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The verdict(s)
America is voting. I am not someone who prays, but if there is anything that could make me do so, it is the tantalizing prospect of both houses of Congress going to the Democrats. We shall see. The Republicans’ disgraceful conduct in office has been bad enough. Their behavior during this campaign makes abundantly clear that they have no honor
A concert review
Pianist Marilyn Crispell played a concert at Miller Theatre on October 21. She was joined by tenor saxist Joe Lovano, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Paul Motian. My review is now online.
Six Picks: November 2006
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, November 2006:Gil Goldstein, Under Rousseau’s Moon (Half Note) Mark Helias and Open Loose, Atomic Clock (Radio Legs) Hugh Marsh, Hugmars (Cool Papa Records) Luis Perdomo, Awareness (RKM)Michele Rosewoman, The In Side Out (Advance Dance Discs) John Taylor, Angel of the Presence (Cam Jazz)
CD reviews
My review of the Pat Metheny/Brad Mehldau duo CD appears in the November issue of Jazz Times, now on the newsstands. It’s online as well. I also wanted to take this moment to acknowledge the passing of Moacir Santos, genius of modern Brazilian music and jazz. He passed away in August at the age of 80. I had the privilege
“This is how they fight”
Last night during a panel discussion at Barnard College, I heard choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women talk about what she called the “pitfalls” of the radical left politics she embraced in the ’70s. Mentioning the Black Panthers and other cultural nationalist groups, she spoke of her discomfort with “reducing people to generalities.” To paraphrase, Zollar felt
Holy lands
Following up my post of Oct. 21, here is an arresting comment about militant Islam and the notion of holy land. Noah Feldman’s NY Times Mag piece on nuclear arms and the Muslim world includes reflections on bin Laden’s mentor Abdullah Azzam — specifically his treatise “Defense of Muslim Lands”: In it, Azzam argued that not a single hand span
Shostakovich at 100
Yesterday I had the thrill of attending a Shostakovich matinee at Avery Fisher Hall. Valery Gergiev conducted the Kirov Orchestra, straight outta St. Petersburg, in a performance of the 8th and 13th symphonies. This was the final concert in Gergiev’s 2006 series: all 15 symphonies in the 100th birth year of the great, unknowable Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975). Gergiev conducted without
Dylan on Broadway?
Jody Rosen of Slate has the word on Twyla Tharp’s stage musical inspired by the music of Bob Dylan. It ain’t pretty. It’s hilarious, in fact: Sure, Dylan composed “Mr. Tambourine Man.” But to turn that modest folk-rock reverie into a three-dimensional dream-vision, with a singer seated on a neon-lighted sickle moon suspended 20 feet above a stage where dancers