Category: AJBlogs

The Impermanent Permanent-Collection Display: LACMA Follows MoMA’s Dicey Example
Memo to LA Times art critic Christopher Knight: You were mistaken when you wrote last week that “an impermanent permanent collection” – such as what is being proposed by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-05-31

Arcangelo
I’ve always felt open to a wide range of influences in my music.  That’s not the right approach for everyone – some composers must focus on one or two strong influences – but it suits … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-05-31

 

A new lens on ‘excellence’
Arts initiatives that seek social change often face an identity crisis: They are driven by passion, purpose, meaning, and making, but they are generally described and evaluated by more traditional measures. Worse than the challenge … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2017-05-30

Paul Desmond, Gone 40 Years
Several Rifftides readers have sent messages reminding me that Paul Desmond died 40 years ago today. Thanks to all of them. I hadn’t forgotten. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-05-30

 

The Enduring Memory Of A Friend
A friend from the military chapter of my life asked if I would republish a story that first ran on Memorial Day weekend five years ago. Presented with pleasure at the memory of an … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-05-28

All the Poets: Rhiannon Giddens
The second installment of my Los Angeles Review of Books — All the Poets, in which musicians discuss their literary influences — went up the other day: Rhiannon Giddens, who earned her reputation with … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2017-05-28

How to Talk about Saving the NEA
The President’s 2018 budget includes just enough funding for staff time required to shut down the NEA and NEH. Arts advocates and administrators have responded with pleas that federal arts funding is important and can’t … read more
AJBlog: The Bright RidePublished 2017-05-28

Recent Listening: Charlie Shoemake, Teacher
Charlie Shoemake Trio And Quartet: Central Coasting (CCJAZZI) In addition to being a premier jazz vibraphonist, Charlie Shoemake has long devoted himself to helping young musicians develop their skills. After he and … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-05-26

Pillow Talk
I had planned this post before Trevor O’Donnell wrote this: Is Marketing about the Consumer or the Product? Really I had. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-05-23

Claudia Quintet In Action
As pointed out in a Rifftides review earlier this year, drummer John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet … has unity of thought, purpose and execution more often found in long-lived classical ensembles than in jazz. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-05-24

 

Doomsday Scenario: President Trump’s Bludgeoned Budgets for NEA, NEH, IMLS
William “Bro” Adams, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and an Obama appointee, clearly knew what was coming when he precipitously resigned his position yesterday, effective today. Short notice, Bro! … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-05-23

The hole story
Georg Büchner died in 1837 with his masterpiece unfinished – a masterpiece because it’s unfinished, perhaps. The text of Woyzeck is incomplete, the scenes disordered. … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2017-05-23

Helping Them Get Started
A friend of mine in grad school, a cellist, was close to graduation when his teacher suddenly died.  “What am I going to do?” he asked me. “There is nobody to help me get started in my career!” … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-05-22

Never such innocence again
We huddled from the rain under a small platform shelter at Hackney Wick the other night. Which was great, because it meant eavesdropping without strain on the couple arguing about This Beautiful Future, the play we had just seen at the Yard Theatre. … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2017-05-22

 

Deleting the Formal at Classical Concerts
Start with the music. It’s such a simple idea. Last night I went to a symphony choral concert: the Cincinnati May Festival with the symphony and the huge chorus and some soloists. As we took … read more
AJBlog: The Bright RidePublished 2017-05-21

Can art corrupt our politics?
At Time magazine, Alex Melamid suggests it can, that the infantilism found in (some) works of modern art has led us, in the end, to an infantile president of the United States: Whatever the intelligentsia … read more
AJBlog: For What it’s WorthPublished 2017-05-20

Readers Report: The Wrap-up
Rifftides readers replied in droves to our request for news about what you are listening to these days. Here is the final installment, which provides further evidence of the impressively wide range … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-05-20

Please Insert
My staff of thousands thinks this paragraph by Barrett Brownshould be inserted like an unsheathed stallion’s penis into every last one of the obituaries plaguing us about the late Roger Ailes . . . … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2017-05-19

Some Home Thoughts about Angels from Abroad
Paul Levy on Tony Kushner’s Angels in America at the National Theatre in London. … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2017-05-18

That Feast of St. Roch? It’s A Milestone in Contemporary Art
Tipped off by none other than Philippe de Montebello, who read my review of Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe, I learned a fascinating fact about one of the pictures in the exhibition: Canaletto’s The Procession on the Feast Day of Saint Roch is a milestone for contemporary art. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-05-18

$110.5-Million Man: Yusaku Maezawa Buys Basquiat, Setting Auction Record for Any American Artist
Sotheby’s Contemporary auction tonight was a mostly workmanlike affair, with one shining exception: Basquiat’s vibrantly scary 1982 “Untitled” skull, the undisputed star in this week of major auctions in New York, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-05-18

Remembering Dave Pell’s Devotion To His Hero
Saxophonist and bandleader Dave Pell, a prominent figure in the west coast jazz of the 1950s and ’60s, died on May 8. He was 92. Pell recorded extensively with his octet and … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-05-18

Can we, should we, brand “The Arts”?
Barry’s Blog has thoughts on this. He points out, correctly I think, that while individual airline companies – Delta, Virgin, Qantas – try to create a brand image of their own, there is also in the public mind an idea of the airline sector as a whole. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2017-05-16

Totally, Irresistibly Captivating
Doug Borwick on a concert by Sammy Miller and the Congregation at this year’s Charlotte Jazz Festival: “… what is related to this blog is their combination of high-end artistry and technical skill, musicianship, and knowledge of their discipline with total dedication to winning converts. The band even has a mission statement.” … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-05-16

Mistaken At The Getty, And Grateful About It
I was among the skeptics several years ago … [but] I’m glad to say that the Getty Trust’s messy structure, which has often caused problems in the past, particularly between the Trust’s president and the museum’s director, seems to be working well now. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-05-16

Monday Recommendation: Broadbent And Mancio
Georgia Mancio, Alan Broadbent, Songbook (Roomspin Records)
Pianist and composer Alan Broadbent has found his lyricist. Further good news: in their Songbook, Georgia Mancio sings her words to Broadbent’s songs with taste, feeling and faultless intonation. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-05-16
 

Circles of Life
Tamar Rogoff’s Grand Rounds at La MaMa, April 27 through May 14. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-05-14

Suspension of Suspense: Christie’s Tops Sotheby’s in Relying on Pre-Arranged Bids for Major Auctions
After Sotheby’s public disclosure last Wednesday of how much it is relying on guarantees in general and irrevocable bids in particular, Christie’s on Friday responded to my question about its own guarantee portfolio. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-05-15

The missing question in A Quiet Passion
I was surprised to identify, in the placid strings that conclude the extraordinary film A Quiet Passion, a bit of decomposed Ives:  the action dissolves into The Unanswered Question, stripped of trumpet and winds. … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-05-15

In praise of drabness
In 2008 I wrote an essay for National Review about Dragnet. It’s never been reprinted and isn’t available on line, and since I happen to like it a lot, I decided to post it here. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-05-15