Category: AJBlogs

High Noon adapted for the stage, speaking sharply to 2018 and with no exit
High Noon is a great movie, but does it immediately jump to mind as a story that’s ripe for re-evaluation and revision? … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-02-21

Engagement at the Core
In addition to what has been said to this point concerning community relationships, programming, and marketing, I would suggest that in the beginning all internal stakeholders in an arts organization continue their work as is and … keep it simple. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-02-20

Da Vinci’s BFF, the CPA
It’s common modern practice to consider art and commerce in opposition to each other, and artists and accountants as cartoonish polar opposites, as well. But it wasn’t always so. … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2018-02-21

“Respect” Not “Hagiography”: How National Portrait Gallery Sizes Up Obama & His Predecessors
In pithy new blurbs, the National Portrait Gallery’s revamped and reinterpreted “America’s Presidents” installation strives to tell each former officeholder’s “unique stories of both triumph and failure” (in the words of the introductory wall text). … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-02-20

Rob Clearfield: Quiet And Deep
Rob Clearfield, Wherever You’re Starting From (Woolgathering Records)
The Chicago pianist’s low-key approach to solo piano might lead to wool-gathering that would justify the name of his label. But he bolsters … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-02-21

 

The Ground as Partner, as Enemy
Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca at the Joyce Theater through February 25th. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2018-02-19

Jazz and beyond projects with 2018 NEA funding support
Given all the noise, the National Endowment for the Arts’ $25 mil for arts, literature and education announced Feb. 7 may have been overlooked. But these funds and the projects they support, nationwide, should be noted. … read more
AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2018-02-19

Artistic Resistance in Our America
This weekend, the conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane played with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra … But it was his encore that was unforgettable. He bowed his head before starting, waited a moment, we anticipated. It took several notes to recognize with his slow start. … read more
AJBlog: The Bright Ride Published 2018-02-18

The Gershwin Moment
Not only do I believe in George Gershwin; I believe we are embarking on a Gershwin Moment. That is: modernism has departed, and so (sooner or later) will the Standard Narrative for American classical music that we learned from … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-02-18

Monday Recommendation(s): Three From ECM
Andy Sheppard, Romaria (ECM)
Nicolas Masson Quartet, Travelers (ECM)
Shinya Fukumori Trio, For 2 Akis (ECM) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-02-19

 

Norma Winstone’s Movie Music
Norma Winstone, Descansado: Songs For Films (ECM) In an album striking for its quietness and its daring, British vocalist Norma Winstone and her augmented trio interpret music from motion pictures. The augmentation … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-02-16

Replay: Igor Stravinsky conducts his Firebird Suite
Igor Stravinsky leads the NHK Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the 1945 version of his Firebird Suite, performed at the Osaka International Festival on May 1, 1959: (This is the latest in a … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-02-16

Pianist Menahem Pressler at age 94: Fragile, fallible but still a credit to his legacy?
Pianist Menahem Presller, still playing at age 94 Human beings are living longer – and so are performing artists. The question of when do they retire gracefully isn’t going away, and if anything, will only … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to MusicPublished 2018-02-15

Correspondence: Oscar Peterson And Nat Cole
Frequent Rifftides correspondent Svetlana Ilicheva writes from Moscow: I wonder if it is a well-known thing that Oscar Peterson sang? It was a great surprise to find this recording, not only for … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-02-15

Pianist Menahem Pressler at age 94: Fragile, fallible but still a credit to his legacy?
Human beings are living longer – and so are performing artists. The question of when they retire gracefully isn’t going away, and if anything, will only require more finesse  as musical legends have increasingly few reasons to retire. … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-02-15

Obama Drama: Unveiled, Hung and Exiled (with video)
“It’s kind of amazing to think that [the Obama portraits] will be living next to the other portraits of all of the other presidents and first ladies,” Rujeko Hockley, assistant curator at the Whitney Museum, gushed about the latest presidential commissions by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery. Sad to say, Ru, Barack Obama is not actually “next to the other portraits” of the U.S. Presidents. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-02-15

