Conrad Tao & Clayton-Hamilton to jointly wish “Rhapsody” a Happy Hundredth
Ed. note: This story by jazz writer, Kirk Silsbee, was commissioned by The Soraya in advance of Conrad Tao & The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra: Rhapsody in Blue on Saturday March 16. It is re-published with permission. The February 12, 1924 premiere of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” was a musical earthquake. When the young prodigy ...
Admittedly smitten: JazzAntiqua at 30
aaron stokes laura ann smyth The “smitten” party would be me. I’m smitten by a dance company — JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble, as it stages its thirtieth-anniversary celebration in an aptly named event, RITUAL OF RHYTHM. For anyone familiar with the choreography of Artistic Director Pat Taylor, the evening, produced in association with Ebony ...
Fantastic: new generation discovers Jack Cole, launches ‘homage’ nightclub act in his name 2
I could not be more delighted. In my upcoming biography of the dancer/choreographer Jack Cole, which is completed but awaits publication, I have written extensively about the three outlets in which Cole choreographed and performed: on the Broadway stage, on screens of Hollywood, and in nightclub stage shows. All three bear witness to his dance ...
REVIEW: Chilly Nimoy night warmed by jazz duo Goldings & Koonse
photo credit: bob barry It’s a quiet Saturday night on Westwood Boulevard, and all that’s left of the latest rainstorm is a light mist. The Nimoy Theater marquee is the brightest thing on the street, and it draws some people inside. Organist Larry Goldings and guitarist Larry Koonse are playing jazz duets tonight, under the ...
A rousing banquet of New Orleans jazz: Delfeayo Marsalis at The Soraya
ed. note: This story by jazz writer, Kirk Silsbee, was commissioned by The Soraya in advance of Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra on Wednesday February 7. It is published with permission. Brass bands smear the air with unbridled exuberance. A second line of dancers swagger-and-cut in their wake, goosed by the popping rhythms ...
post sponsored by The Soraya
Jazz/pop superstars Herb Alpert, Lani Hall to open Soraya jazz festival 1
ed. note: This story by jazz writer, Kirk Silsbee, was commissioned by The Soraya in advance of “A Golden Anniversary,” in the upcoming Jazz at Naz Festival January 27. It is published with permission. Few trumpet voices in history generate the kind of instant recognition as that of Herb Alpert. His short, pungent phrasing and ...
Big music by Sánchez/Alexa for big ‘Existencia’ choreography at The Soraya
Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine was commissioned the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts. The spasms of explosive percussion that jump off the screen of Birdman, the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 2014, are the work of a brilliant and innovative musician: the Mexican-born drummer Antonio Sánchez. In the decade since that ...
Imani Winds to bring breezy, jazzy, dancey woodwind sound to 92nd St ‘Y’
Oct
10
2023
In a chamber music program that can only be described as scintillating, the trailblazing wind-instrument quintet, Imani Winds, will make their first 92NY appearance with acclaimed pianist Terrence Wilson in a program conceived around rhythm and dance. Repertoire includes Paquito D’Rivera’s take on the Venezuelan joropo, Fleur de Cayenne, Imani hornist Jeff Scott’s arrangement of ...
REVIEW: When opposites attract, Bridgewater & Charlap at CAP UCLA 1
It was a provocative entry to a fall jazz season: singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and pianist Bill Charlap, performing in a duo format at Royce Hall for UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. Like a pro wrestling match between a pile-driving heel and a gymnast babyface, it was a potential mismatch too tantalizing to ...
Adieu to two valiant dancing women of Los Angeles arts: Deborah Lawlor & Flip Manne 2
Fountain Theatre co-founder Deborah Lawlor, who died May 2, 2023, began her career in the ’60s as a dancer, choreographer and actor in New York, where she was a member of the Judson Church/Caffe Cino scene in the Village. She moved to South India in 1968, there pioneering Auroville, a 12-square-mile utopian international community created ...