Category

Music


Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Featured
Books, Essays, Music, My back pages, Race

Urban Savant

Greg Tate, the prolific critic and culture chronicler, died Tuesday December 7. He happened to be a neighbor of mine. For close to 30 years we lived next door to each other in the Sugar Hill section of New York’s Washington Heights. We shared what neighbors share: a street/mecca where greats like Ellington and Strayhorn,…

Continue reading

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Featured
Art, Music, Theater

The Master

Wisdom: when words convey a truth that’s irrefutable. The right ones echo, to the point where you realize you’ve memorized it because it’s something you never want to forget. Ever.  Stephen Sondheim’s words and music have had that effect on me even before I knew his name. In “Something’s Comin’” from West Side Story, I recognized…

Continue reading

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Criticals, Dance, Film, Music, My back pages

Crazy Rhythms in a Night of Love

Last night I enhaled the glorious mise en scene of Steve McQueen’s Lover’s Rock, one of the five short films that comprise his Small Axe series (Amazon Prime). All that polyester! Sweaty dancers and swigs of beer redolent of high school parties in the basements of classmate’s houses! It’s the power of film, and its…

Continue reading

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Music, My back pages

Fordham’s Road

She’s older now, I thought. The blonde bob, the square jaw with a complexion that’s classic English rose, still radiates but the eyes were wearier: less Lulu, more Julie Christie after a wild night. Seeing her made me wonder if her most recent engagement at Joe’s Pub would be 1) a shoe-string affair (only a…

Continue reading

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Music, My back pages, Vespers

Al Jarreau 1940-2017

Back when I sang professionally, I could think of no greater compliment than when some trade paper critic or a fan would say, “he reminds me of Al Jarreau.” No worries I’d be puffed up with delusions of greatness. By then I’d been listening to the guy long enough to know I’d never be that…

Continue reading

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Music, Theater

Prince Power

Back in the day he’d been on the edge of my consciousness, what with music for Purple Rain and Batman (that soundtrack’s “The Arms of Orion” duet with Sheena Easton is, note for note, a delectably romantic morsel of pop craftsmanship); aside from those, I owned approximately one other Prince album (Lovesexy), but I still…

Continue reading

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Music, Vespers

Merle Haggard 1937-2016

There’s a lot of new ground being broken in what we used to call country music.  Lately I’ve been listening to Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell mine that primal place where voice and longing collide. I’m impressed they’ve found something fresh and contemporary in the form; it’s no longer necessary to be a hillbilly (or a…

Continue reading

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Art, Music

Hang in there, you…

Tough times for Folkies Dept: First she fended off Taylor Swift’s attempt to make a movie of her life.  Now comes word that Joni Mitchell was hospitalized this week.  The prospect of losing the ultimate artist is too dispiriting to contemplate.  We love you, Joni–now get up and get back to work.

Continue reading

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Music, My back pages

Tim Hauser 1941-2014, Founder of the Manhattan Transfer

Photo: Hauser, left, with Siegel, Paul and Bentyne “Boo-bop-boooo-bop…” It was all I needed to hear–til this day those first four notes of “Tuxedo Junction” can still elicit the pleasure it did when the Manhattan Transfer released it on their debut album back in 1975.  Hearing this matchless quartet for the first time was a…

Continue reading

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 7

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/content.php on line 8

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/wp-content/themes/himmelen/inc/theme-functions.php on line 915
Music, My back pages, Vespers

Horace Silver, Jazz Supernova 1928-2014

Thanks to Horace Silver, the magical moment occurred shortly after I first moved to New York, one of many that effectively, resoundingly, shot down (or made me re-consider) all my country Midwestern notions about…everything. I’d say I was hooked from the moment I heard that sneaky vamp. “Come on Home” was the first cut on…

Continue reading