Music & Musicians
75 posts found
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An Al Green Mystery
Could the best Al Green album in decades, perhaps the best album this year, actually be a decade old release? That's the mystery I found myself in. Let me explain:I"ve been known to bounce from streaming music service to streaming music service having done my time with Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music to name a few in the rotation (remember Mog?). Lately I"ve been using Amazon Music with its Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos offerings.With Amazon, I check the "new" listings… -
Rhapsodizing Khatia Buniatishvili
Several years ago, in 2017, I found myself at Tsinandali in the Republic of Georgia for the launch of their music festival. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta was performing. They were joined by Khatia Buniatishvili, a dark-haired Georgian pianist who interpreted Schumann with great finesse and other selections dramatically with great gusto. It was a memorable evening, and a memorable performance. Buniatishvili who was born in Batumi in 1987 has been performing since s... View Original Article -
Louis Armstrong: Black and Blues, A Very Human Genius
Louis Armstrong is an artist whose musical genius, expressed with his trumpet, his voice and his personality, rarely fails to bring a smile to whoever is listening. However, as Sacha Jenkins" new documentary, Louis Armstrong's Black and Blues (available on Apple Tv+) makes clear, Armstrong's persona at times was seen as cringe-worthy by younger Black artists and as conciliatory rather than outspoken on Civil Rights and Racism in the United States.Louis Armstrong, a creature of the road and t... View… -
Larkin Poe's Deep Funk In "Blood Harmony"
David may have played a secret chord that pleased the Lord, but when it comes to a sound that pleases me deep in my own soul it comes from sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell who perform as Larkin Poe (reportedly the name of one of their great-greats).They have a new album Blood Harmony that is 11 songs and 42 minutes of pounding driving guitar and slide guitar virtuosity â a deep funk that conjures bands as disparate as The James… -
R.I.P. Jerry Lee Lewis
You shake my nerves and you rattle my brainToo much love drives a man insaneYou broke my willBut what a thrillGoodness gracious, great balls of fire!Jerry Lee Lewis, the enfant terrible of Rock "n Roll, one of Sun Records million dollar quarter, the rocker whose career was momentarily cancelled when it was revealed his third wife, Myra, was thirteen years old and was his cousin, has died age 87.Jerry Lee Lewis was, as he would surely have been the first… -
Here It Is: Larry Klein's Tribute To Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen who died in 2016, has since been memorialized by several tribute concerts, including ones led by his son Adam Cohen in Cohen's native Montreal and in Sweden led by the duo First Aid Kit (sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg) and their friends. There have been touring museum exhibitions, and post-humous books of fiction and poetry, and documentaries about Leonard and Marianne, and about Cohen's song Hallelujah.Leonard Cohen was an old soul. Among the cultural fixtures of the Sixt...… -
Mesmerized By The Music Of Hania Rani
Late one night during the early days of the pandemic, I was listening to music performances on YouTube, one of my main new music discovery engines. I am always checking out NPR's Tiny Desk concerts or listening to random performers that appear if I just let the channel play. It was on such evening of YouTube selections when I watched a young woman, Hania Rani, give a piano performance unlike anything I"d ever seen or heard.As soon as I heard… -
Songwriter Patrick Davis' Paradise
There are no more CD sales (what's a CD?) and streaming revenue is just a trickle of what Songwriters once earned. Superstar performers" hits now list teams of songwriting contributors and although live performances are back in demand, if your name is not marquee-worthy (and sometimes even if it is) the gigs that pay a living wage are few and far between. What's a songwriter to do?To answer that question and others I spoke with Patrick Davis. Heard of him… -
Wynton Marsalis And Georgian-American Friendship Makes Hamptons Swing
On a recent Saturday night, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performed at the Southampton Arts Center as part of the Hamptons Jazz Fest to celebrate 30 years of Independence for the Republic of Georgia and to honor thirty years of Georgian-American friendship; and, like all things Georgian and all things Wynton, it exceeded all expectations.There were speeches by Joe Diamond, General Manager of the Southampton Arts Center and Claes Brondal, co-founder of the Hamptons ... View… -
Bob Dylan And Elvis Stay True
In the last few weeks, I"ve had two cultural experiences that I"m still trying to get my head around: Bob Dylan on his "Rough and Ready Ways" Tour and Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis." Each, in their singular way, speaks to the struggle for authenticity in one's art.Bob Dylan, who recently turned 81, performed three nights at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. I attended the first night's performance: Dylan spent most of the night behind the piano, occasionally venturing beside his piano… -
Everything Rises For Jennifer Koh And Davone Tines
Last night, I attended a performance, Everything Rises at Royce Hall presented by the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA), co-created and featuring Grammy-winning classical violinist Jennifer Koh and Bass-Baritone Davóne Tines with music by Ken Ueno. It had premiered the night before at the University of California at Santa Barbara's St. Anthony's Chapel.Everything Rises is a work of such originality and, at the same time, a so deeply personal exploration of identity by both... View… -
Dylan Casts A Surprising Shadow
August 10, 2021By Tom TeicholzThis article appeared on Forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomteicholz/2021/08/10/dylan-casts-a-surprising-shadow/?sh=29cc937768ebTrailer for Shadow Kingdom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxwI_OtESIE&ab_channel=BobDylanYou’ve got to hand it to Bob Dylan. He continues to surprise. And delight. And confound. And to earn our respect simply, as he once wrote of Woody Guthrie, “Cause there's not many men that done the things that you've done.” Dylan just turned 80. In December 2019, he gave his last live performance before Covid/Pandemic lockdowns put a pause to his “never-ending tour,” so called because of Dylan’s…