Category: AJBlogs

Getty Abducts Another Gorgeous Woman: $30.5 Million for Danaë
When it comes to major acquisitions of drop-dead gorgeous women, no museum can compete with the deep-pocketed Getty. It has just abducted Danaë from the Metropolitan Museum, where she had been on loan from … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-28

Rondeau/Chicago: Veteran Curator Promoted to Art Institute’s Directorship
Once again, the Art Institute of Chicago has looked it its own staff to find its new president and director: James Rondeau, chair and curator of modern and contemporary art (departments that merged under his … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-28

Horace Silver In Antibes
Saxophonist Gary Foster sent a link to video from a Facebook post of a seldom seen or heard performance by Horace Silver. At the 1964 Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan les Pins, France, Silver … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-28

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Acquisitions In the Air – and In Reality
For some reason I cannot fathom, I’ve been receiving many press releases lately about museum acquisitions, by gift or purchase, and in one case, about a wonderful gift to make acquisitions. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-01-27

Another Erratic Outing: My Storify on the Taubman Old Masters Sale at Sotheby’s
I’ve asked Sotheby’s to explain a puzzling assertion that its spokesperson made to me and also to the NY Times‘ Robin Pogrebin at the end of tonight’s sale of the late A. Alfred Taubman‘s old masters … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-27

Hostages to fortune
I think it’s fair to say that most people think of me as a highbrow-egghead type whose tastes in pop music are meticulously consistent with his tastes in the other arts. For this reason, I … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-01-27

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The Virtual Arts – Have It Your Way?
C-NET came away from this month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas pronouncing that virtual reality is going to displace traditional porn. … Why should you care? Because virtual reality and its cousin “augmented” reality are getting heavy investment far beyond the porn industry, … and a new generation of immersive viewer-controlled experience is about to take off. …read more
AJBlog: Diacritical Published 2016-01-26

Engaging Early Music
I recently had the opportunity to meet with leaders of several arts groups in Seattle. One was Gus Denhard, executive director of Seattle’s Early Music Guild. In the course of the conversation, he told me … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-01-26

Frank Collett, RIP
Producer Dick Bank reports that pianist Frank Collett died of liver failure yesterday in Pasadena, California. Collett was 74. He led his own trio and in the course of his career worked with Louis Armstrong, … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-26

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Hunger For Art: Time To Spread It Around?
It’s no secret that the museums in major cities that grew up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia, etc. – generally have great collections, not all of which are ever on view. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-01-25

Keep Dancing!
Last year, the dance company founded by choreographer David Parsons and lighting designer Howell Binkley turned thirty, but it seems eternally young and optimistic. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-01-25

Taylor Mac Preps for 24-Hour Singing Marathon
The term “pop music” is a 20th century invention — it originated in England in the 1950s to describe the rock and roll frenzy that was sweeping the nation. One of the many inspired things about … read more
AJBlog: Lies Like Truth Published 2016-01-25

Monday Recommendation: Peter Erskine
Peter Erskine, Peter Erskine Is Dr. Um (Fuzzy Music) Any marriage depends on how the partners blend. Drummer Peter Erskine helped Weather Report and Steps Ahead to achieve two of the most successful of all efforts to fuse jazz with other elements. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-25

Huge Counterculture Archive Comes to Market
So the Ed Sanders Archive, a massive hoard of literary and countercultural materials, is finally for sale. Steve Clay, the publisher of Granary Books, is the dealer. I have no idea what price is being … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-01-25

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FIVE PICKS: Stories From This Week’s ArtsJournal
Welcome to our weekly “best of” ArtsJournal. These aren’t necessarily the most important of the 156 stories we found, these particularly caught our eye. Your #AllWhiteOscars Controversy Primer The biggest flurries of stories this week… … read more
AJBlog: DiacriticalPublished 2016-01-24

 

Kapusta!
[Or Polish cabbage soup from a Ukrainian Jew] I haven’t posted for a while, I know, but changes in my life urge me to find that thread that leads to writing. I’ve had trouble cooking,… … read more
AJBlog: Out TherePublished 2016-01-24

 

Carl Weissner: Master Writer, Cherished Friend
A great one died four years ago today. Nova BroadcastSan Francisco, 1970Doll No Mori2012Milena Verlag Vienna, 2010Milena Verlag Vienna, 2011Milena VerlagVienna, 2013 Carl was also a “little magazine” editor, a radio playwright, German translator… … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2016-01-24

 

Exploding the House of Atreus
Ann Liv Young’s Elektra at New York Live Arts, January 20-30 Ann Liv Young’s Elektra. Foreground: Marissa Mickelberg. At back (L to R): Lovey Ailish Guerrero, Vanessa Soudan, Daniel Borg, and Nessa Norwich. Photo: Yi-Chun… … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-01-23

 

Recent Listening: Pelt, Vitchev, Feather
Continuing the struggle to keep up, the Rifftides staff once again plunges into the accumulation of more or less recent albums and selects a few to tell you about. The stacks you see below include… … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-01-22

 

Sotheby’s Eats Crow from the Taubman Sales: $6-Million Guarantee Loss & $6-Million in Expe…
It’s official: Sotheby’s assumption of the risk for the consignment of more than 500 works from the estate of its former chairman, A. Alfred Taubman was no coup. It was a flop. Glum crowd leaving… … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2016-01-22

 

Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers in the Caribbean
On a recent Saturday afternoon in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic a group of people from all walks of life assembled in a movie theater. Some of them knew each other – I watched as people… … read more
AJBlog: Creative DestructionPublished 2016-01-22

 

