Archives for September 7, 2006

If you have no plans for this Sunday night–and maybe even if you do–I strongly recommend that you attend the all-star jazz concert that Dan Levinson and Randy Sandke have put together to benefit Dick Sudhalter, about whose plight I recently blogged. The bill includes (among others) Harry Allen, Dan Barrett, Eddie Bert, Bill Crow, Jim Ferguson, Dave Frishberg, Wycliffe Gordon, Marty Grosz, Becky Kilgore, Bill Kirchner, Steve Kuhn, Dan Levinson, Marian McPartland, Joe Muranyi, David Ostwald, Nicki Parrott, Bucky Pizzarelli, Scott Robinson, Randy Sandke, Daryl Sherman, and the Loren Schoenberg Big Band.

The concert will take place at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in New York. The address is 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street and the music starts at seven o’clock sharp. Admission is $40, plus whatever else you care to chip in.

I’ll be there. You come, too.

Are there any songs that you really, really like in spite of their lyrics, whether in whole or part? Here’s my list:

– Swing Out Sister, “Breakout”

– Joan Armatrading, “Call Me Names”

– Tori Amos, “Crucify”

– Joni Mitchell, “Black Crow”

– Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry”

– Rosanne Cash, “I Want a Cure”

– The Police, “King of Pain”

– Billy Strayhorn, “Lush Life”

Incidentally, it only works one way for me: if I don’t like the music of a song, it doesn’t matter how good the words are. I suspect the same thing is true for most people, which says something interesting about the nature of songwriting.

Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows strongly favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.

Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.

BROADWAY:

– Avenue Q* (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)

– The Drowsy Chaperone* (musical, G/PG-13, mild sexual content and a profusion of double entendres, reviewed here)

– The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection, reviewed here)

– The Wedding Singer (musical, PG-13, some sexual content, reviewed here)

OFF BROADWAY:

– The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here)

– Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living In Paris (musical revue, R, adult subject matter and sexual content, reviewed here)

– Slava’s Snowshow (performance art, G, child-friendly, reviewed here)

“Wisdom is truth that consoles. There is truth without wisdom, as we know from the many mad scientists who are running loose in our world. And there is consolation without truth, as we know from the history of religion. Whatever its defects, my life has enabled me to find comfort in uncomfortable truths.”

Roger Scruton, Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life (courtesy of Anecdotal Evidence)

Sonny Rollins, one of the greatest tenor saxophonists in the history of jazz, turns seventy-six today. To celebrate the occasion, his Web site, which is one year old, has posted rare video footage of nine Rollins performances, including two from the Fifties and three from the Sixties.

“Nine Lives of Sonny Rollins” will be viewable at sonnyrollins.com for one week from today. To watch it, go here.