Author Tiffany Jenkins (Keeping Their Marbles) argues no; Africanist Marie Rodet argues yes, “as part of a reparation process”; anthropology museum director Nicholas Thomas says, in so many words, “It depends”; diplomatic historian Ioannis Stefanidis illustrates just how complicated the question can get with the example of the very-well-traveled “Horses of Saint Mark.” – History Today
Author: Matthew Westphal
Departures: André Previn And Ira Gitler
In interviews, I found Previn bemused by the difficulty that critics, and sometimes his fellow musicians, encountered when they tried to strike a balance in considering his variegated musical personas.
Gitler was an invaluable chronicler of the crucial years when jazz made the transition from the swing era into bebop and a model of clarity. – Doug Ramsey
Recent Listening: The Bill Mays Trio Is Back
Bill Mays Trio Live At COTA
Pianist Mays recently reassembled his trio for a concert and their first CD release in more than ten years. Mays, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson came together in a live performance at last Fall’s COTA (Celebration Of The Arts) festival in the Poconos. – Doug Ramsey
Theatre Made By Ex-Inmates To Show Outsiders That Prison Is Not Like ‘Orange Is The New Black’
Matt Trueman meets the women of the company Clean Break and playwright Luke Barnes, who talk about their scripts and the work they produce both inside and outside prisons. – The Guardian
Wendy Whelan And Jonathan Stafford Are New York City Ballet’s New Leaders
“Jonathan Stafford, 38, who has been running the company for more than a year on an interim basis, will become the new artistic director of City Ballet as well as its affiliated academy, the School of American Ballet. Wendy Whelan, 51, a star ballerina who danced with the company for 30 years, will become City Ballet’s associate artistic director. The two said they intended to work as partners.” – The New York Times
André Previn, 89
“[He] was a musical polymath who began composing for Hollywood at 16 and won a quartet of Oscars, and had additional careers as a jazz piano phenomenon and major symphonic conductor. All the while, he … was considered something of a playboy as he leapt with swaggering allure between Hollywood and the directorship of some of the world’s leading orchestras, often using his celebrity and skillfulness as a raconteur to bring wider attention to classical music.” – The Washington Post
Translating The Hebrew Bible As The Poetry It Is
Few English-speakers are aware that much of ancient Jewish scripture is written in sophisticated verse, full of wordplay and soundplay. Translators have concentrated on the meaning of the words, sacrificing what Robert Alter calls the “music” of the original text. He has done a new translation that concentrates on that “music,” and here he explains how he did it — and why it matters. – Aeon
Ira Gitlin, One Of America’s Greatest Jazz Writers, Dead At 90
“[His] criticism appeared regularly in publications like DownBeat and JazzTimes. He wrote two books about bebop, the challenging form of modern jazz that emerged in the 1940s. And, along with Leonard Feather and Nat Hentoff, he was among the most prodigious writers of liner notes, annotating more than 700 albums. In 2017 he was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.” – The New York Times
Why Readers And Viewers Love Stories About Real-Life Scams
People seem to devour articles, books, and documentaries about the likes of the Fyre Festival and Theranos; Bernie Madoff and Enron are household names. “Reminding ourselves that sometimes liars do get caught and sometimes thieves are punished makes it easier to believe it could happen again. What we like about stories about scammers, I think, is born of the place where envy meets outrage: It’s incredibly unfair, and definitely evil, but also, why didn’t I think of that?” – The Cut
There’s A Massive Bidding War For TV Showrunners. Blame Netflix
Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy, J.J. Abrams and their fellows are now getting nine-figure production deals, with next-rung creators like Mindy Kaling and Seth MacFarlane landing eight figures. Why? First Netflix, and then deep-pocketed Amazon and Apple, are competing with traditional studios to lock down the intellectual property those individuals create and supervise, and there are very few people who can do what they do. – Fast Company