Category: AJBlogs

Taylor Made
Paul Taylor American Modern Dance at Lincoln Center, March 6 through 25. Eran Bugge and Michael Trusnovec in Paul Taylor’s Roses. Photo: Paul B. Goode When Paul Taylor’s Roses premiered in 1985, fake petals drifted … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2018-03-10

Weekend Listening Tip: SRJO On Brubeck And Desmond
Jazz Northwest airs at 2 PM PST Sunday on KNKX-FM in the Seattle-Tacoma region. It streams online at  knkx.org   … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-03-09

Replay: Tony Bennett and Dave McKenna perform “The Very Thought of You”
Tony Bennett and Dave McKenna perform Ray Noble’s “The Very Thought of You” at Boston’s Copley Plaza Hotel in 1982: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-03-09

Sultanof On His Big Band Book
A few weeks ago the Rifftides Monday Recommendation was Jeff Sultanof’s new book Experiencing Big Band Jazz. You can read the recommendation here. Sultanof (pictured right) was recently the guest on Michael … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-03-08

Sultanof On His Big Band Book
A few weeks ago the Rifftides Monday Recommendation was Jeff Sultanof’s new book Experiencing Big Band Jazz. … Sultanof was recently the guest on Michael Fitzgerald’s Jazz Forum program. Discussing his … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-08

 

Systemically Privileged
People concerned about issues related to the arts and equity (funding is just one area) have used many terms to describe the juggernaut that is the world of symphonies, ballet companies, museums, and theaters. Most of the terminology used is either offensive or absurdly complex (and/or unwieldy) … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-03-06

Romancing a High-Low Split: John Haskell’s The Complete Ballet: A Fictional Essay in Five Acts
It’s hard to recall the last time I heard someone say Balanchine’s name aloud. Since his death in 1983, more and more ballet companies around the world have fueled their repertories with his visionary neo-classical … read more
AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2018-03-04

Bible Bumble: Copy Confusion Muddles Museum of the Bible
My belated visit to the three-month-old Museum of the Bible during my recent Washington sojourn began inauspiciously and went downhill from there: … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-03-07

Just Because It’s (Almost) Spring, Spring, Spring
The Coltrane project (two items down) is progressing to the extent that I was able to get out the office for a short bicycle excursion. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-07

 

Anne-Sophie Mutter and André Previn: Music from the divorce that didn’t work
Anne-Sophie Mutter has long maintained supreme artistic poise in the classical violin world, but the wild card in her repertoire has often come from her ex-husband, the multi-Oscar-winning composer André Previn. … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-03-05

Misunderstood and Maligned
Poor Grant Wood. Seventy-years after his death, his work is widely known – thanks to American Gothic – but equally widely misunderstood, under-appreciated and, recalling the old insult to George W. Bush, misunderestimated. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-03-04

Tainted money
[Jerry Saltz’s] is not the first, nor will it be the last, protest over donations to an art or educational institution from a questionable source. How should we think about this? … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2018-03-04

Dispatched from the Audition Room
I say to colleagues that our personal artistic opinions are not as important in considering prospective students as our expert evaluation of their potential. It may be quite difficult to make such a distinction. … read more
AJBlog: PianoMorphosis Published 2018-03-05

 

‘Righteous Poles’ Make an Appeal
Following Ronald S. Lauder’s open letter (“It’s Time to Dial Back the Rhetoric”) about the Holocaust and recent anti-Semitic developments in Poland, another open letter has appeared (also in The New York Times) this time … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2018-03-03

Coltrane Could Leave You Breathless
Research on yet another extracurricular (i.e., non-Rifftides) project involving John Coltrane has led me into several byways that the great tenor saxophonist took in his pre-“Giant Steps” days of the 1950s. One … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-03-02

Almanac: T.S. Eliot on confusion
Men tighten the knot of confusion Into perfect misunderstanding. T.S. Eliot, The Family Reunion … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-03-02

Take Another Trip! The Paston Treasure Beckons
I’ll bet most, if not all, of you have never heard of a large painting called The Paston Treasure, c. 1663. Neither had I, until I saw a little picture of this 8 feet by 5.4 … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear ArtsPublished 2018-03-01

This Week’s Audience Lessons: Oscars, The NEA And The Fraudulence Of “Trending”
This Week’s Insights: When the Oscars lose their audience… How audience drives Hollywood’s behavior… The NEA is really an audience diversifier… Reviews that don’t offer point of view lose their audience… “Trending” doesn’t measure … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts AudiencePublished 2018-03-01

Take Another Trip! The Paston Treasure Beckons
I’ll bet most, if not all, of you have never heard of a large painting called The Paston Treasure, c. 1663. Neither had I, until I saw a little picture of this 8 feet by 5.4 feet work. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2018-03-01

Review: Martin Wind’s “Light Blue”
Martin Wind, Light Blue (Laika)
Martin Wind gathers a coterie of distinguished colleagues and demonstrates why for two decades he has been a mainstay bassist in the US and Europe. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-03-01

 

One Wo/Man Band
I am frequently asked whether an arts organization can successfully engage communities with just one person assigned the responsibility for “engaging.” One answer, given with considerable trepidation is, “It depends.” … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-02-27

The Adjacent Possible
So much of leadership, management, and change narrative is about “gap analysis.” The thinking goes that we achieve a desired future by describing a bold vision, defining our current location, mapping the gap between here and there, … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2018-02-27

Far Out! Psychedelia at Metropolitan Museum’s “Golden Kingdoms” (with video)
In a tweet today, Joanne Pillsbury, the Metropolitan Museum’s curator of the Arts of the Ancient Americas, called attention to one of two miniature objects that caught my eye (perhaps for the wrong reasons) at … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-02-27

 

Making Things Together
The Bebe Miller Company and Susan Rethorst share their processes and a program at New York Live Arts. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-02-25

Gray-Haired and Dying
I heard yet another talk about audiences last week that used two adjectives interchangeably to describe them: ‘gray-haired’ and ‘dying.’ I get it.  The young demographic is a big prize: get listeners hooked in  … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2018-02-26

Monday Recommendation: Magris In Miami
Roberto Magris Sextet Live in Miami @ the WDNA Jazz Gallery (J Mood) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-02-26

 

My Storify from the Obama Portraits Event: Eclectic Crowd, Controversial Art
In case you still have an appetite for more about the Obama portraits unveiling and installation, here’s my Storify of live tweets from the scene … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-02-22

Julian Lage at the Bootleg Theater
Last night’s show by the young Santa Rosa native was one of the greatest jazz gigs I’ve ever seen. Even knowing a few of his records and having seen him play … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2018-02-21