Lukas
On Sunday, composer, conductor and pianist Lukas Foss passed away at the age of 86, at his home here in New York. There are kind notices about Foss in the Times and on other blogs, where you […]
Lounge Lizards
Los Angeles has always had a thing for lounge acts: offbeat singers who sing amusing, occasionally scathing lyrics in small rooms filled with kitsch. Which might be the inspiration for
Mean Fiddler
Forget Perlman, forget Bell, forget Jean-Luc Ponty: for my money, the best violinist I've ever seen is a diminutive gypsy from Hungary named Roby Lakatos. Born into a famous family of
Is This Thing On?
I'm at Galapagos, listening to a normally-formidable set by new music ensemble So Percussion, when suddenly they just randomly start stacking paint cans and banging shit onstage. Everyone thinks they're
Colorado Gypsies
I'll admit, I hesitated to pony up the $25 for last night's show at Webster Hall. It might not be fair, but the minute a show passes the $15 mark, my
Open This
Generally, I like showing up at shows early to catch the openers, who are often cutting edge acts that would never otherwise have the chance to play a Bowery Presents
Without Words
Rival Songs, who played Galapagos Art Space last night, perform atmospheric, instrumental post-rock, landing somewhere between Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky. Sitting up front in one of the lily-pad banquettes, it
Jazz Lions
I stopped by Bethany's Stochastic Brooklyn at Barbes this past Wednesday to hear Buy My Book: a young, part-time sextet playing originals by Alex Hills (piano, accordion) and Chris Tordini (bass). Their spatial, occasionally
Song Play
Singspiel ("Song-play") – a style of opera that combines music with spoken text – has been around for nearly three centuries. Think: Mozart's Magic Flute and Beethoven's Fidelio. Singspiel is designed