Category: AJBlogs

“A woman trapped in domestic boredom moves toward a nervous breakdown. Institutionalized, she attempts to create a performance for a shortly expected visit from her children, but can find no words to express her feelings. Only her instrument can serve as an expression of her deepest emotions.” — William Osborne & Abbie Conant

Rifftides readers have asked the staff to again present Jack Brownlow’s Christmas recital  that first appeared here in December of 2015. We are delighted to do so. — Doug Ramsey

If you liked Black Panther, listen to the music that introduced and embodies Afro-Futurism. Photojournalist Marc PoKempner captured a bit of the celestial magic of the Sun Ra Arkestra during its November touchdown in New Orleans’s Music Box Village. — Howard Mandel

Kora and concert harp, played together, are “so beautiful that almost anything that Catrin and Seckou play will seduce the ear.” – Michal Shapiro

In Britain, ghost stories – not only in Christmas Carol – are a vital part of the holiday season. – Paul Levy

The jazz pianist, not the Star Wars/Boston Pops guy.
— Doug Ramsey

What most transfixed me about Mustard Race Riot was not the grim subject matter (which I saw anew through the perspective of our current racially charged moment), but Warhol’s uncanny prescience about our media-saturated world. — Lee Rosenbaum

According to my friend the remarkably loquacious Spanish pianist Pedro Carboné, the “birth of Spanish music” occurs during the third of Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain. — Joe Horowitz

Richard II gives up power – though it’s not his choice. Shakespeare stages this concretely – a crown passed from one to another. The supposed divinity of majesty proves portable as a party hat. Richard, as often, reaches for an arresting metaphor: here, two buckets on a well. — David Jays