“Joe Beck, a jazz guitarist who collaborated with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and James Brown, has died at a local hospice after battling lung cancer… Beck got his start as a teenager in the 1960s playing in a jazz trio in New York. By 1968, he was working with Miles Davis and other top jazz stars.”
Author: sbergman
MN Orch Gets Serious About Jazz
For the first time in its history, the Minnesota Orchestra has appointed an artistic director for jazz. New Orleans-based trumpeter Irvin Mayfield will oversee an expanded jazz series at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, and will be charged with overseeing “a five-concert jazz series and participate in education programs.”
‘Toxic’ Atmosphere At Canada’s National Gallery
“The National Gallery of Canada has a storied 128-year history and one of the country’s largest, most distinguished art collections, but the public’s interest has strayed from the gallery’s towering walls to tales of strife in its offices. The atmosphere, already quietly described as “toxic” by sources inside and outside the gallery before the latest whirlwind, may now be verging on intolerable after the Federal Court of Canada released documents detailing a bitter feud in the top ranks.”
The Fringe Lottery
The Minnesota Fringe Festival (America’s largest) is a sprawling affair, offering 800 performances of 156 shows on 18 stages this August. Also, the Fringe is a nonjuried festival, meaning that performers who want to participate have to enter a lottery that decides who gets a slot and who doesn’t, regardless of the relative fame and/or quality of the submission.
Is Arena Rock Dead?
“A moment of silence, please, for arena rock. OK, it’s not quite dead yet. But the days of the big rock ‘n’ roll concert would seem to be numbered.”
From Reality TV To Real-Life Theatre
“Tonight, Canadian viewers of CBC’s How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? find out which young woman has won the televised competition to play Maria von Trapp in the Toronto production of The Sound of Music… Of course, the end of the show is just the beginning of the hard work for the successful “Maria,””
Rapping, Bollywood Style
“Hollywood and Bollywood have been flirting with new partnerships, from deals with Reliance Big Entertainment, an Indian production company, to Sylvester Stallone’s scheduled appearance in a Bollywood movie.” But is India ready for Snoop Dogg and the world of American hip-hop?
Toni Morrison Gets Her Bench By The Road
“Toni Morrison has said that her acclaimed novel “Beloved,” which features the ghost of a baby killed by her enslaved black mother, came out of the need for a literature to commemorate slaves and their history.” She once famously said that there was no memorial, no “bench by the road,” to mark slavery’s place in American history. There is now.
Little House Musical Takes Off In Minneapolis
“The characters and stories of Little House on the Prairie have delighted readers and television viewers for generations, but now they are being put to a test not unlike a cruel Midwestern winter: Will they thrive in the forbidding world of new American musicals?”
Youssef Chahine, 82
“Egyptian film director Youssef Chahine has died in Cairo aged 82, four weeks after suffering a brain haemorrhage. One of Arab cinema’s most admired figures, he made his first film in 1950 and tackled authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism in his work.”