Music
Of course, that was the reason I was there. One of the best features of the London Jazz Festival is the programmers’ willingness to expose musicians from other world music traditions who engage with jazz in some meaningful way . . . By Steve Elman. Well, I just can’t remember the name of that pop…
One of the primary reasons I’m in London is to hear Martial Solal play in person. He’s had sporadic exposure in the US, always to acclaim. But the acclaim never lasts because he rarely performs on the opposite side of the Atlantic and his American commercial releases are infrequent. By Steve Elman Quick, can you…
But on to the bliss of the first half, and I don’t use the word “bliss” lightly. In every respect, John Scofield, Steve Swallow, and Bill Stewart are one of the most cohesive units in jazz, and their hour together was superb. By Steve Elman. John Scofield was the headliner last night, but it seems…
So what’s the critic’s function when the music itself doesn’t have critical mass with the public? Surely not cheerleading or hype. But surely not nose-in-the-air either. By Steve Elman. Well, some editors are paying attention. There were two London Jazz Festival (LJF) reviews, occupying a half page in the Times this a.m. Maybe the reason…
Why aren’t more people in the print media here paying attention to the London Jazz Festival? Last year, when I attended a week of the festival, I idly thumbed through the Times each day looking for reviews, previews, any mention at all, and coverage seemed meager. This year, the same or maybe less coverage. By…
In less than an hour, there had been enough substance to send the first set crowd into the Cambridge night shaking their heads in amazement, spirits lifted, all else forgotten for a brief still time. Another houseful of listeners waited on the sidewalk for the second set. By Steve Elman The best way to hear…
Ultimately, Basil Twist’s Petrushka is a meditation on the tension between the animate and inanimate, a story that lets a puppet explain what it’s like to be a puppet, a fable that argues that to be alive is to recognize causality and suffering—and that the ability to suffer is paradoxically a precious gift. Basil Twist’s…
The encroachment of winter weather meets its match in a month of Latin music mastery.
Laudably, the Cantata Singers music director David Hoose, now in his 28th year at the helm, has chosen to bring forward works not often played, of which there were two on this month’s program. Three other composers were also represented during the evening. By Caldwell Titcomb. In the first major concert by the Cantata Singers…
The Boston Lyric Opera’s current production, adapted from the Scottish Opera, is updated, but this does no real damage. The three locales are properly preserved. And the three principal characters—opera diva Floria Tosca, her lover Mario Cavaradossi, and the lusting and villainous Baron Scarpia—hit their mark solidly. By Caldwell Titcomb. Some years ago the noted…
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