Category: AJBlogs

Weekend Extra No. 2: Just Because
The Charles Lloyd Quartet having a good day in Europe 50 years ago. Listen for the Stravinsky quote at 1:46. Charles Lloyd, tenor saxophone; Keith Jarrett, piano; Cecil McBee, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums. From Radio… … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-04-10

Meeting the Hangman
By Heathcote Williams I used to speak out against capital punishment From a soapbox at Speakers’ Corner. This was when it was thought that hanging people Was helpful in maintaining order. One day someone called… … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2016-04-10

Weekend Extra: Borrowed From Bill Crow
Bill Crow has played bass with several of of the world’s leading jazz artists, Stan Getz, Art Farmer, Marian McPartland and Gerry Mulligan among them. A terrific writer, he has developed a sidebar career as… … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-04-08

A new home for a great company

George Goldner: Nothing If Not Opinionated–And Entertaining
It’s not quite The Car Guys, but an exchange at a recent symposium at the Frick’s Center for the History of Collecting* has tickled a couple of people I know … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-04-07

The Butterfly Art Project | Frygrond
This is the third essay in a series of four “We the Audience” posts designed to introduce my readers to the citizen artists working in some of South Africa’s most challenged areas. … read more
AJBlog: We The Audience Published 2016-04-07

Flesh and the Gaze
Rosane Chamecki and Andrea Lerner’s Eskasizer, at The Boiler February 26 through April 3. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-04-07

Kudos Wayne Shorter, sole “jazz” Guggenheim fellow
Though the Guggenheim Foundation has in recent practice conferred several of its prestigious annual fellowships on musicians of jazz or beyond, only Wayne Shorter, the great 83 year old saxophonist-composer – an NEA Jazz Master, co-founder of Weather Report, … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-04-07

Record Store Day
Every day is a special day. That is not a random feel-good statement; it reflects the reality that most, if not all, days on the calendar are co-opted in the name of a cause, … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-07

Just one week away
My concert — my reemergence as a composer — is just one week away. April 14, 7:30 PM at the Mansion, the warm and intimate performance space at Strathmore, the big performing arts center … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-04-07

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Risk management
New ballets are risky endeavours, requiring significant investment in talent, time and money. Yet do classical companies give them the best chance to shine? Performance Monkey asks companies around the world about previews, rehearsals … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2016-04-06

At the NEA’s Jazz Masters Ball
The Kennedy Center was filled Monday night with VIPs, devotees and artists across disciplines for the 34th annual celebration of Jazz Masters by the National Endowment of the Arts. Here’s my coverage for DownBeat magazine on the … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-04-06

Snapshot: Neil Young sings “I Am a Child”
Neil Young sings “I Am a Child” in concert in 1978: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.) … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-06

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Relationship Maintenance
The arts industry is event-oriented, if not event-obsessed. Our principal contribution to public life is in the presentation of events. On the very deepest level we are “do-ers.” There is an inbred impatience with anything … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-04-05

Forrest Westbrook’s Album
Early this year I had the privilege of writing notes for Forrest Westbrook’s only album as a leader. The CD was released five-and-a-half decades after it was recorded and two years after the pianist’s death … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-05

What doesn’t kill you makes you stranger
Mrs. T has a longstanding weakness for James Bond films, so we watched Thunderball, which I hadn’t seen, the other night. Midway through the film I said to her, “If this damn score doesn’t get … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-05

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Monday Recommendation: A Duke Ellington Book
Steven Brower & Mercedes Ellington: Duke Ellington: An American Composer and Icon (Rizzoli). 224 pages. $35.48 The scores of photos, illustrations and reproductions of documents make this book a valuable supplement to the growing stack … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-04-04

Local DC jazz apart from NEA Jazz Masters events
In Washington DC for events surrounding the investiture of vibist Gary Burton, saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp, and Jazz Foundation of America‘s executive director Wendy Oxenhorn as NEA Jazz Masters, I visited a new grassroots venue that shows where the deep heart of jazz support lies. … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2016-04-04

Just because: George Bernard Shaw talks about the filming of Pygmalion
George Bernard Shaw talks about the filming of Pygmalion in a 1939 British Movietone newsreel. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-04-04

