one of the major composers of our times.
Book Review: “Let’s Do It: The Birth of Pop Music: A History” — An Enlightening Learning Experience
A lot of history is jammed into this book, but the author manages to ruminate in an informative and engrossing way on 50-plus years of pop music.