Steve Smith
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John Zorn – The Gnostic Preludes: Music of Splendor – Carol Emanuel, Bill Frisell, Kenny Wollesen (Tzadik) John Zorn – Alastor: Book of Angels, Volume 21 – Eyvind Kang plays Masada Book Two (Tzadik) John Zorn – The Hermetic Organ: St. Paul's Chapel, NYC (Tzadik) John Zorn – The Painted Bird (Tzadik) John Zorn –…
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Cloud Cult, by Graham Tolbert The week ahead: Rock & popThursday, April 7, 2016 2016 ROCK & ROLL RUMBLE Long viewed as the World Series of Boston rock, the Rumble rolls through the second half of its preliminary round, pitching heated battles among four worthy acts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. (Semifinals will be…
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Bruford – One of a Kind (Winterfold) Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 8 in C minor – Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Bernard Haitink (Decca) Marianne Schuppe – Slow Songs (Edition Wandelweiser) Mikheil Shugliashvili – Grand Chromatic Fantasy (Symphony) for three pianos – Tamriko Kordzaia, Tamara Chitadze, Nutsa Kasradze (Edition Wandelweiser) Christian Buck & Christian Wolfarth – The…
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Gogol Bordello The ticket: Pop musicSunday, April 4, 2016 2016 ROCK & ROLL RUMBLE Long viewed as the World Series of Boston rock, the Rumble rolls out its preliminary-round shows on Sunday night, pitching heated battles among four worthy acts every night except for Wednesday. (Semifinals will be held April 15 and 16, and the…
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Stories proliferate when a figure of some stature passes, but I hope you won't mind if I share a tale I've never told before. What follows is not an obituary by any stretch; for that you'll want to read the very fine Associated Press obit. This is nothing more than a personal memory I hadn't…
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Grateful Dead – 30 Trips Around the Sun: 26. Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, Sept. 10, 1991 (Grateful Dead/Rhino) Nordic Affect – Clockworking (Sono Luminus)> Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir – Clockworking; Sleeping Pendulum; Hildur Guðnadóttir – 2 Circles; Hafdís Bjarnadóttir – From Beacon to Beacon; Þuríður Jónsdóttir – INNI – Musica da Camera; Anna…
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Tau Cross The week ahead: Rock & popThursday, March 31, 2016 SAVAGES Having put itself on the map everywhere with the short sharp shock of 2013 debut “Silence Yourself,” this explosively innovative London postpunk quartet broadens its perspective on the newly issued “Adore Life.” The musical attack remains edgy and lacerating, but the sentiments now…
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Flatbush Zombies, by Theo Wargo/Getty Images Since last week, when Boston Globe staff music critic Sarah Rodman departed for sunnier climes, I've taken over writing the paper's twice-weekly concert picks in the pop and rock category. Anyone who knows about the 13 years I spent at Time Out New York also knows that I've had…
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Courtenay Budd, David Del Tredici, and Gil Rose with BMOP, by Kathy Wittman "Rose, BMOP wax ecstatic in glorious, unsettling 'Alice'"Boston Globe, February 27, 2016 There are times, and they are not infrequent, when I worry that I've lost my knack for doing the things I used to do regularly at The New York Times,…
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Grant Evans – Repose (Adversary) Skylark – Crossing Over (Sono Luminus; due March 25)> Daniel Elder – Elegy; John Tavener – Butterfly Dreams; Nicolai Kedrov – Otche Nash; Jón Leifs – Requiem; Robert Vuichard – Heliocentric Meditation; William Schuman – Carols of Death; Anna Thorvaldsdottir – Heyr þú oss himnum á; John Tavener – Funeral…
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David Del Tredici, among the bravest composers I've come to know over the years — and among the most personable, too, as this candid and chatty 2012 interview with Seth Colter Walls shows — celebrates his 79th birthday today, March 16. Next year, with luck, will bring a plethora of round-anniversary-year performances, but right now…
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Peter Maxwell Davies – Symphony No. 1; Mavis in Las Vegas – BBC Philharmonic/Peter Maxwell Davies (Naxos) Peter Maxwell Davies – Miss Donnithorne's Maggot; Eight Songs for a Mad King – Mary Thomas, Julius Eastman, The Fires of London/Peter Maxwell Davies (Unicorn) Peter Maxwell Davies – Violin Concerto – Isaac Stern, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/André Previn…
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Sarah Hennies – Gather & Release (Category of Manifestation; due April 5) Will by Julianna Barwick Julianna Barwick – "Nebula" (from Will) (Dead Oceans < Bandcamp; due May 6) Pitkin County Morning EP by Sam Moss Sam Moss – Pitkin County Morning EP (Bandcamp) Absence by Compilation of Iranian experimental music Various artists – Absence:…
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Duke Ellington – And His Mother Called Him Bill (RCA Bluebird) Dennis Johnson: November by R. Andrew Lee Dennis Johnson – November – R. Andrew Lee (Irritable Hedgehog) Grateful Dead – 30 Trips Around the Sun: 28. Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY, March 27, 1993 (Grateful Dead/Rhino) King Crimson – Lizard (DGM) Kansas – HSBC Brasil,…
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Allston Pudding Localz Only Late Winter Mix MMXVI by Allston Pudding Various artists – Allston Pudding Localz Only Late Winter Mix MMXVI (Allston Pudding < Bandcamp) Steve Reich – Music for 18 Musicians – Synergy Vocals, Ensemble Ictus/Georges-Elie Octors (BelAir DVD: Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker – Rain – Ballet de l'Opèra National de Paris) Francis…
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Coheed & Cambria, by Ben Stas for the Boston Globe "Coheed & Cambria, unmasked but still heroic at House of Blues"Boston Globe, February 24, 2016 Long months after I spoke with Claudio Sanchez about The Color Before the Sun, the revealing newest album from prog-punk quartet Coheed & Cambria, for the Rolling Stone website last…
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Anthony Davis, the estimable American composer, pianist, and bandleader born in Paterson, NJ, on February 20, 1951, celebrates his 65th birthday today. Having declined an invitation to join the Grateful Dead as a 20-year-old Yale student in 1971 (an incident reported in 2011 by George Varga in the San Diego Union-Tribune), Davis initially came to…
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self | space by brian archinal Brian Archinal – self | space (self-released < Bandcamp)> Trevor Bača – Poème récursif; Jordan Munson – How Long Is the Coast of France?; Edmund Campion – A Different Kind of Measure; Peter Ablinger – Regenstück 1-6; Trevor Bača – Poème récursif (mix 2) ProjeKct Three – The Birchmere,…
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The eminent Hungarian composer György Kurtág turns 90 today, and — it's reported by his publisher, Editio Musica Budapest — remains hard at work on a magnum opus, the Beckett-based opera Fin de partie. In wishing him robust health, I offer in tribute a small handful of useful links, including an outstanding Jeremy Eichler profile…
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Ben Ratliff; photo by Kate Fox Reynolds Last night I had the welcome and happy opportunity to interview Ben Ratliff, the New York Times music critic and a longtime friend and colleague, for an attentive audience at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge. The subject was Ben's new book, Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to…
Night After Night 