Smith, who backed Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick, formed his own quartet, and collaborated with hundreds of others, said the organ was "sunshine, rainbows, the rain, the wind, the storm, the flowers. ... It’s like sitting in a spaceship and you don’t know where you’re going." - Washington Post
A founder of the Impossible Ragtime Theater, and a icon at La MaMa over decades, he infused theatre with music (especially jazz) and reimagined classic theatre with "startling new interpretations." - The New York Times
Acting? Eh. Tucci: "You’re going through life, you have this trajectory and this vision, then suddenly this whole other good thing is like a sidecar attached to you, and you’re off in another direction." - The New York Times
Beverly Gage, a historian of 20th-century politics who has led the program since 2017, has resigned, saying the university failed to stand up for academic freedom amid inappropriate efforts by its donors to influence its curriculum and faculty hiring. - The New York Times
In the 1950s and '60s, from ages 15 to 23, he starred in 11 Disney features, including The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, The Absent-Minded Professor, and, most memorably, Old Yeller. Then Walt learned that Kirk was gay … - The Washington Post
"Floyd's operas, more than a dozen, were steeped in southern culture, examining the post-Civil War South, the Depression and small-town life. Works such as Susannah, Of Mice and Men and Cold Sassy Tree opened opera houses to a distinctly American repertoire. He also wrote his own librettos." - NPR
Sometimes it seems like there are two people called Jonathan Franzen: the successful, acclaimed novelist, and his evil twin. This can be the only explanation for why he polarises otherwise like-minded people in a way that even Donald Trump or Meghan Markle can't. - BBC
"As a mainstay of the loose aggregation of Nashville session professionals known as the A-Team, (he) played on many of the landmark country hits of his day. … Each typified the intuitive, uncluttered style of playing that came to characterize the less-is-more Nashville Sound." - The New York Times
"As we emerge from the shadows of the past two years, this class of 25 Fellows helps us reimagine what's possible," said MacArthur Fellows managing director Cecilia Conrad in a statement. " - NPR
"The Taliban are being pressured on many issues like women's rights and journalists' safety, but there are no discussions about the rights and safety of artists. We can't raise our voice here, we are in hiding." - The Art Newspaper
For devotees of Stevens’s classic material, it can feel as though he’s making amends for having walked away from his music all those years ago. But is that really fair? Or true? - Washington Post
Atkins had been thinking for years about writing a memoir. "But it was only once the pandemic hit ... that she was able to get on with doing so. 'I’m ashamed to tell you that I had a wonderful lockdown,' she says. 'I absolutely loved the whole thing.'" - The Observer (UK)
As in, every single day. All the better to celebrate life, says the performance artist. "You have to think about what you’re going to leave society: as an artist you have that obligation. Because if you have a gift, you have to handle it carefully." - The Guardian (UK)
The NYT overlooked Varo (though anyone who's taken a 20th century art history course surely does not understand how) when she died. The Spanish surrealist's "style was reminiscent of Renaissance art in its exquisite precision, but her dreamlike paintings were otherworldly in tone." - The New York Times
