As the age of Covid-19 more or less wanes, Arts Fuse critics supply a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in. Frankenstein (1931) Somerville Theatre at 2 p.m. on October 23 This iconic horror film from 1931 screens today with a live […]
Steve Elman
Jazz Preview: The Scene Lives! — Local Jazz in the Months to Come
Get out there and hear some live music. It’s the best gift you can give to your ears.
Jazz Preview: Aardvark at 50 Sparks a Jazz Scene Sputtering Back to Life in Eastern Massachusetts
The pandemic clouds over the Boston / Cambridge jazz scene are breaking up – not completely by any means – but at last you have a broad menu of live music here to pull you away from your TV bingeing.
Arts Remembrance: Eric Jackson, Boston’s Voice of Jazz (1950-2022)
Longtime GBH host Eric Jackson passed away earlier this morning.
Jazz Retrospective: The Indelible Impact of “Emergency!” by the Tony Williams Lifetime
If you don’t know those 1969 originals, get them and listen to them. And if you know the recordings well, listen to them again. No matter how familiar this 50-year-old music is to you, you’ll be struck by its timelessness.
Jazz Album Review: Tony Williams’s “Play or Die” Gets Full Release, 40 Years On
The shadow of Weather Report looms over this groove session of consonant harmonies, the only documentation of a short-lived band that should have had the chance to burn more brightly.
Jazz Review and Conversation: Jane Ira Bloom’s Pandemic Duets
Jane Ira Bloom responded to her pandemic isolation with a CD of duets with bassist Mark Helias and a CD of duets with drummer Allison Miller. These two sessions are unique projects in her discography and beautiful testaments to her ingenuity.
Jazz Feature: A Conversation with Jane Ira Bloom
I spoke with Jane Ira Bloom on September 21, 2021 via Zoom. This transcript has been edited for space and ellipses have been omitted for readability. Some paraphrases and details are added for clarity.
Jazz Review and Perspective: Sheila Jordan’s “Comes Love”
Comes Love was Sheila Jordan’s first full recording session as a leader, and it automatically becomes a collector’s item for those who love the legendary jazz singer’s work.
Jazz Performance Review: Cécile McLorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner at Home
To hear this performance properly. you must do a bit more work than you might do ordinarily . . . but great art deserves such work.