Archives for March 28, 2004

A friend of mine went last night to see New York City Opera’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. As soon as she got home, she sent me this e-mail:

Something unexpected hit me close to the end of the second act, about the time all hell was breaking loose and the chorus was running around like mad singing “City on Fire”. Up til then, it was a pretty enjoyable show. Then all of a sudden, all the chaos on stage felt too real and I remembered how the Village was the night the World Trade Center was attacked – that horrible metallic burning smell and the air thick with smoke. And the madman onstage waving a razor, seething with vengeance made me uncomfortable. I wasn’t planning on that feeling so real.

That’s a memory I’m glad not to have.

I finished the fifth chapter and the bibliography of the Balanchine book late Saturday night. Come Sunday morning I start on the last one. I hate to tempt fate, but I do believe the end is in sight.

I’ll post another excerpt later today. In the meantime, kindly cross your fingers, please.

“One never takes lessons to heart. It’s just a thing people talk about–learning by experience and all that.”

Anthony Powell, The Valley of Bones

I reviewed Bill Charlap’s new CD, Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein, in today’s Washington Post:

Not since Ahmad Jamal’s legendary trio of the 1950s has there been a jazz combo that blended uptown and downtown so seamlessly as does the Bill Charlap Trio. It’s equally at home in smoky nightclubs and I-kiss-your-hand-madam cabarets. You don’t have to know anything about jazz to enjoy its polished, elegant renditions of show tunes, but if you do, you’ll marvel at the savoir-faire with which the group saunters through Charlap’s quietly intricate arrangements.

If any part of that description piques your interest, then by all means give a spin to “Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein.” I wouldn’t be even slightly surprised if this near-flawless collection of 12 songs written by the man who brought you “West Side Story” turns Bill Charlap into the Diana Krall of jazz instrumentalists, a sophisticated artist whose albums are bought and loved by ordinary folks who don’t know the Village Vanguard from the Village People. “Somewhere” is that good — and that accessible….

Read the whole thing here.