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Why does a hive's queen act so, um, unladylike? It turns out that's an interesting question—and not the only one.
"my youth i shall never forget
but there s nothing i really regret
wotthehell wotthehell
there s a dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai"
but there s nothing i really regret
wotthehell wotthehell
there s a dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai"
My first entry in this blog, six weeks ago to the day, was a news flash that Sonny Rollins, the greatest living improviser in jazz, will play at Carnegie Hall on Sept. 18 in a trio with the monumental drummer Roy Haynes and the agile bassist Christian McBride—a one-night stand that no jazz fan could stand missing.
I now hear that the tickets will go on sale this Monday, at Carnegie’s website, over the phone (212-247-7800), or at its box office (57th St. & 7th Avenue). They are likely to sell out quickly.
I have a story in the Arts & Leisure section of today’s New York Sunday Times about Charles Mingus and Art Pepper—specifically about the happy accident that these two famously self-absorbed jazz legends married women who became equally absorbed in preserving their legacies.
The article is pegged to three new CDs of previously unreleased concerts—Mingus at Cornell in 1964, Pepper at Abashiri, Japan, in ’81, and at the Kool Jazz Festival in D.C. (the last performance of his life) in ’82. My article is more a profile of their flame-keeping widows—Sue Mingus and Laurie Pepper—than a…
Born in poverty on the outskirts of Barquisimeto in the Venezuelan interior, Gustavo Dudamel has become what Simon Rattle calls "the most astonishingly gifted conductor I have ever come across."
Zbigniew Herbert’s Collected Poems, 1956-1998 is good news for those of us who have long admired his poetry. Or so I thought, until I read David Orr's NYT article about the Alissa Valles translations used in the new book.
It seemed to me that John and Bogdana Carpenter's translation embodied Herbert's voice—although, of course, I don't have the Polish to truly judge. Just because I can, here's a link to the Carpenters' translation of my favorite Herbert poem, "I Would Like to Describe".