My tastes have always been everywhere and all over, whatever the time of year. But there is a seasonal connection for me " some books, movies, and music are inseparable from the season in wh…
"Forgiveness is the key and love is the answer… Have a good Jazz Fest, but also have a good life." The post Music Review: The de-Stones'd New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 50th Annive…
The show had an undercurrent that brought to the fore all the issues that have put Wynton Marsalis at the center of the culture wars.
Mostly the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival ends up being about the multiplicity and infinite variety of cultures and traditions, including generic funk.
You could sometimes be halfway into a Bad Plus show before hearing anything like a jazz chord from pianist Ethan Iverson.
The throughline of "Town and Country" is folk " austere, hardscrabble.
The sense of place, the passage of time, the death-haunted imagery, and the coolly rhythmic verse gives Lucinda Williams's songs their traction.
The Fest's music is mostly about audience participation " whether it's dancing, sing-a-longs, or shouts of call-and-response.
But dissonance is at the edge of everything you hear at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival -- a sound that contains multitudes.
Gunther Schuller dove into jazz with passionate hunger, in the process dispelling cultural, class, and racial prejudices.
Bill Frisell and his quartet performed a program of well-worn American hits whose juxtapositions allowed you to make your own cross-references and draw your own conclusions.
The New Orleans JazzFest is made for omnivorous gluttons, which makes it a perfect complement to the region's cuisine.
Violinist Regina Carter and her band drew the audience in with a sustained mood of intimacy, warmth, and unfailingly beautiful playing.
There were times during the performance when Mehmet Ali Sanlikol and the band seemed to fully enter the Ottoman empire.
One of the most remarkable features of Cosmos " and possibly its greatest public service " has been its matter-of-fact, understated championing of the scientific method.
Kris Adams is one of those singers who can do amazing things without ostentatious showiness.
Mostly, I'm looking for that most elusive and hard-to-define quality " authenticity.
In moments like these, the band Riverside captures the Jimmy Giuffre ideals of sonority and counterpoint " where even the drums act as another complementary linear voice.