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Book Review: “Gatsby’s Child” — America’s Old Money, In Decay

February 18, 2019
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Everything about Schumacher’s story indicates that clichés about the ’50s are so powerful because things really were that way: repressive, poisonous, full of unspoken secrets and blustering ignorance.

Jazz CD Review: Wadada Leo Smith’s “Rosa Parks: Pure Love” — Making History Present

February 18, 2019
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Rosa Parks: Pure Love is a serious, substantial, and long work, alternately harsh and calming, one that I am sure should be seen as well as heard.

Music Interview: Martin Phillipps of The Chills

February 18, 2019
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It would appear that Martin Phillipps and company are experiencing a late-career renaissance that bodes well for their future.

Film Review: 1932’s “Million Dollar Legs” — Iconoclastic Euphoria

February 17, 2019
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Does the movie have anything to say about our zeitgeist? Well, the very entertaining cabinet-meeting sequence shows that chamber to be a place of male posturing, humiliation, sado-masochism, duplicity, and, finally, abject sycophancy.

Opera Review: Beyond the “Barber of Seville” — New Recordings of Two First-Rate Forgotten Operas by Rossini

February 17, 2019
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Beethoven reportedly told Rossini to stick to writing comic operas. But new recordings of two of Rossini’s major serious operas bring great pleasure to the listener—and let us hear some splendid young singers.

Jazz Concert Review: Mnozil Brass — Music-as-Vaudeville

February 16, 2019
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The seven-man musical wrecking squad from Austria called Mnozil Brass has created a combination circus band, village band, marching band, and vaudeville orchestra.

Rock Concert Review: After Forty Years, Joe Jackson is Still “The Man”

February 16, 2019
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The show cemented Joe Jackson’s reputation as an inscrutable and enigmatic songwriter, a talented musician and social outsider who speaks for Everyman.

Arts Remembrance: Albert Finney, An Appreciation — Death and the Angry Young Man

February 15, 2019
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Albert Finney was the greatest interpreter of England’s gift to the world of contemporary theater, the Kitchen Sink Drama.

Film Review: 2019 Oscar-nominated Best Documentary Shorts — Wrestling With Death

February 15, 2019
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It is safe to predict that the winner in this category will be one of the entries that squares off against mortality.

Rock CD Review: Tedeschi Trucks Band Provides “Signs” of the Time

February 14, 2019
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This studio outing emphasizes superb ensemble playing; the result in a beguiling album in which just about every note shines.

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