Review

Book Review: John Edgar Wideman — Masterful Stories that Bear the Weight of Reality

April 17, 2021
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A singular muscularity infuses these short stories, a confidence that astonishes.

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Book Review: “Beeswing” — Richard Thompson Loses His Way and Finds His Voice

April 16, 2021
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Richard Thompson’s memoir displays flashes of his writerly talents, but the volume feels a bit less immediate than one might hope.

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Classical CD Review: A Simon Mayr Comic Opera That’s Really Funny — and Performed with Flair

April 16, 2021
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At this point in his career, Mayr is contributing to the development of the musicodramatic conventions that would set the stage for the masterpieces of Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi.

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Arts Reconsideration: The 1971 Project — Celebrating a Great Year in Film (Part Two)

April 15, 2021
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1971 gave us bursts of magnificent cinematic iconoclasm that had no future — culturally or politically.

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Theater Review: “The Catastrophist” — Celebrating Science

April 15, 2021
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The Catastrophist is an opportunity to begin processing our experience with a pandemic that has fundamentally changed our lives in ways we cannot yet fully comprehend.

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Jazz Album Reviews: Pianists Masabumi Kikuchi and Theo Walentiny — Poetic Solo Flights

April 13, 2021
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Two albums, from a late master and a newbie, are notable additions to the current wave of introspective solo piano excursions.

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Jazz Album Review: Miguel Zenón’s Law Years Band & Christian McBride’s New Jawn Band

April 12, 2021
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Two pianoless quartets + two restless leaders = some of the best music of the last few years.

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Classical CD Review: György Ligeti’s “Études” — Well Played and Clearly Lived In

April 11, 2021
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Throughout these Études, Driver’s playing marries tonal warmth with textural precision.

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Television Review: “Exterminate All the Brutes” — A Familiar, and Partial, History Lesson

April 10, 2021
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As an introduction to the progress of colonization and the horrors that white people have inflicted on BIPOC, Exterminate All the Brutes achieves its admirable mission.

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April Short Fuses – Materia Critica

April 9, 2021
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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