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What Makes A Great Blog(ger)? Five Observations
As inconsistent and distracted a blogger as I am, I am hardly a great blogger. But as someone who runs a network of arts blogs, I do have some observations. Great bloggers don’t just … read more
AJBlog: Diacritical Published 2016-01-21

Wikipedia Brown and the Case of the Half-Baked Idea
Celebrate it or hate it as you will, Wikipedia has metamorphosed from its beginnings as a gangly cultural interloper into the de facto reference work of first resort. … read more
AJBlog: Quick Study Published 2016-01-21

Objects of Creative Attention
Here’s an obvious premise: As we grow from children to adults, we gain proficiency in engaging the world around us. We learn its conventions, assumptions, and physical laws, and we learn to occupy, navigate, and … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-01-21

Meier, Ingels, Seldorf, Cook: My Storify from Architects’ Panel on NYC’s Skyline
I would have hoped for more incisive questions from journalist/moderator C.J. Hughes for the inter-generational panel of major architects who shared tidbits last night in a conversation at the 92nd Street Y in New York. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-21

Historical Materialism 2016
It’s not complete, but I’ve received a list of things scheduled to run in the journal Historical Materialism in 2016 and it’s impressive. Here it is: … read more
AJBlog: Quick Study Published 2016-01-21

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Playing For The Screens – Is Our Obsession With Video Changing The Live Arts Experience?
One weekend last November, the biggest box-office at movie theatres throughout the UK wasn’t for the latest Hollywood blockbuster (the latest Hunger Games movie opened that Friday). It was for a live broadcast of  Kenneth Branagh’s production of  The Winter’s Tale which was streamed live to 520 theatres in the UK … read more
AJBlog: Diacritical Published 2016-01-20

Repeating some lessons
As we head into 2016, we — meaning we in classical music — have to focus more than ever on the future. We have to! Because here are some truths, truths that can’t be said strongly enough. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-01-20

How Cage Makes Us Philosophize
One name that musicians may run across often in the literature on John Cage and not recognize is Richard Fleming. He’s a philosophy professor at Bucknell University, a friend of mine for twenty-five years, and … read more
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2016-01-20

For Fun: Shorty Rogers
When the music labeled West Coast Jazz was still in its heyday, before rock achieved more or less total dominance in popular music, Shorty Rogers maintained his popularity. One of his most successful pieces was … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-20

slow it down
The sixth movement of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie presents an interesting lesson in melody, harmony and scoring, if we can step beyond the usual comments on birdsong, modes of limited transposition and the Ondes Martenot … read more
AJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2016-01-20

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If Dance Can’t Pay Its Dancers, What Does It Mean To Be A Professional Dancer?
A survey of dancers in the UK  last summer reported that “more than half of professional dancers earn less than £5,000 a year from their performance work.” That’s professional dancers. … read more
AJBlog: Diacritical Published 2016-01-19

AfAS Follow Up
“Art for art’s sake” is a concept that always generates discussion and passion. My last post (Art for Art’s Sake Revisited) was no exception. My good friend Andrew Taylor took me to task both for … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-01-19

Listening Tip: Zeitlin Plays Monk Live
Pianist Denny Zeitlin will play a solo concert, “Exploring Thelonious Monk,” this Thursday, January 21, at 9 PM PST. It will be streamed live on Jim Bennett’s “In the Moment” show at kcsm.org … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-19

Leftovers? Again?
Last Thursday when I came home from work, followed by a two-mile run and high intensity circuit workout, I was not in the mood to … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-01-19

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NEW FEATURE: Last Week’s Top Stories on ArtsJournal: Doug McLennan chooses top stories in the arts from the past week.

“Recent Criminal Charges”: Smithsonian Revises Cosby Show’s Wall Text (again)
Reacting to the latest rent in Bill Cosby’s tattered reputation, National Museum of African Art has quietly revised the Message to Our Visitors regarding its exhibition of works from the comedian’s African-American art collection. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-01-18

Monday Recommendation: Jaco, The Film
Jaco Pastorius, Jaco: The Film (Iron Horse Entertainment) The documentary tells the story of the meteoric career and early burnout of the electric bassist who transformed the instrument. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-18

Honoring MLK With a Clever Starbucks Ad
It’s a brilliant use of the alphabet, worthy of poésie concrète. … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-01-18

Except That
I’m putting up a new version of my microtonal work Solitaire: Solitaire (2009), 14:08 It’s been sound-produced by M.C. Maguire, whom I consider the best Canadian composer of my generation, and in fact … read more
AJBlog: PostClassic Published 2016-01-17

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Weekend Extra: Barry Altschul
Eleven days into his 74th year, Barry Altschul is not resting on his laurels—or anything else. The drummer made his first big impression with Paul Bley’s trio in 1964 and went on to work with… … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2016-01-17

 

With Bicycle: Nightmares and Dreams
Flann O’Brien wrote a comic novel. Kurt Wold made a performance piece. Bicycles figure in both. Not everybody knows how I killed old Phillip Mathers, smashing his jaw in with my spade; but first it… … read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2016-01-17

 

A Dance Morsel
Helen Herbertson and Ben Cobham bring their Morphia Seriesto the Coil Festival. Helen Herbertson in Morphia Series. Photo: Rachelle Roberts Sometimes what surrounds a performance affects your experience of it. My experience of Helen… … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2016-01-16

Classical Music in an Age of Pop
Course blog post My spring semester Juilliard course has started — Classical Music in an Age of Pop, about the future of classical music. We ovAnd, wow…this is the 20th year I’ve taught it.… … read more
AJBlog: SandowPublished 2016-01-15

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