Monday, July 20, 2015
The BSO’s Americana concert could only provide four beautiful snapshots of a very complicated landscape.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:00AMThursday, July 2, 2015
The great mistake we make as listeners or viewers is passivity. Music deserves and needs our active involvement.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:45AMWednesday, June 3, 2015
What we know of mass-market choice suggests that the more choices a person has, the more likely it is that the person will be dissatisfied with any one choice.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:52PMFriday, May 22, 2015
Much more work could be done fertilizing the fields of cross-cultural music, sowing seeds collected from the great touchstones of American culture – innovation, integration, risk, reward.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:40AMMonday, May 11, 2015
I would like to think that there are more composers working today who think of themselves as beyond category, and that there are and will be more works that take this trend in exciting and i…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:14AMMonday, May 4, 2015
Time to look at the maverick mavericks, composers with feet firmly planted on either side of the dividing line between jazz and classical.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:45AMMonday, April 27, 2015
What makes pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet an ideal interpreter of Ravel's Concerto in G is his understanding of and appreciation for jazz.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:59PMMonday, April 20, 2015
The tradition of hybrids is there, for anyone who chooses to use it. Our modern media world makes that tradition accessible in hitherto unimaginable ways.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:27AMThursday, April 16, 2015
What I’ve learned from three years of research and listening is that the piano concerto is an ideal vehicle with which individual composers can experiment
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:41AMWednesday, April 8, 2015
More composers who followed their own distinctive paths when they incorporated jazz into their piano concertos.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 06:53PMSaturday, April 4, 2015
More composers who followed their own distinctive paths when they incorporated jazz into their piano concertos.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:26AMMonday, March 23, 2015
This first group of mavericks all have their roots in the 1920s, but they demonstrate that George Gershwin’s way wasn’t the only way.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:54AMFriday, March 20, 2015
New York and Paris both respected innovation, but Paris demanded that the new have a certain style.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:45AMTuesday, March 10, 2015
There are still some places where the genius of George Gershwin is underappreciated, and regrettably, they include most of the concert halls in his home country.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:59AMMonday, March 2, 2015
My data might be depressing for anyone who wants a lot of novelty in the concert hall. But I found that some orchestras are taking more risks than the pessimists say.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:54AMThursday, February 19, 2015
The writing is on the wall, and it’s not just a warning to the composer who trifles with the idea of writing a JIPC. It’s a warning to everyone who takes music seriously.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:17AMWednesday, February 11, 2015
The media tools now available have brought us closer than ever to getting the amusements we want as soon as we want them, and this reality puts all forms of art music at a serious disadvanta…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 06:03PMTuesday, February 10, 2015
This post is the first of 15 in an ambitious series examining the traditions and realities of classical piano concertos influenced by jazz.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:13AMThursday, June 19, 2014
He knew what he wanted to do, he did it, and he took millions along for the ride.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 04:37PMWednesday, March 12, 2014
The five compositions and one de facto suite played at the NEC Winds and Winds Ensemble performance spoke with six different voices and carried six different messages.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:55PMTuesday, January 14, 2014
In nearly 78 minutes of intensely concentrated playing, Jane Ira Bloom's album offers some of the greatest ballad performances I have ever heard.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:16PMFriday, December 27, 2013
Brian Carpenter and the Ghost Train Orchestra are not about re-creating either hot jazz from the ’20s or novelty works from the ’30s and ’40s. They’re interested in capturing the spi…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 03:49PMWednesday, November 13, 2013
Peter Pullman deplores (without bathos) the wreckage of Bud Powell’s life and mourns (without tears) the consequent loss of so much masterful music. And his story of Powell’s life is eve…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 06:29PMFriday, September 6, 2013
The Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation program is one of the best things we have in New England music, and if you’ve lived for any length of time in the Boston area without attend…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:28PMMonday, August 12, 2013
Dave Holland’s Prism tells stories, several of which are very effective. Scofield’s, like his earlier Überjam releases, extends the jam-band esthetic into jazz without completely giving…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:31AMMonday, August 5, 2013
Ramsey's book on Bud Powell is both a provocative read and a disappointing one. Anyone thinking this will be an illuminating portrait of a jazz master is likely to suffer a serious case of b…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 03:53PMThursday, March 14, 2013
The SF Jazz Collective seems to embody a generosity of spirit reflecting the vibe of its home base.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:28AMWednesday, November 21, 2012
The Druid, one of Ireland’s most celebrated stage companies, undertook the project to celebrate Tom Murphy’s work and to make the case for him as one of the world’s leading living play…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:42AMMonday, October 8, 2012
Mark Harvey and the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra: It’s hard to remember what the Boston jazz community was like before Harvey came along. In fact, the term “jazz community” would have seeme…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:43PMMonday, October 1, 2012
Honesty is Best Policy Disclosure: I was in the hall to hear Mostly Other People Do the Killing. I’d heard the band on CD, and I knew that the only way I could appreciate them fully was to…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:25AMMonday, June 18, 2012
If you’re a Gil Evans devotee, or even a casual appreciator, have I got good news for you: Ryan Truesdell’s Centennial, more than 70 minutes of Evans that we never thought we’d hear, 1…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:12AM 
