Category: AJBlogs

If only they were still with us, two major artists would be celebrating their birthdays this weekend. – Doug Ramsey

“The evening Impressionist/Modern and Contemporary sales at Christie’s this month felt like a bit of a throwback to the old days when more museum-quality works graced the sale catalogues.” – Lee Rosenbaum

The staff gauged the rate at which the postwoman is depositing new releases in the Rifftides mailbox and decided that we should pick up the pace of telling you about some of them. – Doug Ramsey

Rifftides reader Orsolya Bene writes, “Listening to jazz on the radio after finishing chores. “North Of The Sunset,” by Thelonious Monk was just playing. Now, it’s the Denny Zeitlin trio. The radio guy must be channeling you.” – Doug Ramsey

Another subject that ought to be in the book I’ve imagined, one about the history of US orchestras from the 1980s to the present: structural deficits. – Greg Sandow

I’d never had a knife in my life like the new nakiri. It was crackling sharp (though not for long), but something else made it exceptional: the calm ease with which the knife held my hand, as well as the uncanny confidence it gave me. Once the blade came within range of a leek or rolling radish, it knew what to do. – Jeff Weinstein

Here is a real meme, plucked from the Web over the weekend, filled out, and posted solely for your amusement. – Terry Teachout

Denny Zeitlin Solo Piano: Remembering Miles
– Doug Ramsey

It’s time to stop being angry about classical music’s place in the world, and move toward acceptance. – Greg Sandow

The Met’s now-defunct Sackler Enclave — a 600-square-foot office and storage space on the museum’s premises, named for the oldest brother, Arthur (who died before OxyContin was developed), run by his personal curator, and housing prime examples from his private collection of Far Eastern art — was arguably an infraction of museum ethics. – Lee Rosenbaum