Music
The dynamics of this splendid trio album, “a response to the division and turmoil in our world,” are gracefully balanced.
“The Past is Still Alive” hones Alynda Segarra’s songs to an accessible Americana that allows their travelogue-tinged tales to nestle in ways both literal and metaphorical. It’s one of the best records of the nascent new year.
The Disco Biscuits improvisations are not driven by a guitar-rock root: they are more apt to dive into a piece of classical music and then ease into a propulsive dance-club beat that eventually swerves into Zappa-style brainy grime.
Some may continue to lament the (supposed) dearth of opera in Boston, but an honest look at these enterprising companies suggest that vivid stories are being told with invention and economy.
The album’s layers of thick and swampy sound make Kim Gordon’s anxious point.
With Egyptian-born Amina Edris in the title role, Massenet’s opera engages the musical and theatrical imagination with its rich characterizations of Greek mythic adventures.
Conductor Benjamin Zander put the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra to challenging work at Symphony Hall, while, on record, Isabelle Faust delivers a vital, urgent, and engrossing traversal of the Britten Violin Concerto.
The Finnish conductor’s welcome return to the Boston Symphony Orchestra heralds the kick-off of a two-week festival of Nordic music.
Throughout this superb live album, percussionist Gustavo Cortiñas allows his fellow band members an enormous amount of space, and that is welcome because of their high level of musicianship.
Jazz Album Review: Abdullah Ibrahim’s “3” – Meditations on a Legacy
A new release from Abdullah Ibrahim adds almost 100 minutes to a legacy of paramount importance to jazz, to world music, and to our understanding of a life lived in art.
Read More about Jazz Album Review: Abdullah Ibrahim’s “3” – Meditations on a Legacy