Steve Smith
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My contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the January 20, 2020 issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates January 15-21. (Links lead to detailed listings on the New Yorker website.) Chamber Music Society of Lincoln CenterKaplan Penthouse, Lincoln Center; Jan. 16 at 7:30 Karlheinz Stockhausen's visionary Kontakte anchors a fine program…
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Get your flu shot. Don’t delay.
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Missy Mazzoli (Photograph: Marylene Mey) A little more than a decade ago, when I was at the Metropolitan Opera to see Leoš Janáček's From the House of the Dead, I spotted the composer Missy Mazzoli passing by in the outer lobby. We'd known each other for a few years by then, and waved to one…
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A weekly tally of memorable things Steve Smith has stuck in his ears.Published on National Sawdust Log. Reality Rounds by Alex Dowling Alex Dowling – Reality Rounds – Chris Douthitt, Alex Dowling, Emma O'Halloran, Annika Socolofsky, Pascal Le Boeuf (Carrier; due Jan. 31, 2020) Chris Dingman – Embrace (Inner Arts; due March 6, 2020. Details…
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Various authoritative sources are reporting the death of Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, who died on January 7 in Santa Monica after a closely guarded three-and-a half year battle with glioblastoma. Being an American drummer of a certain age, I can't overstate the impact Peart's spectacular virtuosity and precision had on me and my…
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Say hello to my first obsession of 2020: "King of Thumbs," a selection from Reality Rounds, a new album by the composer and vocalist Alex Dowling. I find this realization of a cybernetic vocal consort – created by four singers individually equipped with AutoTune and other effects, and synthesizer accompaniment – completely mesmerizing. In this…
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Tiger Trio Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY January 4, 2020General admission Personnel: Joëlle Léandre, bass, vocalsMyra Melford, pianoNicole Mitchell, flute, alto flute, piccolo Back in the heyday of live jazz on New York City's 52nd Street, from the end of Prohibition in 1933 until the early '50s, the Three Deuces occupied a…
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My contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the January 13, 2020 issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates January 8-14. (Links lead to detailed listings on the New Yorker website.) New York PhilharmonicDavid Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center; Jan. 9 at 7:30, Jan. 10 at 2, Jan. 11 at 8 Conductor…
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A weekly tally of memorable things Steve Smith has stuck in his ears.Published on National Sawdust Log. Ralph Vaughan Williams – A Pastoral Symphony; Symphony No. 4 – BBC Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins (Hyperion. Audio samples here.) Jo Kondo – Works for Piano – Satoko Inoue (hat[now]ART; 2001) Musica Nova Contemplativa by Winfried Muhlum-Pyrapheros Winfried Mühlum-Pyrápheros…
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On a gloomy morning in an uncertain world, finding some measure of joyous reassurance in the ecstatic whoops and whorls of Gabriella Smith's 'Carrot Revolution,' played emphatically by @aizuriquartet. https://t.co/tHyqNOJNx3 via @YouTube — Steve Smith (@nightafternight) January 3, 2020 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Gabriella Smith is a composer other composers evidently like to recommend, to their listeners and…
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My contributions to the Goings On About Town section in the January 6, 2020 issue of The New Yorker, covering the dates January 1-7. (Links lead to detailed listings on the New Yorker website.) James MooreThe Stone at the New School; Jan. 2-4 at 8:30 Guitarist James Moore's Stone residency is brief but eventful:…
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Happy New Year to you and yours! Here's to achieving great new things in 2020.
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A weekly tally of memorable things Steve Smith has stuck in his ears. John Luther Adams – The Wind in High Places (Cold Blue; 2015) > The Wind in High Places – JACK Quartet; Canticles of the Sky – Northwestern University Cello Ensemble/Hans Jørgen Jensen; Dream of the Canyon Wren – JACK Quartet Oceans Roar…
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David Tudor: Forest SpeechPerformed by Lea Bertucci, John Driscoll, Ed Potokar, Margaret Anne Schedel, and Philip WhiteMuseum of Modern Art, New York, NYNovember 17, 2019 Sunday afternoon, after my daughter attended a performance of David Tudor's Forest Speech at the Museum of Modern Art with her mother and me, I asked her what she'd thought.…
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Dead & Company Madison Square Garden, New York, NY November 1, 2019 Section 210, Row 12, Seat 2 Personnel: Bob Weir, guitar & vocals Bill Kreutzmann, drums Mickey Hart, percussion John Mayer, guitar & vocals Oteil Burbridge, bass, vocals, drums Jeff Chimenti, keyboards & vocalsMaggie Rogers, guest vocals (*) First set: Cold Rain and SnowHell…
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A weekly tally of memorable things Steve Smith has stuck in his ears. Roland Kayn – A Little Electronic Milky Way of Sound (Frozen Reeds; 2017) Love Will Find A Way Home by PAT PAT (Jacolby Satterwhite & Nick Weiss) – Love Will Find a Way (Pioneer Works Press; 2019) Odds Against Tomorrow by Bill…
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Among the many, many things to admire about the newly expanded Museum of Modern Art – which officially opens to the public on Monday, Oct. 21, but actually had a secret soft opening on Sunday, Oct. 20 – is an installation of Rainforest V (variation 1), as conceived by the iconic experimental composer/performer David Tudor,…
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>>news added to the end of this post…<< The Morton Feldman Piano box by Philip Thomas on Another Timbre unquestionably is among this year’s foremost achievements… but Philip has another new CD that's worth your attention, as well: as if as features original compositions and Derek Bailey transcriptions (!!) by Chris Burn, just out on…
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Fall and all attendant memoriesCrowd the day with unrelated historiesEach year leaves its unresolving fantasiesTo hang around each cornerHang around each street. Thick with ghosts, the wind whips round in circuitriesCarrying words as strangers exchange pleasantriesDo they intrude upon your private reveriesAs they meet you on each cornerMeet you on each street. Watch for daily…
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Dead & CompanyCiti Field, Flushing, NYJune 23, 2019Section 122, Row 22, Seat 2 Personnel: Bob Weir, guitar & vocalsBill Kreutzmann, drumsMickey Hart, percussionJohn Mayer, guitar & vocalsOteil Burbridge, bass, vocals, drumsJeff Chimenti, keyboards & vocals First set: St. StephenCold Rain and SnowSamson and DelilahHigh TimeThey Love Each OtherRamble On RoseSugareeJack Straw Second set: Terrapin Station…
Night After Night 