Are Big Band Jazz Ensembles Going Away?

The future for jazz looks challenging, particularly as it is overtaken by (or absorbed) into hip hop, R&B or pop. Playing-gigs as well as teaching-gigs may become harder to come by. On the other hand, Berklee College of Music seems to be an agile institution, constantly making adjustments in its outreach, going outside the US to draw students, and updating its curriculum to include teaching digital technology and recording in order to reach young people who may have little knowledge of or interest in jazz.

What’s Wrong With Tolerance? Plenty

“Tolerance is deeply rooted in the canon of apparent modern ideals: as an inherent good, a necessary individual ethic, a pillar of Western civilisation and proof of its superiority. … Yet tolerance, as an idea and an ethic, obscures the interaction between individuals and groups on both a daily basis and over the longue durée; the mutually reinforcing exchange of culture and ideas between groups in a society is missing in the idea of tolerance. … The purpose of religious tolerance has always been, and remains, to maintain the power and purity of the dominant religion in a given state.” Simon Rabinovitch makes the case for using reciprocity instead.

Twenty Curators Trying To Reinvent The Ways We Engage With Art

From major encyclopedic museums to university-run institutions, curators who are schooled in the art of ancient Mesopotamia, South Asia, Renaissance Italy, and many other eras and cultures across the globe are expanding and enriching how audiences experience art history. They’re also innovating the way that art is seen, understood, and disseminated.

What Do People Want From A Movie Critic?

It seems to be a more relevant question now than ever, partly due to the changing landscape of filmgoing, partly because of everybody’s ability to be a critic if they so choose. The reviewer is no longer always first to the film, and there have been a number of notable discrepancies between critical consensus and public opinion, from La La Land to Three Billboards, the latter of which prompted Ashley Clark to tweet: “The majority of the consensus-building bloc in film criticism is white and male, and it’s not massively surprising that some of what makes this film objectionable to many didn’t resonate.”

Study: Here’s What The Canadian Culture Audience Looks Like

Culture Track: Canada imports a long-standing U.S. survey of cultural consumption to this country and reveals some surprising results. Allophones – that is Canadians for whom neither English nor French is a first language – are more culturally engaged than anglophones or francophones. Millennials, defined as Canadians age 20 to 35, are more eager participants than other age groups but, like older people, can be skeptical about using digital technology to get their fix.

Stanley Cavell, Who Applied Philosophy To Hollywood Rom-Coms, Dead At 91

“Professor Cavell was for decades on the faculty of Harvard University, where he often expounded on the ideas of what is called ordinary language philosophy, which argued that philosophers had become so preoccupied with convoluted statements of philosophical problems that they had lost touch with everyday words and their meanings. … He also showed his more cautious peers that writing on Shakespeare and even Hollywood films could make a philosophical contribution, illuminating issues of love, shame and community.”

The Famous Magazines That Depend On Philanthropy To Keep Publishing

“A new study offers a better sense of how much funding has been flowing to this media niche in recent years. … The results only offer a partial look at philanthropic support for these publications, since the study just tracks foundation funding. But the numbers are still illuminating for anyone who’s ever wondered how outfits like Harper’s and Mother Jones stay in business, much less the New Criterion.”

A ‘West Side Story’ That Moves Beyond Jerome Robbins’s Choreography

Guthrie Theatre artistic director Joseph Haj: “I really wanted to make a production where we could believe the difficulty of these young people’s lives a bit more than we’re typically given to when we see this musical. … It’s really the choreography where we thought, this is where we can shorten the distance between then and now, and this is where we can create a movement world that is rawer, harder in some places, tougher than what the Robbins choreography was.”