Pianist Jeremy Denk is a sensitive and articulate polymath who can elucidate his ideas about music with wit, humor, and style.
Music
Rock Album Review: The Gravel Project — An Impressive Musical Reach
The Gravel Project respects its roots, but its new album demonstrates how a band can honor its influences without being smothered by them.
Jazz Album Review: Ornette Coleman — Very Much the “Genesis of Genius”
Ornette Coleman turned to me and said, “You know, you can never really be out of tune. You are always in tune with something.”
Album Review: “Mingus: The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s” — A Rich Centennial Treat
The centenary of bassist/composer Charles Mingus’ birthday is days away and I am listening to the beautifully packaged and processed and richly annotated 3 lps of Mingus’s Lost Album, recorded live at Ronnie Scott’s London club in 1972.
Music Commentary: Jazz, Ed Sullivan, and Television
These performances on The Ed Sullivan Show occurred almost exclusively between 1957 and 1964 and that’s not happenstance. They coincide with the only slice of time when different styles of jazz ever got a significant airing on television.
Opera Album Review: The Boston Early Music Festival — One of the Best Recordings Ever of a Baroque Opera
The Boston Early Music Festival returns in person — and in a world-premiere recording of a German Baroque opera.
Concert Review: Big Thief at Roadrunner
Big Thief is a largely somber folk-rock outfit fronted by introspective singer/songwriter Adrianne Lenker that doesn’t care much about showmanship.
Book Review: “Hard Rain” — For Dylan Completists Only
It’s a work that shifts gears often, which is not in itself a bad idea for a book about a famed shape-shifter.
Pop Album Review: Charli XCX’s “Crash” — Loud, Reckless, and Messy
Charli packages existential angst and heartache in sly, self aware pop performances that manage to deftly fuse self-conscious artificiality with earnest passion.
Album Reviews: Echoes of Prog — Brad Mehldau and Circe Link & Christian Nesmith
Recently, some artists have come out of the closet and put their prog hearts on their sleeves with new recordings that celebrate the heyday of progressive rock.