Edwards started writing when she was 7, but published her first novel almost 50 years later. She wrote six detective novels, “mysteries set in Harlem starring a female cop turned sociologist and accidental sleuth named Mali Anderson, always with a backbeat of jazz,” and also became director of the Harlem Writers Guild for nearly a decade. – The New York Times
Tag: 06.05.20
A Scenic Designer Adapts From Creating Sets To Creating Personalized Condolence Cards
But the adaptation isn’t easy or OK. “‘This is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do,’ [Nicole] Carroll said of working in the theatre. ‘It feels like a grieving process, letting go for a while of the thing that you’ve wanted to do for so many years.'” – American Theatre
Abbey Road Studios Reopens With ‘Extraordinary Measures’ To Record Jazz Album
The recording studios in London, which didn’t close even during WWII, had been shuttered for ten weeks during the coronavirus lockdown. Managing director Isabel Garvey: “Ordinarily we would have an 80-100 person orchestra, but we’ve reduced that right down to 40.” And the main jazz singer? Is “joining the sessions remotely” from Paris. – BBC
Ute Tribes Have To Reimagine Bear Dances Under Lockdown
Normally, for spring’s Bear Dances, “groups of dancers would sway back and forth, shoulder-to-shoulder, with the lines of men and women closely facing each other before they split off into pairs.” The dances have happened since at least the 1500s – but this year, they’re canceled as lockdowns continue on the Ute reservations. – Colorado Sun
New York Theatres Are Opening Their Buildings To Protestors
A new Twitter account, called “Open Your Lobby,” has encouraged theaters to welcome protesters. A post from the account recommended that the theaters “not permit police inside of the building for the safety of your protesters,” adding that nonblack staffers should block officers from entering. – The New York Times
Lebrecht: Privatise The South Bank Centre
Save that? Better to take the South Bank apart, piece by piece, in a period when there is no performance, so that it can put it together again under entrepreneurial management over the next year, ready to serve the public interest once concerts resume. It was the public, after all, who paid from their LCC rates to have the place built in 1951. That public has been given no say in its destiny ever since. – The Spectator
Study: Kids Now Spending Nearly As Much Time On TikTok As On YouTube
Kids are now watching twice as many videos per day as they did just four years ago. This is despite the fact that YouTube’s flagship app is meant for ages 13 and up — an age-gate that was never truly enforced, leading to the FTC’s historic $170 million fine for the online video platform in 2019 for its noncompliance with U.S. children’s privacy regulations. – TechCrunch
No Tonys This Year? How About The Charlies?
Instead of choosing the best from an incomplete list, I decided to play a different game. Looking back at the last 10 years of Tony winners, I came up with my own nominations and winners for the Charlie Awards, representing the crème de la crème of Broadway from 2010 through 2019. – Los Angeles Times
How Ornette Coleman Radically Reimagined Jazz
Conventional jazz harmony is religiously chord-based, with soloists improvising within each key like balls pinging through a pinball machine. Coleman, in contrast, imagined harmony, melody, and rhythm as equal constituents. He sometimes said that he played around a melody, in such a way that he could hear it was there, but some listeners could not. – The New Republic
Artist Response To Injustice? Seven Musicians Speak Out
“What’s really important is to take a step back and look at the macro picture, and think through, how did we get here? What are the underlying causes? There’s this phrase flying around a lot for coronavirus, that the disproportionate impact on black or minority communities is due to “underlying health conditions.” Well, what were the conditions that created the underlying health conditions, and what can we do to start picking away at that? And it’s so unsexy, but the census helps a lot.” – NewMusicBox