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Joys of a Primer On Tempo and Tone
Today’s tax-slashing politicians, all too eager to cut school and other budgets, tend to think of the arts as frills, if not downright tools of subversion. Students in public schools, especially in urban areas, are getting less and less grounding in the arts, and often none at all. Keep reading »
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The Pied Piper of Jazz
The Pied Piper of Jazz : You can call Wynton Marsalis an accomplished musician, a great teacher or a respected bandleader, but his friends just call him Hoghead. Keep reading »
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Kathleen Battle, Jazz Headliner
What was Kathleen Battle doing as the headliner in the first concert of the season for Jazz at Lincoln Center? She was singing spirituals and lullabies, mostly. In what qualified as a pops concert for the jazz series, she was drawing a crowd to Avery Fisher Hall on Tuesday night (and performing at Lincoln Center after a public falling-out with the Metropolitan Opera). Keep reading »
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New Tricks Introduced For a Cause
Benefit concerts can bring out unusual behavior in performers. Freed from the responsibility of being a sole headliner, they can try new things or team up for one-time-only collaborations, even if fans still yell for the hits. At the Paramount on Sunday night, Pete Townshend played piano in public for the first time; Paul Simon sang harmony with him on “The Kids Are All Right.” Wynton Marsalis, famed for his jazz purism, lent trumpet solos to “You Can Call Me Al”; in the same song, Annie Lennox delivered a verse in a thick Scottish accent, while Mr. Townshend suddenly turned into a hoofer. The concert raised $850,000 for the Children’s Health Fund, which provides medical care for poor children. Keep reading »
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The Battle of the Bands, Part Two
Silence played a big part in the Battle of the Bands, a showdown between the jazz orchestras of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center on Friday night at Avery Fisher Hall. The concert, in its second year as part of the JVC Jazz Festival, featured two orchestras at their peak. Keep reading »
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Stop Nitpicking a Genius
IN THE OLD MASONIC HALL BEING USED AS A RECORDING STUDIO, WYNTON Marsalis tells the band to take a 10-minute break, steps down from the podium, comes over and gives me a hug. We sit down in the old theater seats. Keep reading »
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Bill Cosby Leads Benefit For Jazz at Lincoln Center
One thing Lincoln Center’s benefit for its jazz program at Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday night proved was that Bill Cosby, the night’s M. C., wasn’t to be challenged. Keep reading »
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Marsalis Officiates As Classical Weds Jazz
Lincoln Center’s executives have for years been trying to arrange marriages, or at least trysts, between the center’s constituents, and on Sunday afternoon at Alice Tully Hall one of these unions bore fruit. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center collaborated on a program that brought together jazz-inspired classics and improvisations in classic jazz styles. Keep reading »
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Out of the Comfort Zone, On to New Adventures
TODAY IN ALICE TULLY Hall, Wynton Marsalis faces one of his toughest challenges yet. And for a while at least, the magnetic jazz and classical trumpeter won’t even be allowed to pick up his horn. He’ll have to sit in the audience with everybody else and face the music, as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents the premiere of his new work for string quartet, “(At the) Octoroon Ball.” Keep reading »
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A Luxuriance of Twyla Tharp
Rather than pay tribute to dead choreographers and composers, import guest stars or rush patrons to a dinner where the flower arrangements are as important as the program, American Ballet Theater opted for a change of pace on the gala scene. Keep reading »
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