Music
Moppa Elliott makes eminently approachable music at a very high standard, with great ingenuity and sophistication. He has proven himself to be one of the most inventive and creative composers for small jazz ensemble since Charles Mingus.
Saturday night’s advertised performers paid robust homage to the late Gary Smith — the Fort Apache Studios owner, producer, and band manager — across three and a half hours at the Somerville Theatre.
The Disco Biscuits are playing champion-level shows following a period of rebuilding and recalibrating that brought the band out of semi-retirement.
Guitarist Julian Lage wants his music to have a certain paradoxical lightness: to be “reckless and durable” at the same time.
Much-loved short works by Pergolesi and Mozart storm the stage, thanks to spiffy French dialogue between the musical numbers.
“Big George” is polished, tonally elegant, and beautifully recorded
“Swingin’ Live at the Church in Tulsa” is a snapshot of a vibrant octogenarian artist who is still moving forward.
Here’s a trio of organ trios from a new generation of players indebted, but not chained, to the classic jazz format and style that has been dominant since Jimmy Smith in the ’60s.
Rejected in Gluck’s time because it lacked dramatic thrust, today “Écho and Narcissus” proves to be a candy-box of delights.
“Spirit of the Century” is a riveting celebration of the Blind Boys of Alabama’s glorious and often unpredictable musical journey.
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