Thornhill’s “Robbins’ Nest,” A Rediscovery
Continuing to roam through Jeff Sultanof’s new book on big band jazz I am appreciating, almost as if for the first time, pieces of music that I’ve listened to for years. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-02-14

Know Your Communities
This is a sneaky post. The emphasis of this series is on the small, simple, inexpensive things that can be done to pursue community engagement in the early days of such efforts. That would be true of what follows if our industry’s marketing were grounded in audience awareness. Unfortunately, it is not. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-02-13

 

Monday Recommendation: Dawn Clement In Tandem
Dawn Clement, Tandem (Origin)
Dawn Clement’s recording history includes piano collaborations with saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and trombonist Julian Priester, among other prominent colleagues. The Seattle Times has called her … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-02-12

Propwatch: the dolls in John
The best scene in any play in London right now (don’t argue, I’m not listening) opens the second act in John by Annie Baker. Three women – Mertis, who runs a guesthouse in Gettysburg, … read more
AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2018-02-12

Yannick’s Hollow Parsifal
The highwater mark for Wagner at the Metropolitan Opera in recent decades was the 2013 Parsifal,handsomely directed and strongly cast. The crucial ingredient, however, was Daniele Gatti’s leadership in the … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2018-02-11

Aletheia to Tour Northeastern U.S.
Composed by William Osborne for singer-instrumentalist, computer-controlled piano, and quadraphonic electronics, Aletheia is a music theater work featuring the solo performance of Abbie Conant as the title character. Osborne writes, “Aletheia is an opera singer … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2018-02-12

 

Three Women Meet and Make a World
Dana Reitz premieres Latitude at New York Live Arts Dana Reitz in her Latitude. Photo: Kate Enman “Exquisite.” That was what a colleague whispered to me as he emerged from New York Live Arts’ theater … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2018-02-11

Weekend Listening (And Viewing) Tip: Brent Jensen
Bassist Bren Plummer’s live radio broadcast a couple of days ago (scroll down two items) prompted me to check out the KNKX-FM website. There, I found a post about another Pacific Northwest … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-02-11

Wesla Whitfield, RIP
Wesla Whitfield, a singer of uncommon talent, taste, musicianship and courage, died yesterday in St. Helena, California. Her husband and accompanist of more than three decades, the pianist Mike Greensill, announced her … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-02-10

Berkshire Debacle: The Attorney General Caves
Read it and weep. The Massachusetts Attorney General has acceded to a plan for the Berkshire Museum to sell as many of its 40 deaccessioned worksas necessary to come up with the $55 million … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-02-09

Southern Literature and the Drive-By Truckers
CELEBRATED Yale historian C. Vann Woodward used to talk about the irony of Southern history, and the burden of Southern history, both phrases drawn in part from the novels of Faulkner. Patterson Hood, a … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2018-02-09

Viklický And The JCLO In Brno
In their tour of the Czech Republic, last weekend Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra teamed with the eminent Czech pianist and composer Emil Viklický. Viklický crafted an arrangement … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-02-08

 

Present What You Do
The most important attribute of any arts organization is, of course, the art it presents. To many people, committing to community engagement raises images (and fears) of rapid, monumental, systemic change. While significant change may result eventually … there is much that can be done with little or no change to currently offered programming. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-02-06

Artists as speculators
A new working paper from Amy Whitaker and Roman Kräussl suggests a new model of finance for visual artists. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2018-02-07

The Guggenheim’s Potty Humor: What Art Is Flowing to Trump’s White House?
Nobody can have been shocked to learn that the White House had no interest in the Guggenheim Museum’s provocative offer to lend Maurizio Cattelan’s golden throne, instead of the van Gogh that the museum had requested. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-02-07

On CDs, LPs, Henderson And Horvitz
In the 1950s when UCLA football coach Red Sanders said, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing,” he could not have known that his sports philosophy would be adapted to virtually every human endeavor. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-02-07