Steve Smith
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Rhys Chatham at Issue Project RoomThe New York Times, September 13, 2006 You can hear a recording of Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Trio on his MySpace page. It provides a sense of the piece’s architecture, but absolutely no clue as to how loud, dense and vibrant the music is in a live setting. Metal chairs vibrated…
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David Cote, Time Out New York‘s stylish, perceptive theater editor and critic (and a regular face on the New York 1 network), has joined the culture blogosphere with Histriomastix. I’ve always wished that I attended more live theater, and David has a knack for making me feel even more guilty about the lack. Welcome to…
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(Associated Press photograph from 2002.)
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New York City Opera – La bohèmeThe Shanghai Quartet at BargemusicThe New York Times, September 11, 2006
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Although I had to leave early for an evening assignment, I managed to catch the first few hours of Jen Stock’s ambitious, impressive Sound Art happening in Washington Square Park yesterday. Three movements of Carl Stone’s typically delicious Acid Bop, a skittering, juddering blast of jazz timbres gone all wacky, got things off to a…
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Ethan Iverson reflects on the results of his "Great Jazz Records 1973-1990" invitational. Pat Donaher provides a nicely executed (and beautifully titled) summary of the results — don’t skip out before his comments at the very end. I’m thrilled to see all this activity — and revisiting so many of my yesteryear favorites has definitely…
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A press release just received from Jazz Promo Services, which I’m sharing for obvious reasons: Nine Lives of Sonny Rollins Theodore Walter Rollins, aka Sonny, turns 76 today. To celebrate the birthday of the Saxophone Colossus, and the first anniversary of his website, nine rare video performances are posted on www.sonnyrollins.com for one week. Featured…
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As of tonight, I have a new theory as to why John Scofield makes his best intense-guitarist faces not during his own solos, but during those of his bandmates. Granted, it’s not based on a lot of empirical data, but the grimaces, startled looks and other choice expressions that played across Scofield’s face as he…
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That was the original title of my article about violinist-composer Jenny Scheinman in TONY a couple of weeks ago, on the occasion of her weekend hit at the Jazz Standard with Jason Moran and Paul Motian. As a fan of all three musicians, I had no idea how they might sound together; when I talked…
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Looking over Ethan Iverson’s gargantuan catalog of great jazz records issued between 1973 and 1990, I’m overwhelmed both by the sheer wealth of great music that was made during this critically neglected era, and also by the depth of passion and insight Ethan (and his bandmates) were demonstrating toward jazz at such an early stage…
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Tonight, Album arrived in New York City. My feelings as I sat awaiting in Joe’s Pub were a mix of paternalistic pride — knowing that my enthusiastic coverage of the group in TONY (here and here) had played some small role in their being booked for the Celebrate México Now! festival — and blind-date nervous…
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Sometimes it’s tough to keep life in proper balance. This week, I did some good, solid work, both at the writing table and away from it. But the toll was high: Burning far too many after-midnight candles, I ran myself down — physically, mentally and spiritually — to an untenable extent. I want to do…
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Over the weekend, I learned in a post by Kyle Gann that composer James Tenney had succumbed to lung cancer. I don’t know the bulk of Tenney’s music as well as I might, but I have a healthy respect for the recordings that I’ve heard, foremost among them the Frog Peak compilation on New World…
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The New York Grand Opera in Central Park – Suor Angelica and PagliacciThe New York Times, August 29, 2006
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CD review: Jay Greenberg – Symphony No. 5; Quintet for StringsLondon Symphony, conducted by José Serebrier; Juilliard String Quartet; Darrett Atkins, cellist.Sony Classical 82876-81804-2; CDThe New York Times, August 27, 2006(ArkivMusic, Barnes & Noble)
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I’m willing to grant, in accordance with Darcy James Argue‘s recent list of the "Top Four Tolerable Rock Sax Solos of All Time," that Sonny Rollins’s contribution to the Rolling Stones song "Waiting on a Friend" might not make the grade. (I’m on the fence about it personally, but I see Darcy’s point in the…
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Ears still pleasantly buzzing, I’m just in from a powerful triple-header at the Mercury Lounge downtown. The headliner, Red Sparowes, is one of those bands that gets lumped under the heading of "post-metal," which I just learned tonight via an entry at Wikipedia. Before now, we’ve been using the equally unspecific but somewhat more descriptive…
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"The first time that I met her, I was throwing up in the ladies’ room stall." Tim Kasher has a way with tossing off lines that sound like personal reminiscences, but which trigger a reflexive "I’ve been there," or at least an "I can imagine that." The phrase above opened Album of the Year, a…
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The Metropolitan Opera in Central Park – La TraviataThe New York Times, August 24, 2006
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Bard Music Festival, weekend twoThe New York Times, August 22, 2006 ===== Yes, well. I did promise — way back on July 24, to be precise — that just because I’d been afforded the privilege of observing things in an official capacity for the Times didn’t mean that I was abandoning this blog. And truthfully,…
Night After Night 