CONCERT REVIEW Joshua Redman at Berklee Performance Center
Joshua Redman has high notes. He has low notes. He has trills. I could go further, and talk about brilliant expressionism, the emotive quality of his playing and that of his ensemble. It’s easy to hear that he knows how to make “jazz.”
Staff Picks
<b><i>Sam Markson</i></b>: “I’m eyeing the program at <i>Ryles</i> this week. Also check out some of the shows at <i>Berklee</i> (big stage and small — a lot of them free). For you theatrical types, check out <i>The Corn is Green</i> at the <i>Huntington</i> (see article), Chekhov’s <i>The Seagull</i> at the <i>Zero Arrow Theatre</i>, and Howard Zinn’s <i>Daughter of Venus</i> at <i>Boston Playwrights’ Theatre</i> (great for families, I hear).”
CONCERT REVIEW Hope at the End of Things
Hearing the all-star cast of the Tashi quartet (Peter Serkin, Ida Kavafian, Fred Sherry, and Richard Stoltzman) record Messiaen’s quartet in 1976 feels much like looking at pictures of your parents before they had any children. Each of these musicians has gone on to an illustrious musical careers of his own, and this particular recording was made before much of their serious careers as musicians. Although younger at the time of this recording, the quartet realizes Messiaen’s work with a mature exuberance and an intense attention to motive and detail that vaulted Messiaen’s music to the fame it currently enjoys: the vast litany of recordings of the work all seem to begin with this one in mind. Though this is an older recording, there is still no surprise that it was recommended by Alex Ross in his recent work, “The Rest is Noise”.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ Portrait of a City
Tokyo!” is a three-part film connected only by the Japanese capital and the eerie strangeness of the unconventional, distinctive portrayals. All three directors’ contributions provoke investigation of the supernatural and fantastic, while maintaining the underlying themes of self-discovery and human relationships.
What I’m Listening To
The story of jazz is a desperate struggle of birth and rebirth, of constantly trying to ride the “new,” of reinventing how we feel and relate to the world. Today’s innovators fuse genres, add instruments, at once rejecting the past and later resurrecting it. The jazz gods need constant infusions of blood to stay happy.
CD REVIEW Who Can Turn Skies Back and Begin Again?
Who would’ve ever thought George Crabbe? In fact: who’d ever heard of George Crabbe?
Staff Picks
<b><i>Sam Markson:</i></b><i> </i>“Gilfema and Either/Orchestra look solid, Wednesday and Saturday nights this week at the Regattabar. Also check out Chekhov’s <i>The Seagull</i> at the Zero Arrow Theatre.
CONCERT REVIEW Hiromi’s SonicBloom at Berklee Performance Center
I could say that Hiromi Uehara is one part Santana, one part Robert Fripp, and one part Monk, but it wouldn’t do her justice. Brought up in the Japanese conservatory environment and trained at Berklee (joining in 2003), Hiromi has carved out her distinctive musical niche by marrying her traditional, virtuosic training with an avant-garde flavor.
CONCERT REVIEW Bad Plus Play Residency at New York’s Village Vanguard
A little business, a lot of casual. The members of The Bad Plus look less like performers than the awkward guys who forgot to dress up for the dinner party that is 9:00 at the Village Vanguard. Thirty-something yuppies sip at their Cabernet Sauvignon while three dudes jam in the corner. Go to a Bad Plus show and you’ll be as likely to hear a Nirvana cover as a heavily warped version of a Ligeti composition. Bassist Reid Anderson wails out surreal, textured lines while drummer David King lays out a frenetic beat complete with baby toy tambourines and other contraptions as garnishes. Rock out with your Jazz-Purists’-Shock out. Jazz you can almost dance to?
FESTIVAL REVIEW ‘First Night’ Celebration Electrifies Boston
I boarded the 12:30 December 31 New York-Boston bus at the Port Authority, as my peers in line scoffed “I wonder why so many people are going to Boston for New Years.” At the time, that made sense. I had initially planned to stay in New York, but convenience and fatigue turned the Peter Pan bus line into an inexpensive and only slightly sketchy hotel. I knew vaguely that there was an arts festival in Boston on December 31 — the so-called “First Night” — and that it had some pretty slick events. I was down, and I was looking forward to sleeping in a bed that belonged to me.
