Music

Jazz CD Review / Appreciation: Jane Ira Bloom’s “Sixteen Sunsets” – Jazz Mastery, Undiluted

January 14, 2014
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In nearly 78 minutes of intensely concentrated playing, Jane Ira Bloom’s album offers some of the greatest ballad performances I have ever heard.

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Rock Album Review: Bruce Springsteen’s “High Hopes”

January 14, 2014
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Bruce Springsteen’s “High Hopes” is a collection of covers, reinventions, and new recordings of odds and ends that have been kicking around for the past decade-plus.

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Concert Review: The Boston Celtic Music Festival — A Rousing Break From Winter

January 13, 2014
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The music was loud, the dancers laughing and sweating and clearly happy to be liberated from their cabin-fever inducing confines to let loose and have some fun.

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Concert Review: “La Pasión según San Marco” at Symphony Hall

January 13, 2014
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There’s much in “La Pasión” to like. Composer Osvaldo Golijov’s use of Latin and South American musical forms has been well documented: the piece offers a striking compendium of idioms covering a huge geographical range.

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Concert Review: Leon Russell and Hot Tuna — Aging Gracefully on the Margins

January 11, 2014
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This week’s show found both acts — Leon Russell and Hot Tuna — kicking—with huskier voices and slower tempos, to be sure.

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Music Review: Favorite Albums of 2013

January 7, 2014
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The greatest album of the year isn’t even an album per se. There is a lot of hoopla surrounding the leak of what might be the debut album of elusive British lo-fi R&B artist Jai Paul.

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Jazz Album Review: Herbie Hancock — A Musician of Nearly Endless Curiosity

January 5, 2014
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Amongst the acoustic live sessions, listeners should be delighted with the Chick Corea-Herbie Hancock duets.

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Music Review: Favorite and Least Favorite Shows of 2013

January 1, 2014
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Fuse Music Critic Noah Schaffer’s favorite live music moments from the past year.

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Concert Review: Melissa Ferrick at Club Passim — A Welcome Glimpse of Her Hippie Side

December 30, 2013
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Melissa Ferrick joined the songwriting faculty at Berklee, where she dropped out as a student two decades ago. The Berklee influence may account for the increased craft in her songs,.

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Jazz Review / Commentary: Brian Carpenter’s Ghost Train Orchestra and Some Notes on “Irony”

December 27, 2013
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Brian Carpenter and the Ghost Train Orchestra are not about re-creating either hot jazz from the ’20s or novelty works from the ’30s and ’40s. They’re interested in capturing the spirit that they perceive to be inside these almost-forgotten pieces and using that spirit to make original new music.

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