Arts 1.0
Web 1.0 was the internet before “talkback.” It was static one-directional communication. Whether intentional or not, it was inherently self-centered, presenting the view of the owner of the website. Web 2.0 is the interactive internet … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-08-29
New York Festival of Song on a day of wine and roses
The New York Festival of Song is one of those distinctively urban pleasures: Its season is a series of hand-crafted programs often mixing European art song with great American popular music, pairing the right singer with the right music in exactly the right sequence. But I had to re-acquaint myself with NYFOS in the village of Orient on the far North Fork of Long Island after missing it for many years. … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2017-08-29
What’s In A Name: Cuneiform
Curious about the name of a small, imaginative jazz record company named Cuneiform, I asked Joyce Feigenbaum, the company’s publicist, who is married to the owner, how the label’s name came about. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-08-29
Hurricane Harvey & Museums: Houston MFA, Menil Collection in Relatively Good Shape
This just in from Gary Tinterow, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in response to my query about how his institution has been weathering the Hurricane Harvey maelstrom: … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-08-28
Brahms and Blood
A few months ago, I wrote about the music that concludes the film A Quiet Passion, and that brought to mind one of the most frustrating endings, musically speaking, that I’ve experienced in a film … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-08-28
Jazz/Improv Chicago: Wide-ranging talents, free fests, PoKempner pix
Chicago’s jazz/improvised music scene contains multitudes, last week ranging from the wild yet earnest Liberation Music Collective to veteran piano sophisticate Michael Weiss in trio, as two of Marc PoKempner‘s photos document … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-08-28
Yaël break
You’d know a Yaël Farber production at 100 paces. The air sweetly smoked and full of noises. The lighting crepuscular but sharded with moonlight. The movement deliberate, registering the actors’ full body weight. And … read more
AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2017-08-27
Weekend Extra: Art Farmer And Sweden
The most recent visit to Sweden stays with me more than three weeks after my return. In great part, that is because music I heard at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival refuses … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-08-26
Are You Certain?
John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman premiere a collaboration at Jacob’s Pillow. John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty, Maira Kalman at left. Boxed (L to R): Courtney Lopes, Amber Star Merkens, Weaver Rhodes, … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-08-26
The Literary Richard Thompson
FEW living musicians fascinate me as much as Richard Thompson, the London-reared, Los Angeles-dwelling, Fairport Convention-founding guitarist and songwriter whose recording career just hit the 50 year mark. I’ve been listening to Richard’s work … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-08-25
Bryan Ferry, Art, and Roxy Music
EVEN a decade after their heyday, when I first heard them in the mid-’80s, there was nothing like Roxy Music. The sleek, almost alien sound, with its world-weary vocals, European touches, and deep, if … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-08-25
Jazz Singer Cecile McLorin Salvant
orR some reasons, I typically have trouble with jazz singers after, oh, Sarah Vaughan or Abbey Lincoln. There may have been some great ones over the last two decades, but most of the time … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2017-08-24
Storm Brewing
The fact that in many places more than the lion’s share of public arts funding goes to organizations focused on the cultural tradition of upper class European whites is a center that will not hold. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-08-22
Voyeurism At The Balenciaga Exhibition
Summer has simply sped by and I haven’t even really gone on vacation yet (that’s coming up at the end of September). … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-08-23
John Abercrombie And Bea Wain, RIP
John Abercrombie, a guitarist of stylistic flexibility and uncompromising musical vision, died today in a hospital in New York’s Hudson River Valley. He was 72. … Bea Wain, who achieved popularity in the late 1930s when she sang with Larry Clinton’s band, died today in Los Angeles. She was 100. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-08-23
Dancing on Water, Making Waves Onstage
The Trisha Brown Dance Company performs at the Clark Art Institute and at Jacob’s Pillow. Trisha Brown’s Groove and Countermove. (L to R): Kyle Marshall (head hidden), Patrick McGrath, Oluwadamilare Ayorinde, Kimberly Fulmer, Amanda Kmett’Pendry, … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2017-08-19
Berkshire Bumble: Director’s Letter Reveals Focus Groups Kept in the Dark About Planned Art Sales
In the sell-job for its New Vision, the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA, has made much of the fact that “approximately 400 people have participated in the community consultation process” during the planning phase. But a … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-08-18
Wu Hsin-fei: Renegade Nanguan Music from Taiwan
As I write this, another day of rain in New York is adding to what has been a rather tropical summer. Am I the only one who thinks rainy days evoke nostalgia? I think … read more
AJBlog: OtherWorldlyPublished 2017-08-18
Reminder: The Statue of Liberty’s Burka*
Words and narration by Heathcote Williams. Montage by Alan Cox. The President is obsessed with deporting Arabs Although, by a superb comic irony, It was an Arab who modeled for the United States’ icon – … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2017-08-18
Resistance Insistence: Museums (& CultureGrrl) Grapple with Political Turmoil
Even before Saturday’s horrific game-changer, some art museums — including major “establishment” institutions — had begun dropping their guard, casting aside their habitual reluctance to risk offending the more conservative members of their culture-loving base and taking political stands. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-08-17
Emil Viklický & Others: Trumpet Summit
It is an open secret long acknowledged nearly everywhere: the best jazz musicians in other parts of the world are in a league with top players from the United States. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-08-16
The Board’s Role in Community Engagement: Part II
Last time I presented the first part of a discussion about the potential for boards as positive resources for community engagement. Here is the rest of the text. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-08-15
Monday Recommendation: Chet Baker Biography Revised
Jeroen de Valk: Chet Baker, His Life And Music (Aspekt)
de Valk has revised his 2000 biography of the trumpeter. The new version includes … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-08-15