CONCERT REVIEW Experimental Antics at the Middle East
As I write this, I have yet to form a solid opinion of the Providence-based punk / showtunes / experimental outfit The Viennagram. At once the group is pretentious and unpolished. Its wisdoms are coal on the verge of becoming pearls, sometimes hitting, but often missing. It’s a spaghetti-on-the-wall philosophy, one that, for all but the most virtuosic, is better left for the rehearsal room than for the concert hall.
CONCERT REVIEW Always Skillful, Often Breathtaking
The much-celebrated Emerson String Quartet performed in Boston last Friday, playing a mostly Dvorák concert that, through the juxtaposition of blasé and breathtaking, demonstrated concert magic.
BOOK REVIEW The Latest (and Earliest) From Kerouac and Burroughs
If you laughed along with Sal Paradise in On The Road, feared the conniving Dr. Benway in Naked Lunch, and saluted the iconoclastic verses of America, then you’re undeniably a Beatnik. While Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg are arguably the three most important authors of the Beat Generation, they are also our default historians of a transitional time period in the United States. Their uninhibited, jazz-inspired prose revealed a candid portrait of a class of people who embraced life in growing cities and welcomed experimentation.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ Eye Candy and Nothing Else
When my friends and I made our way to the “Twilight” premiere, we decided that we were going to act like teenyboppers and blend in with the hordes of high-schoolers and possibly middle-schoolers that we predicted would be present. To our great surprise, half of the audience comprised of college students who were unabashedly hardcore fans. But regardless of age, the majority of the audience at the “Twilight” premiere was female. I estimated a total of 5 percent y-chromosomes, loosely consisting of fathers picking up their daughters, boyfriends of avid fans, and the occasional feminine-looking hipster.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ Escaping the Slums
I was a little skeptical walking into a movie centered on the premise of finding a lost love. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m not a fan of the romance genre. I decided to go into “Slumdog Millionaire” with an open mind and was pleasantly surprised.
CONCERT REVIEW Love, Politics, and … Motherhood
The Little Folk-singer isn’t so little anymore: with more than sixteen studio albums in her catalogue, ownership of her independent label Righteous Babe Records, and now a mother to a two-year-old daughter, Ani Difranco has built a career that’s unparalleled by that of any other female solo artist. Her poignant lyrics are both bitingly honest and elegant, a result of her prior study of poetry at The New School. Erin McKeown supported DiFranco last Sunday at Symphony Hall, playing a short set of simple yet clever songs with just one guitar and her voice. She opened with a fast-paced tune in which she questioned “what kind of lover am I?”
CONCERT REVIEW The Past and Future of Music:
Part of the joy of listening to contemporary music is to have the composer as reference and concordance for the works. For those trying to discover a suitable niche for Ezra Sims work on Friday evening’s Boston Musica Viva Concert, Mr. Sims delivered such a discussion on his piece <i>Four Landscapes</i> (2008). Speaking at Boston University’s Tsai Center for the Performing Arts, where the concert was held, he described <i>Landscapes</i> as a microtonal piece utilizing twelve-tone principles. As crucial as this exegesis was, what was particularly informative were Mr. Sim’s thoughts on how these pieces fit within his entire opus. Comparing himself to Chopin, he observed that this work was his “so-called Preludes.”
ALBUM REVIEW East from the Midwest
Chicago-based trio Pillars & Tongues don’t just play together: they talk to each other, critique each other, and advise each other—with their instruments, of course. Their frank, uninhibited musical conversations have been compiled onto a disc entitled <i>Protection</i>, released just last month on the Contraphonic imprint.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ 1/2 Sex, Rocket Launchers, and Emotional Baggage
If “The Notebook” humped a car chase, the unholy spawn that was produced would be “Quantum of Solace.” Much like a Miss USA contestant named Mildred, the latest Bond film is visually impressive, has a stupid name, and is pretty much devoid of substance. While it features top-shelf action and is extremely exciting throughout, the latest incarnation of James Bond simply lacks the cool confidence that sets the franchise apart from every other secret agent thriller.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★★ Dense, Lurid Memory
Wong Kar-Wai may be the most unjustly categorized filmmaker alive: it’s easy to see his movies as little more than small, dizzying portraits of love, loss, and romance — as mood pieces.