"The album remains vital because musicians make it so. Shuffling -- the juxtaposition of songs at a computer's whim -- offers its own pleasures; hearing Ornette Coleman, then AC/DC, then Big Daddy Kane can really liven up a morning commute. But artistic intent deserves respect. If it's safe to assume your favorite band sequenced their latest batch of songs the way they did for a reason, then common courtesy demands that you listen 'in order.'"
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I reviewed Sonny Rollins’ Carnegie Hall concert last Tuesday for the New York Times. Short version: The first half, when Rollins played in trio with drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Christian McBride, was wondrous; the second half, with his usual sextet, had its moments but was comparatively a drag. I only hinted at this in the review, but the concert typified the puzzle that is Rollins’ career: why, in the past 40 of its 50-plus years, has this titan of the tenor saxophone—the most inventive living improviser in jazz—chosen to play so often with musicians so clearly beneath him?
One could…
Graphic representations of every object in our solar system with a diameter greater than 200 miles: One star, four gas giant planets, four terrestrial planets, three dwarf planets, 21 moons, four asteroids, and 51 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs).
Earth is the sixth largest object in our neighborhood—I should have known that.
The Lord of the Rings would have ended quite differently if Tolkien's drinking buddies hadn't talked him out of it.
The Christian Science Monitor took the occasion of Marcel Marceau's death to reprint its 1974 interview with the mime.
I saw Marceau in 1972 and, like almost everyone who saw him perform, was captivated. However, the Marceau moment I remember as most shocking was when he performed "Youth, Maturity, Old Age, and Death" on The Tonight Show. It was as riveting there as it was live, but Johnny Carson was wise enough to say nothing when it concluded. That moment of reverent dead air was absolutely shocking at the time—and awed silence was precisely the coin with which that performance deserved…
At recent hi-fi shows, you see, it has been said that Music Hall's Leland Leard shares with me a few things and traits. Though I have tried, like O.J., to outrun these claims, I have not completely succeeded. As it turns out, even when I am not at the hi-fi shows, my name is vulnerable to assault.
Rosemarie Torcivia, our sales coordinator, registered me for CEDIA. This was a small mistake. Though I would have liked to check out all the new gear, meet with industry people, perhaps catch a Rockies game, maybe crash a few parties, I, in fact, was here in the office,…
Melvin Jules Bukiet thinks NY's biggest borough has a soft gooey center. Oh yeah? I got yer soft gooey center right heah!