Review

Jazz Album Reviews: Stanley Cowell and Music Inc. — The Sounds of Independence

April 25, 2025
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These Stata-East recordings are the result of a special moment in the history of jazz, when some musicians brilliantly took charge of their own careers. Luckily for us, the music is still strikingly fresh and contemporary.

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Classical Music Album Review: “Symphonic Chronicles Vol. IV” — A Treasure Trove of the New

April 24, 2025
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The not-to-be missed “Symphonic Chronicles IV” is a very welcome alternative to much of the atonal, modern classical music currently flooding the market.

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Concert Review: Gang of Four — Dynamism Triumphantly Intact

April 23, 2025
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Sunday’s 100-minute show at Crystal Ballroom offered a celebration of what Gang of Four means for its surviving original members and followers alike, including newer generations represented onstage as well as in the packed hall.

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Doc Talk: Another Superior Roundup of Documentaries During Ominous Times

April 23, 2025
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The future for documentaries looks troubling, but the IFFBoston perseveres.

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Film Review: “Holland” — Another Trip Through Suburban Malaise

April 23, 2025
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American darkness is now up front and personal. “Holland”‘s stale moves miss where we are now — disaster isn’t hidden, it is in clear view.

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Concert Review: Boston Philharmonic Orchestra Plays Mahler

April 22, 2025
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This was a “Resurrection” Symphony for today: urgent and unsettled, yes, but also searching, persevering, and, ultimately, triumphant. If the weekend turns out to have marked conductor Benjamin Zander’s last go-around with this masterpiece, what a way to finish.

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Concert Review: A Rare Treat for King Crimson and Roches Diehards

April 22, 2025
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Exposure is a septet assembled to perform Robert Fripp’s quirkily diverse, overlooked 1979 solo album “Exposure” for the first time ever, in sequence.

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Book Review: “Secrets of the Killing State” — A Real Life Horror Story

April 22, 2025
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The author argues that “the only way to prevent the senseless acts of cruelty” that result from the “grinding gears” of the “machinery of death” is to “retire the machinery altogether.”

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Book Review: “Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey” — One of the Cinema’s Most Profound Seers

April 20, 2025
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For fans of director Stanley Kubrick, this enhanced biography may be the most thorough and readable volume on one of the cinema’s most profound seers.

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Film Review: “The Shrouds” – Casket Case

April 20, 2025
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If you think the world’s gotten a lot colder in the last couple years, you’re not alone. Director David Cronenberg feels it too.

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