Line-up of geniuses: West Side Story’s Broadway creative/production team
The West Side Story Broadway production team in 1957: (l. to r.) lyricist Stephen Sondheim, scriptwriter Arthur Laurents, producers Hal Prince and Robert Griffith (seated), composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins. (click for detail) Thank you, songbook1, for posting this photo. Like this? Read more: Not a Jet, but still the swingingest thing: George ...
The Juilliard School tells you everything you always wanted to know about Swan Lake but were afraid to ask
The survival, let alone the mystique, of the ballet, Swan Lake, is a phenomenon few would have predicted at its premiere in Moscow in 1877 — which was a flop. Wikipedia notes [with added commentary]: The premiere of Swan Lake on March 4, 1877, was given as a benefit performance for the ballerina Pelageya Karpakova ...
Don’t ask Terrance McKnight to dance. He won’t. Even though he’s throwing a radio dance party. 4
Aug
31
2011
To the waning notes of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” overture, WQXR disc jockey Terrance McKnight tugs gently on a control panel lever. He segues into a romp by Luigi Boccherini, noting that the 18th century cellist/composer was an “insubordinate employee”; a typical McKnightian factoid drop-in. The former Morehouse music professor’s dark velvet voice paves the ...
Talk about sibling rivalry! “Mozart’s Sister” at NYC’s Cinema Village 3
Just suppose that you’re young and gifted; hey, you’re a freaking musical prodigy. Not only that, you are extremely beautiful. You play the harpsichord like an demon, fiddle with the best of them, sing angelically, and “hear notes in your head” even though you’re not quite sure how to “write them down.” You’re well on ...
Jacaranda’s lovely musical edge
Aug
3
2011
It was one of those heaven-sent Sunday afternoons in Los Angeles — the ambient temperature so idyllic that you floated freely without a modicum of pushback from Mother Nature. And in this effortless environment, we very much enjoyed an afternoon of plein air classical music, courtesy of Jacaranda, Music at the Edge. In a garden ...
She’s a rainbow, strums Gary Lucas at the Grammy Museum
Jul
26
2011
The instant Gary Lucas put his hand to his acoustic guitar and blasted into “She’s a Rainbow,” I took off into the stratosphere. A one-way ticket to pleasure-ville. I had forgotten this great Rolling Stones anthem — a love paean by Jagger/Richards dedicated to their flower-child cohorts. She comes in colours. The globe-trotting musician played ...
Docu honors Gospel music, born in America, underpinning jazz and blues
Jul
3
2011
As a teen, I had my first exposure to gospel music listening to Sunday broadcasts on Pittsburgh’s black radio station, WAMO. So I wouldn’t miss the documentary film, Rejoice & Shout: Those beautifully named gospel singing groups — The Mighty Clouds of Joy, The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Soul Stirrers. Why don’t dance companies have ...
Mick Jagger’s ‘Exile,’ says fellow traveler John Van Hamersveld, named in downtown Los Angeles 1
Who knew? When we were high school kids in suburban Pittsburgh in 1972, devouring the images on the cover of The Rolling Stones’s unspeakably great double album, “Exile on Main Street,” who knew that 39 years later, in a Los Angeles art gallery, I’d have a nice chat with the graphic artist who created the ...
Sassy. Sarah Vaughan.
Jun
23
2011
Sarah Vaughan deconstructs the great standard, “I’ll Remember April.” Tune by Gene de Paul, lyrics by Patricia Johnston and Don Raye.
Washingtonians wrap up China tour in Hangzhou 1
Tonight in Hangzhou, the historic resort city on the West Lake, now a bastion of high-tech industry: the final performance of the three-week tour of Central China by Lula Washington Dance Theatre. Mid-way through the itinerary, in the dusty back stairwell of a Henan province (Xinyang) theater, Keith Lommel, cultural attache at the U.S. Embassy ...