TODAY I have been trying to move on to other things, but can’t get the memory of last night’s Charlie Haden/ Liberation Music Orchestra concert out of my mind. There are too many things to contemplate here, but let me offer a few stray thoughts. Overall: While this night was by no means perfect – there were minor technical problems early on, the musician most of us had come to see was in such … [Read more...]
Celebrating Charlie Haden
TUESDAY night in Los Angeles will see both a celebratory and a sad occasion: The jazz titan Charlie Haden – the lyrical bass player, free-jazz pioneer, crucial collaborator to Ornette Coleman and others, father to a four Los Angeles indie rockers, founder of CalArts jazz program – will lead his Liberation Music Orchestra at REDCAT. It has special music since this group – which Haden began in 1969 … [Read more...]
The Roots of an Opera Singer
For my latest Influences column, I speak to left-of-the-dial opera soprano Juliana Snapper, who will be part of a festival of new work at REDCAT starting this Thursday.Snapper's work, some of which she's created with LA artist Ron Athey, is pretty out there. She was part of what's considered the world's first underwater opera, for instance.I found her down-to-earth and easy to talk to, and was … [Read more...]
The Roots of Sandra Bernhard
MY Influences column in the LA Times always tries to be unpredictable, but this time I think we've really gotten there.This installment on Sandra Bernhard -- whose REDCAT show last year was one of the highlights of the season -- begins with John Updike, for instance. The singer/comedian/Letterman mainstay is working a new show at REDCAT this month.(By the way, in the last two nights I have seen … [Read more...]
The Roots of a Polymath: Lars Jan
FOUNDER of the Los Angeles avant-gartde performance group Early Morning Opera, Lars Jan is a polymath interested in a lot of things, especially our era in which screens of various kinds have infiltrated both public and private spaces.We spoke about the age of the screen, as well as some of his artistic models -- everyone from Gerhard Richter to Fellini -- for my Influences column. Here is that … [Read more...]
Choreographer Meg Wolfe
A DARING and musically radical dance piece is coming to REDCAT next week. I imagine there is so much avant-garde work coming regularly through this little performance spaced nudged into the corner of Walt Disney Concert Hall that many of us tend to take it for granted. But this piece -- trembler.SHIFTER -- sounds truly rad, as the kids say.I had the chance to correspond with the piece's … [Read more...]