Archives for October 19, 2003

Fans of Allison Moorer, the wonderful young country singer about whom I’ve previously written in this space, should go here to read an excellent Washington Post profile by Eric Brace that supplies the inside skinny on her latest doings.

In brief, Moorer has finally given up on the major labels, signed with Sugar Hill Records (the nonpareil independent country-bluegrass label that brought you Nickel Creek), and now has a new album in the can set for release next spring:

In five short years, she’s released four records (her most recent, “Show,” a live affair with accompanying DVD) and has just signed with her third record label. She’s been touted as the next great country singer and faulted for not playing the game by Nashville’s rules. She’s had an Academy Award nomination for one of her songs, and been virtually ignored by country radio….

But while Moorer puts on a bravely defiant face, she admits to doubts about her methods. “Oh, sure, I ask myself all the time, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ ” she says, her corduroy cap pulled low over her face. She stares hard at her cappuccino for a second, regaining her bravura. “But I’ve been true to myself in everything I’ve done. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

Of course I wish Moorer had made it big in Nashville, but I can’t tell you how pleased I am to hear that she’s hooked up with the best roots-music label in the business. They know a good thing when they hear it. (In the meantime, try her debut CD, Alabama Song, for a taste of Allison Moorer at her major-label best.)

Deidre Rodman, the pianist-composer about whom I’ve recently written on this blog and in the Washington Post, is appearing with her quintet on Monday at the Jazz Gallery. The gig is in celebration of the release of her second CD, Simple Stories, about which I had this to say in the Post:

If you liked the Bad Plus’ “These Are the Vistas,” an all-acoustic piano-trio album with a strong pop flavor, your next stop should be Deidre Rodman’s “Simple Stories” (Sunnyside), the second CD by an up-and-coming young pianist-composer from New York City. Rodman has put a similarly fresh spin on the time-honored trumpet-sax quintet lineup, with results as crisp and sweet as a bite out of a Fuji apple.

Like so many other twentysomething players, Rodman has performed all sorts of music. She’s worked with Elvis Costello, played in a circus band and now doubles as a member of the Lascivious Biddies, a witty girl group. Not surprisingly, her idiosyncratic approach to jazz is colored by this wide-ranging experience. For one thing, her compositions are far more than just props for aimless blowing. Some are songs (Rodman is also a talented lyricist), others large-scale compositions notable for their high melodic profiles. The influence of rock on pieces like “Sleeping Ground” (sung to perfection by Luciana Souza, who sits in on three cuts) is unmistakable, yet you don’t doubt for a moment that you’re listening to jazz….

Two sets, at nine and 10:30. For more information, go here.

While you’re at the record store, check out Acoustic Romance (Sons of Sound), a gorgeous guitar-bass-drums CD by Gene Bertoncini originally recorded in 1992 for a Japanese label and now being released stateside for the first time. Bertoncini’s gently elegant finger-style acoustic jazz guitar and classically flavored arrangements of such blue-chip standards as “The Shadow of Your Smile” and “Two for the Road” have rarely been captured in such warm yet transparent recorded sound, and Akira Tana and Rufus Reid provide impeccable support.

You can order Acoustic Romance by going here, or you can take matters into your own hands by dining at Le Madeleine, the theater-district bistro (it’s on 43rd Street just east of Ninth Avenue) where Bertoncini plays solo guitar on Sunday and Monday nights whenever he’s in New York. It happens that he’s in town for the next few weeks, so I dropped in this evening to eat the excellent food and savor the music. Both were up to par (they always are), and copies of Acoustic Romance were available for purchase and signing (ditto). Nightclubs are all very well and good, but there’s nothing like listening to great jazz while eating a good meal in pleasant surroundings, and we all know that some of New York’s most admired jazz clubs aren’t exactly, ahem, comfy.

Anyway, go see Deidre Rodman at the Jazz Gallery on Monday and Gene Bertoncini at Le Madeleine next Sunday. Buy their albums–and tell ’em I sent you.

In addition to the several miles’ worth of new postings that materialized in this spot on Friday, I’ve just installed a brand-new, all-new set of Top Fives in the right-hand column. Take a look, click on a link, enhance your life.

Much more to come on Monday and Tuesday, including the return of “In the Bag,” postings about Carolina Ballet, the Louis Armstrong House, “German Art Now” at the St. Louis Art Museum, and whatever else tickles my fancy. Stay tuned.

Seeing as how this site is officially big on the paintings, watercolors, and etchings of John Marin, I thought you might enjoy reading a very interesting newspaper story suggesting the possibility of a Marin revival:

John Marin is back in vogue.

Thanks to a new book, two new exhibitions and renewed attention stemming from the 50th anniversary of Marin’s death, interest in the American-born modernist has peaked. His popularity is borne out not only among young art students who trace his path up and down the Maine coast, but also in art auction houses, where even routine Marin paintings fetch millions of dollars these days….

Much of the new fervor is because of the recently opened retrospective “John Marin’s Maine” at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor. The small exhibition of fewer than two dozen pieces traces Marin’s evolution as a painter from his first trip to Maine in 1914 to his death Oct. 1, 1953.

Colby College, which owns 55 Marin works and dedicates two galleries to their display, has published a long-overdue hardcover catalog of its holdings, “The John Marin Collection at the Colby College Museum of Art.”

And on Nov. 9, the Richard York Gallery in New York City will open “John Marin & Paul Strand: Friends in New England,” an exhibition that explores the dialogue between Marin and his photographer friend. It will be the first time their work has been exhibited together since 1925, when both were included in arts patron Alfred Stieglitz’s “Seven Americans” exhibition.

The only thing lacking is a major-museum retrospective, the last of which the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., mounted in 1990. Marin’s daughter-in-law, Norma Marin, hopes renewed interest will result in a thorough re-examination of the painter’s career.

“I’m obviously a little biased, but I think it’s time,” says Norma Marin, who divides her time between a Manhattan apartment and her home at Cape Split….

And where, pray tell, did this story appear? In today’s Portland Press Herald. That’s Portland, Maine, not the New York Times, thank you very much. To read the whole thing, go here. To purchase a copy of Colby College’s gorgeous Marin catalogue, go here. And to find out why you had to go to a Maine newspaper by way of an arts blog to find out about all this Marin-related activity…well, go figure.