Category: AJBlogs

Where Have You Gone, Jackie Robinson?
Pianist Kathleen Supové is to perform “Achilles Dreams Of Ebbets Field” by Dylan Mattingly in a world premiere at the Di Menna Center for Classical Music in New York. The Brooklyn Dodgers will be… … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2016-04-24

Back to Reality: Torma on Michelangelo’s Art

This Week in Audience (04.17.16)
My Audience, My Computer: Scientists fed images of all of Rembrandt’s paintings into a database then had the computer create a “next” Rembrandt based on the artist’s style. You can think… … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts Audience Published 2016-04-21

Today in Museum Accounting: Financial Windfall at MoMA, Shortfall at the Met
The contrast in the financial news emanating today from New York’s two premier art museums could not have been more dramatic. The Museum of Modern Art issued an exultant press release celebrating David Geffen‘s $100-million … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-04-21

Stan Levey And “Bebop”
Several readers who responded to Monday’s Stan Levey book recommendation  singled out his work on “Bebop” as one of the greatest modern jazz drum performances. They will get no argument here. Samples: I’m thrilled every … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-21

Replay: Vladimir Nabokov on the covers of Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov talks about the covers of different editions of Lolita on USA: The Novel. This episode was originally telecast on WNET on February 3, 1965. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-21

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She thought
‘Could you tell these were by women choreographers?’ asked my neighbour during an interval of English National Ballet’s She Said. Good question. How would you know? Could you tell that the opera I saw … read more
>AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2016-04-20

Embodying The Erased Father
Nora Chipaumire premieres a new work,  portrait of myself as my father, at Montclair State University’s Peak Performances. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-04-20

My reemergence
My concert, last Thursday. My reemergence as a composer. So great a success, more than I ever could have dreamed. So much so that after all the work, all the emotion about … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-04-20

Bill Holman And The SRJO
With his 89th birthday a month away, the master composer, arranger and bandleader Bill Holman is working as much as he cares to, which seems to be a lot. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-20

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Pricing for the sensible arts consumer
At flux[x] Tom Whitwell has a very interesting read on pricing, and the psychology behind how we make choices when confronted with varying sets of prices. I highly recommend it. He uses examples ranging from … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2016-04-19

Pulitzer winner Threadgill: “What is harmony?”
My profile of Pulitzer Prize winner Henry Threadgill, commissioned by and published in DownBeat in 2010: Henry Threadgill exuded confidence and impatience when facing four video cameras and a standing-room-only gallery of serious listeners at the Manhattan … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-04-19

Client, Customer, Collaborator: A Roadmap
Do you treat arts patrons like customers, clients, or collaborators? … If our job as arts managers is to bring artists and audiences together, these definitions become very important.  … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-04-19

Deaccessioning Its Home: National Academy’s Posh Digs on the Market for $120 Million
The National Academy’s two interconnected townhouses and school building are now on the market for $120 million, according this listing by luxury real estate brokers Cushman & Wakefield. A museum spokesperson had previously told me … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-04-19

Bracing Winds from Miami
Miami City Ballet bursts into Lincoln Center. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-04-19

Annals of postmodern journalism (cont’d)
Like everyone else who pays the slightest attention to theater in America, I was neither surprised nor displeased that this year’s Pulitzer Prize for drama went to Hamilton, about whose overwhelming excellence I have long … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-19

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Cultural strategies, structures, and subtexts
Theater journal has just published my book review of Peter Frumkin and Ana Kolendo’s book on cultural construction projects: Building for the Arts: The Strategic Design of Cultural Facilities (Chicago, University of Chicago Press: 2014). … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-04-18

Threadgill wins Pulitzer for Zooid and cheers for his career
The Pulitzer Prize for Music has been earned by Henry Threadgill, composer, bandleader and reedist, for his expansive and in-depth explorations of polyphonic improvisation with his quintet Zooid, the suite stretching over two cds In for a Penny, In for a Dime … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-04-18

Guggenheim Quicksand: Why Are We in Abu Dhabi?
The Guggenheim Foundation ought to cut its losses and pull out of its Abu Dhabi misadventure. There’s no point in trying to analyze the salvos in the latest hostilities and breakdown of talks between … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-04-18

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Pélieu Show, With Norman Mailer Cocktail

LP Alert: Shipp-Bisio & Guaraldi
Matthew Shipp, Michael Bisio, Live In Seattle (Arena Music). Vinyl is becoming the preferred medium of listeners to a variety of genres, particularly of young people who counter the traditional youthful notion that anything from … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-14

So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-14

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Customer, Client, Collaborator?
In January, Doug McLennan published a post Is Earning Making Money The New Audience-Building Strategy? In a comparison of for-profit and not-for-profit enterprise, he began to intrigue me when, addressing the former, he said … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-04-12

$1 for Music Unwound
The NEH Music Unwound consortium, which most recently brought Dvorak’s New World Symphony to an Indian reservation, has been re-funded by the Endowment with a $400,000 grant, bringing the total NEH investment to … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2016-04-13

A Big Picture: The Big Country
William Wyler’s anti-macho Western The Big Country, which is remarkable for its imposing visual beauty and sonorous musical score, makes it to the (relatively) big screen at the New York Historical Society (as in bigger … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-04-13

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What Does BKM Mean In The Museum World?
Can you guess? It is another attempt by a museum to be hip to the younger generation. It’s one of the latest changes to the visual identity of the Brooklyn Museum.* I don’t believe … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-04-12

A Farewell To Bryce Rohde
In January, Rifftides reader Donna Shore sent a remembrance of Bryce Rohde, the pianist and music director of the Australian Jazz Quartet. Outside of Australia the talented musician’s achievements received too little notice when  … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-12

Lookback: a visit to suburbia
From 2006: It’s been a long time since I paid an overnight visit to suburbia, and I happily admit to having found it pleasant. I sat on a patio yesterday morning, sipping a drink, basking … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-12

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Smithsonian London? “Not So Fast!” Says Secretary Skorton
Notwithstanding the fact that its founding donor was British, the Smithsonian Institution’s proposed London outpost, conceived before the institution’s current head, David Skorton, came on board, is not necessarily a marriage made in museum heaven. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-04-11

Monday Recommendation: Brooklyn Blowhards
Jeff Lederer, Brooklyn Blowhards, (Little (i) Music) Lederer conglomerates music by the free jazz avatar Albert Ayler with sea shanties that survive from the whaling ship era when Herman Melville had Ahab pursuing Moby Dick. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-11

Just because: Van Cliburn plays and conducts Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto
Van Cliburn plays and conducts a performance of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, Op. 26, with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Moscow. This concert was originally telecast on Soviet TV in 1962.  … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-11

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