Ella and Basie, reunited by Basie band & Lizz Wright at The Soraya
Lizz Wright, Basie orchestra ed. note: This story by music writer Kirk Silsbee, commissioned and originally published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, has been excerpted with permission. The Count Basie Orchestra band has not just outlived the big band era, it has thrived. This is no ghost band; its last ...
The Huntington’s people of color: the Blue Boys 1
Nov
1
2021
Kehinde Wiley’s “A Portrait of a Young Gentleman” (2021) (© Kehinde Wiley, collection of the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, and commissioned through Roberts Projects, Los Angeles) Funny … they don’t look Blueish. But both are dandies. And there they are, well hung, in Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Garden‘s Thornton Portrait ...
Call in The Police! Stewart Copeland & Re-Collective Orchestra in ‘derangements’ 2
stewart copeland, the police deranged ed. note: This story by music writer Kirk Silsbee was commissioned and originally published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts. Excerpted with permission. No band electrified audiences in the 1970s and ‘80s like The Police. Omnipresent on the airwaves, they had arenas pulsing across the globe. ...
Still burning bright: Paul Taylor Dance Company & ‘Fantasia,’ both to Bach
Lisa Viola, Michael Trusnovec, original cast, “Promethean Fire,” PTDC Sara Krulwich/New York Times The light illuminating the dancers in the photo above is the result of a myriad micro-decisions made by a great theatrical artist of our time. Jennifer Tipton, the acclaimed lighting designer and longtime collaborator of the choreographer Paul Taylor (1930-2018), is slated ...
Highwire jazz interplay: Branford Marsalis Quartet soon at The Soraya
photo: Branford Marsalis Quartet by Palma Kolansky, courtesy of The Soraya ed. note: This story by jazz writer Kirk Silsbee was commissioned and originally published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts. Excerpted with permission. The timeless swing of the Count Basie Orchestra, the pure vocals of Lizz Wright, and the vibrant ...
The lion sleeps tonight. Then he roars. Then he dances.
The lion roars at Clifton’s Cafeteria, relaunching in downtown L.A.photo: Harald Kanz Bradley Shelver in Japanese Spear Dance by Ted Shawn (1919)photo Julie Lemberger Tough times bring out the beast. There were lion viewings on both Coasts two weekends ago. On the Left Coast, the lion roars in a new installation at recently re-re-furbished Clifton’s ...
Wild! ‘Silent Disco’ at Segerstrom Center
Oct
22
2021
Yeah, it’s spooky. A bunch of people zoned-out and twitching like Night of the Living Dead zombies, only, more or less, to a beat. Kick off next “Halloweekend” with a round of bootie-shaking at a silent disco. And help our planet have less noise pollution! It’s happening on the friendly public square at Segerstrom Center ...
Looks so good! Opening-night movie as GERMAN CURRENTS Film Festival returns
Oct
12
2021
Madame Houpflé (Maria Furtwängler) in Confessions of Felix Krull (2021 Los Angeles is somewhat unsteadily getting back onto its feet as the international capital of film that it is. And here comes the German Currents Film Festival. We’re electrified! The return of in-personal screenings (there is also a virtual option for stay-at-homes) is frankly joyful. ...
What is this man thinking? Go see ‘Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn’ 2
Radu Jude, director of BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN Photo credit: Silviu Ghetie. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures He resembles an Every Man, doesn’t he? Someone Bertolt Brecht might portray in a play — set in the good old days, the 1930s. He is the contemporary Romanian film director, Radu Jude, who, borrowing from ...
On Esa-Pekka envy & the glory of Ory Shihor
Classical music notes … Esa-Pekka Salonen‘s departure after “helming” the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 17 years was sad. I’m not over it! But at least he’s been tucked away, out of range, in faraway London. Now, in a shock to the classical music world and a great coup for the city of San Francisco, he ...