[contextly_auto_sidebar id="4kKdYZoxCdDYt0tlY8PDmS0mVgEBCQX8"] The Brooklyn Academy of Music will soon host an odd hybrid performance recently put on at UCLA's Royce Hall, Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films. Curated by my friend Dean Wareham, the show, which included legendary guitarist Tom Verlaine and Bradford Cox of Deerhunter and others, was mixed-to-brilliant, depending on who was … [Read more...]
The Enigma of Acting, and Longing for Adelaide
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="32rmFQIcwhA54BeHtYSmHSIWsnR6KSaz"] WHAT drives actors to do what they do? Can they inflict real and lasting emotional pain while transforming themselves? And has science been able to document and quantify any of this? These questions are explored in a long, nuanced new story on the Atlantic’s Health channel. Sitting behind this story, of course, is the recent … [Read more...]
Jazz Telepathy: Fred Hersch and Julian Lage
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="WMgTBTUIttMzmXda37fW7vFebFeMPq8h"] LAST night I was lucky enough to catch jazz pianist Fred Hersch and guitarist Julian Lage in the kind of duet setting that captured not only what's best about jazz, but about chamber music and "Americana" as well. For two chordal instruments to stay out of each others' way is not easy, but this exceeded my high expectations, … [Read more...]
Brilliant Chamber Music Series
SINCE I first fell hard for classical music in my mid-20s, my favorite style to see live is chamber music. Early on, I think that came from my love of seeing rock n roll and small-combo jazz in small clubs. The intimacy of a string quartet in, say, an old stone church had some of the same energy and directness.In recent years, perhaps the best venue for chamber music I've found is the Clark … [Read more...]
Kenny Burrell and The Future of Jazz
LAST week I wrote a story about the jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, who celebrates his 80th birthday with a concert at Royce Hall on Saturday. In the course of it, I corresponded with music historian Ted Gioia about Burrell and some related issues concerning the past and future of the art form.I've included here our exchange. Gioia's The History of Jazz, on Oxford University Press, was recently … [Read more...]
Kenny Burrell and the Jazz Guitar
RECENTLY I had the pleasure to walk down memory lane with one of my musical heroes, who marked his 80th birthday over the summer and is still going strong.Here is my story on jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, who will mark that milestone with a concert on Saturday Nov. 12. Burrell's playing is a very elegant and disciplined take on the blues.Burrell told me a lot of interesting stuff -- including that … [Read more...]
Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus
THE other day I was lucky enough to speak to Sonny Rollins, the tenor saxophone legend who performs at UCLA's Royce Hall tonight, Thursday, and at Segerstrom Hall in Orange County on Sunday.These days, the once-brash, mohawk-rocking Rollins is 81, and, he's many decades from authoritative, agenda-setting records like Saxophone Colossus and Way Out West.But the Rollins I spoke to was easy to speak … [Read more...]
New Offerings at UCLA
WHEN I moved to the Eastside five years ago, the main think I knew I'd miss from my more central position in the city was the cultural stuff at UCLA. The last few days -- which has seen a new schedule for UCLA Live and a season preview at the Hammer Museum -- reminds me just how much is going on there.One of the best developments since I landed here 13 years ago has been Ann Philbin's revival of … [Read more...]
Shocked and Appalled at UCLA
David Sefton -- generally the most intriguing and unpredictable of Los Angeles' arts showmen -- has resigned from his post running the UCLA Live series that takes place at Royce Hall and other venues. Sefton, a native of Liverpool, is being coy about this, but it's hard not to imagine that someone as passionate about his programming, and about his particularly fervent niche of high and low, … [Read more...]