Eighteen minutes of dance greatness: James Brown, T.A.M.I Show (Oct 1964)
Fifty years ago! James Brown’s ballistic performance at the T.A.M.I. Show, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, October 28 and 29, 1964. Even standing still, James Brown is one of the greatest-ever American dancers. High-Heeled Sneakers Prisoner of Love Please Please Please Night Train Like this? Read more: James Brown’s rhythm ecstasy, Paris 1971 James Brown playlist, ...
The essence of tap is a rhapsody
Among the more quixotic ventures one might try, maintaining a tap dance company ranks somewhere between reviving the celluloid collar and loading mercury with a pitchfork. The degree of difficulty—in attracting and keeping good dancers, choreographing for their collective and individual talents, finding sympathetic musicians, securing a worthy facility, mounting shows, and obtaining funding—keeps growing. ...
Classical audacity at The Broad
There are three extraordinary opportunities to experience daring, innovative classical music at The Broad Stage this fall. First, the Isango Ensemble of South Africa re-imagines Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Then the local, stellar, Calder Quartet will perform twice, once with soprano Yulia Van Doran and then with film composer Bear Mcreary. The best Mozart operas ...
Dhani Harrison honors his Beatle dad @ Valley Performing Arts Center 1
Sep
21
2014
It was beyond beautiful, a huge pleasant jolt, in the midst of a wonderful, sold-out “The Fab Faux” Beatles tribute performance last night at Valley Performing Arts Center, when guest artist, Dhani Harrison, pictured at left, took to the stage. The only offspring of ‘the quiet Beatle’ strummed his guitar and honored his father by ...
Great performances overcome ‘Otello’ racist legacy @ ENO 2
I find Shakepeare’s Othello problematic in the extreme, all the racist references in the text, the historic use of blackface, the desperate fragility of a black man so easily duped by a white conniver, the hysteria around strong and bestial black hands closing around the white neck of the blameless Desdemona, even more so when ...
Fred Astaire, pianist
On this Labor Day weekend 2014, why not let Fred Astaire, pianist (and, oh yes, dancer), do all the work? Yet another incredible Fred Astaire dance sequence, this one from LET’S DANCE (1950). Just love Fred’s little ballet barre opening the number … then he gives a whirlwind “site-specific” dance tour of two pianos! Like ...
Welcome Beatles 1964 fifty years later @ Levitt Pavilion
Celebrate 50 years of the Beatles in the U.S. this weekend at Levitt Los Angeles with a unique Beatles retrospective featuring the Omega String Quartet, the same outstanding group that brought the largest show in the history of Levitt — the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Retrospective last summer, 2013. A psychedelic ...
The jazz strata of Ave Pildas 1
If you receive photographer Ave Pildas’s weekly e-blasts, you know the prolific nature of his work. His street snaps can be quirky, straightforward, unpredictable, ironic, reverent, whimsical, iconic, or just plain fun. He has an eye for the beautiful and the surreal but the transmissions often time to current events or seasonal observances. They show ...
Lil Buck pays back James Brown
JB’s immensely funky riff from 1973, “The Payback” given exceptional dance interpretation today — first by the quicksilver Lil Buck, then by a less brilliant partner Jon Boogz. While Boogz dances, Lil Buck upstages him by leaning against a wall. Then he cycles through for a second round at video-end.
James Brown’s rhythm-ecstasy, Paris 1971
Aug
6
2014
In the video: Fifteen minutes of free-form, ecstatic rhythm-rumination from the great James Brown performing at the Olympia auditorium in Paris in 1971. A re-creation of this amazing historic concert forms the high point of “Get On Up,” the touching James Brown bio-pic we saw tonight.