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Another Magazine Puts the Met Under the Microscope, Unfortunately
The Metropolitan Museum wanted attention this spring, this year, what with the opening of the Met Breuer–and it’s sure getting it. Another magazine has had its crack at interpreting the Met’s renewed attention to contemporary… … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2016-04-03

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Perfect Pairings: Frick Draws on Van Dyck’s Drawings to Illuminate His Portrait Paintings
It takes not only brains but also curatorial brawn (which powerful institutions are in the best position to exert) to wrest seldom loaned choice works from discerning, possessive lenders. One of the many joys … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-31

Producer’s April: George Martin, Sam Phillips
Jerry Lee Lewis’s mother to her son: “You and Elvis are good, son — but you’re no Chuck Berry. Chuck Berry is rock ’n’ roll from his head to his toes.” … read more
AJBlog: blog riley Published 2016-03-31

Classical Pop Art
“… while the overall style of each fine artwork is maintained, eisen bernard bernardo’s mash-ups create quirky unions of contemporary and classical imagery.” Here’s Milo Miles talking with Robin Young. … read more
AJBlog: blog riley Published 2016-03-31

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The platform problem
Apple, Inc. has done a(nother) clever thing. In the midst of helping its customers succeed in individual goals through its iPhone and iOS systems, the company has also built resources to help groups and individuals … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-03-30

Since We’re Voting, There’s This Artistic Conundrum
Lest you think I have no sense of fun from my last post, which chastised the Indianapolis Museum of Art for outsourcing its exhibition planning to the public, I thought I would mention an instance … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-30

Orwell’s Typewriter, Meet Wold’s Bar Stool
Yesterday’s blogpost, The Strange Case of Orwell’s Typewriter, elicited some interesting remarks, only some of which were posted to it. One sent to me privately came from the California artist Kurt Wold. After posting  … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-03-30

Vacation Report And A Limerick
We spent our brief vacation in Santa Barbara, California, visiting our son. We slept, walked, hung out with friends and ate well. One of the walks was to the end of Stearns Wharf, a pier … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-30

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Community Learning
As I discussed in Transformative Engagement, the foundation of successful community engagement is deep understanding of the communities with which an organization is engaging. This body of information – key players, concerns, identity, etc. – is not necessarily common … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-03-29

Darts for Dartmouth: Hood Museum Has Less Moore in Tod Williams Billie Tsien’s Makeover
Win some, lose some: While adding five new galleries and increasing floor space by 50%, the much delayed $50-million expansion and renovation of Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum will be less ambitious than originally planned in … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-03-29

The Iron Lady at home
A quarter-century after she left office, Thatcher remains one of the most polarizing figures in postwar history. Because of this, … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-03-29

Debasing Culture
In the last decade on several occasions subscribers to Seattle Opera, of which I was the General Director, commented to me that they enjoyed opera, wanted others to experience it, but that it would be … read more
AJBlog: OperaSleuth Published 2016-03-29

Monday Recommendation: 2015 Mack Avenue Superbad
Beginning in 2012, the Detroit Jazz Festival has teamed players of varied backgrounds in all-star bands. At the 2015 festival, thorough preparation resulted not in a typical festival jam … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-03-29

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The Old and the New Dancing Together
In a program essay by Susan Yung for the Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance season (through April 3), guest choreographer Doug Elkins mentions that Taylor’s Esplanade was the first dance he ever saw on PBS’s Dance in America and … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-03-28

Once in a lifetime
I went to see the Paul Taylor Dance Company (it’s changed its name, but I can’t get used to the new one) at Lincoln Center on Saturday afternoon. Regular readers of this blog may recall … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-03-28

Indy Decides to Outsource Exhibition Decisions
For the last few years, the Indianapolis Museum of Art has, it seems to me, been on a crazy trajectory. As soon as it does something smart, it turns around and undermines itself. Now it… … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-03-28

The Strange Case of Orwell’s Typewriter
My curiosity was aroused by this sentence: His manual typewriter — rather suitably, in the light of his faint anarchist leanings — was later bestowed by Sonia on the 1960s hippy-radical news-sheet, the International Times.… … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-03-28

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