Category: AJBlogs

Ever tried to get a date by saying, “Hey, wanna go see Chunky in Heat? It’s an opera about a girl and her swimming pool. And it’s got six composers.” – David Patrick Stearns

This year’s Ojai Festival was programmed by soprano Barbara Hannigan and features, among other performers, new-music stars the JACK Quartet. The other day I spoke to Jay Campbell, the group’s cellist. – Scott Timberg

This is the second in a series of posts by guest blogger Milton Moore, a longtime music critic who has covered a wide array of genres. – Scott Timberg

There’s barely a scrap of frivolity in the Rutherford home. The seat of a Tyneside manufacturing family in the 1910s, it’s imposing, substantial, stuffed to the gunwales with heavy furniture – yet you struggle to spot anything that isn’t grimly functional or solid enough to break your toe should you drop it. Whatever else it is, the house of Rutherford is not a house of fun. – David Jays

New York Notes finds Broadbent leading a trio, the setting that brought him to the attention of audiences and critics early in his career. His associations with Woody Herman, John Klemmer and Charlie Haden’s Quartet West were milestones in his progress. This album is another. – Doug Ramsey

Who needs another cover – a jazz cover! – of “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over”? (We do.) – Doug Ramsey

No sooner had I started to idly wonder what’s happening in one of my favorite former hometowns than Terri Hinte sent a message reminding me of a new album by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra — a tribute to one of the city’s most beloved musical heroes, the late Allen Toussaint. – Doug Ramsey

Norman Ogue Mustill (1931-2013), longtime friend and collaborator, was a little-known master collagist. – Jan Herman

The elephants-not-in-the-room at this morning’s press conference celebrating the appointment of Lonnie Bunch III as the Smithsonian Institution’s new secretary were the man currently occupying the Oval Office and conservative members of Congress — politicians not known to be sympathetic towards federal cultural support in general and politically sensitive exhibitions in particular. – Lee Rosenbaum

Chicagoans watched Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and other heroes of the blues on videos at the the fifth Digging Our Roots: Chicago’s Greatest Hits “listening session” this spring. – Howard Mandel