REVIEW: Count Basie Orchestra swingin’ at The Soraya 1
count basie orchestraphoto: luis luque for the soraya When the Count Basie Orchestra concert at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts was cancelled for the COVID shutdown in March 2020, it was a bitter pill. When the cloud lifted, Soraya director Thor Steingraber declared that the match would no longer be ...
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 ...
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 ...
‘Hygiene theater,’ a good show at Segerstrom, others 1
Joan Crawford, Queen of Cleanliness There are copious stories in the New York Times and The Atlanta Monthly calling for the end to “hygiene theater,” that is the fake, fruitless, labor intensive, time-and-money consuming practice of keeping our shared public spaces scrupulously clean. Even the Centers for Disease Control is emphasizing that COVID-19 is spread ...
Lost Martha Graham solo finds contemporary context in world premiere @ The Soraya
Martha Graham, ‘Immediate Tragedy’ 1937. Photo by Robert Fraser. Courtesy Martha Graham Resources, a division of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, Inc A scholar’s cache of rediscovered materials—remnants of a 1937 Martha Graham solo fashioned in response to the Spanish Civil War—has spawned a digital collaboration between Martha Graham Dance Company and the ...
Memorial Day 2020: Los Angeles theaters we miss 1
coveted during covid quarantine – the egyptian theatrethis spectacular photo of the egyptian’s balcony by morgan glier for the ucla daily bruin It all feels surreal — but my essential problem during the theater shutdown of the Covid-19 pandemic is that for me, art happens at night. Rarely during the day, sometimes at matinees, and ...
post sponsored by The Soraya
Awaiting the return of Amir ElSaffar’s eclectic & enchanting soundstream 2
Ed. note: This article was commissioned and first published by The Soraya in conjunction with an April 16, 2020 performance, unfortunately cancelled by COVID-19. It is republished on artsmeme with permission. This young jazz-fusion artist, who mixes an Oriental and Western sound, merits your attention. Musical eclecticism is built into the DNA of the 43-year-old ...
post sponsored by The Soraya
On sacred ground: Step Afrika! @ The Soraya
Feb
5
2020
Ed. note: This article was commissioned and first published by The Soraya. It is republished on artsmeme with permission. In a return visit to The Soraya on Sunday, February 23, Step Afrika!, the distinguished Washington, D.C.-based performance troupe, will bring its latest creative project to Los Angeles. Drumfolk, a special Black History Month presentation, lends ...