Death of a dancer: Karin von Aroldingen (1941-2018) 3
Jan
5
2018
If you love ballet … as I do … then it is with choking sadness (it is unbearably sad) to learn that we have lost the magisterial Balanchine ballerina Karin von Aroldingen who passed away at age 77 on January 5, 2018. She should not die. She was so utterly in control, at the same ...
Curtain-up on Curtiz retrospective @ UCLA Film & Television Archive
Jan
5
2018
Academy Award-winning director Michael Curtiz (1886-1962) whose best-known films include Casablanca (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945) directed over 180 films — 94 of them during more than a quarter-century at Warner Bros. He helmed tearjerkers, swashbuckling adventures, westerns, musicals, war epics, historical dramas, horror films, melodramas and film noir. Curtiz’s protean ...
Low-key & tasty: Kenny Burrell’s swinging guitar a generation ago today
Ed. note: Universal Music continues to mine the Verve catalog for jazz treasures. arts·meme jazz writer Kirk Silsbee shares his liner notes for‘’A Generation Ago Today.’ When Kenny Burrell’s A Generation Ago Today was released in the spring of 1967, a debate was raging in jazz. It was the dawn of the Age of Aquarius, ...
Kicking off 2018: Kyle Abraham
We like the always-evolving look of dancer/choreographer Kyle Abraham, who torques into a back layout dressed half-James Bond/half-garage mechanic in his camel-colored jumpsuit. A photo-portrait of Abraham by Los Angeles photographer Tatiana Wills got souped-up treatment on Facebook by J.G. Bocella. Fancy! Work the jumpsuit, Kyle. Jump!
Boom boom boom boom! New Year’s 2017 with Fred & Barrie 2
I like the way you walk … I like the way you talk … .. and I LOVE the way you dance. Hollywood dancer Barrie Chase (who was also a stunning clothes horse) wears an impeccable pink mini-dress as she traipses the stage of The Hollywood Palace with His Majesty, Fred Astaire. The date of ...
A bubbly New Year’s Day ‘Salute to Vienna’ concert
Vienna, we salute you! The timeless tunes of Johann Strauss, Franz Lehar and Emmerich Kálmán will bubble like champagne around the mellifluous chamber of Walt Disney Concert Hall in a traditional Viennese New Year’s Day afternoon concert. A mix of operetta, ballroom dance, and the delicate beauty of ballet with acclaimed European singers and dancers ...
Danny Ezralow opens hearts, minds through dance around the world
Choreographer Daniel Ezralow is a global citizen. The Los Angeles native speaks fluent Italian, and a smattering of Russian and Japanese, having directed and choreographed projects in all three countries — the massive 2015 Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony and Japanese Men’s Rhythmic Gymnastics among them. He’s currently a judge on a new Italian TV talent ...
You’re much too much, and just too ‘very, very,’ Frankie
In this holiday season, we show how Frankie does lyricist Harold Arlen SO RIGHT. You’re just too marvelous, too marvelous for words Like “glorious”, “glamorous” and that old standby “amorous”. It’s all too wonderful, I’ll never find the words That say enough, tell enough, I mean they just aren’t swell enough. You’re much too much, ...
At Zardi’s in Hollywood … with Ella Fitzgerald 1
Ed. note: Universal Music continues to mine the Verve catalog for Ella Fitzgerald material. arts·meme jazz writer Kirk Silsbee excerpts his liner notes to ‘Ella at Zardi’s.’ ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣ In his enviable career as a jazz entrepreneur, Norman Granz (1918-2001) balanced far-reaching vision and a social change agenda with shrewd business acumen. His ...
‘Darkest Hour’: Churchill again smokes cigars on The Queen Mary
Dec
15
2017
In WWII’s most harrowing days, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made several cross-Atlantic forays to convene with allies on our side of the pond. From the proverbial bowels of the noble Queen Mary, which now rests in retirement in the Port of Long Beach, Churchill persisted in running his war strategy. A party celebrating Darkest Hour, ...