Night After Night

Swing shift.

Sometimes the road ahead is simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time…and knowing the right people. Back in the spring of 2000, with my illustrious public-relations career at an impasse after BMG Classics eliminated almost everyone in the department, I got an interesting offer from Larry Blumenfeld, then the editor in chief of Jazziz magazine.

Jazziz was and is based in Palm Beach County, Florida, but Larry worked from New York City, coordinating his labor with another editor, R. Dante Sawyer, down at the home office. The magazine, which started out as a smooth-jazz-friendly vehicle and always retained a place for commercial sounds, flourished under Blumenfeld and Sawyer. Major articles on artists like John Zorn, David S. Ware and Dave Douglas became newly prominent under their watch.

The reason Larry approached me in 2000 was that Dante was leaving Jazziz, en route to India and a spiritual trek. Would I be interested in taking on his position as associate editor of Jazziz, with the understanding that Larry himself would be leaving the company in four months' time?

The answer, of course, was yes. Not just any magazine editor would have taken a former publicist on board as an editor. But Larry, who'd done P.R. work himself in the past, had been assigning me freelance pieces for some years by the time he hired me outright, and trusted my objectivity. Having been laid off by BMG, I was unemployed only for a single weekend.

This, then, was my bridge back to journalism, from which I'd stepped away in 1993 for the sole reason of finding my way to and in New York City. Larry was a terrific colleague and guide, and I got to work with some extraordinary writers: among them Neil Tesser, Steve Dollar, Harvey Pekar, Ed Hazell, Steve Futterman, Lee Jeske and a new face on the scene, Lara Pellegrinelli.

Larry reasoned that when his time to depart arrived, Jazziz might invite me to stay on and perhaps even replace him. An invitation like that did actually come, with the stipulation that I'd have to relocate to Florida to take it. The notion was tempting, but I'd worked far too long and hard to get to New York in the first place; leaving after seven years didn't feel like a viable option. Happily, Billboard magazine came calling, and with it, a return to classical music after a five-year hiatus.

I bring all of this up not only as a wallow in pleasant nostalgia, but also because Lara and I are digging through piles of Jazziz back issues retrieved from an emptied-out storage unit, and I'm about to start posting some of my old odds and ends here for safe keeping and convenient retrieval.

Thanks for everything, Larry. And hey, does anyone know what became of Dante?

Laurie Spiegel review/appreciation, November 25, 2012

Laurie Spiegel in 1971, by Stan Bratman

"Rediscovering the Electronic Music Godmothers"
The New York Times, Nov. 25, 2012

Observations, elaborations and ameliorations to follow.

Album review: Elgar and Carter Cello Concertos

ELGAR, CARTER - Cello Concertos
Alisa Weilerstein, cellist; Berlin Staatskapelle, conducted by Daniel Barenboim
Decca 001759202; CD
The New York Times, Oct. 28, 2012

Not that you'd have known it if you only read this review on the web, but I made a bone-headed error that found its way into print on Sunday: Kol Nidre, the barely acknowledged but lovely third piece on this new CD, was composed by Max Bruch – not, as I wrote without double-checking, by Ernest Bloch, whose big, Romantic, Jewish-themed piece for cello and orchestra was of course Schelomo.

As of Tuesday, Oct. 30, you can find this disc in your local store, assuming you've got one. You can also order it online from Amazon or ArkivMusic; or download it at iTunes.

Album review: Morton Feldman, 'Crippled Symmetry'

Morton Feldman: 'Crippled Symmetry'
The Feldman Soloists.
Frozen Reeds fr 1/2; two CDs
The New York Times, Sept. 30, 2012

When I bought my copy of this superb new recording just under two months ago, mail order direct from the label was among your few options for acquiring it.

It's still a good one, but U.S. record collectors will want to note this Crippled Symmetry is now in domestic distribution. Now you can order it directly from Forced Exposure, the distributor, or from Barnes & Noble if you prefer. You'll find the best price, at least as of this morning, at ArkivMusic.

My back pages: Diamonds in the Dark.

Album review: Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles: Diamonds in the Dark
Sugar Hill Records, 2007
Time Out New York, June 7–13, 2007
Five stars (out of five)

Had Boston-based singer Sarah Borges come along in the mid-1960s, she surely would have been roped into the Capitol stable alongside like-minded mavericks such as Wanda Jackson, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. Ten years later, she might have been part of the Stiff cartel; in the ’80s, Slash and Twin/Tone would have fought over her. That Borges’s second album, Diamonds in the Dark, has just been issued by Sugar Hill only furthers the argument that roots music is the new punk.

Blessed with brassy pipes and charisma aplenty, Borges is irresistible in “The Day We Met,” a jangly ode to new love that could easily be one of the summer’s top singles. But she’s just as capable of selling a line like “I’m always the girl that they dance with / But I’m never the one that they want to take home,” the tear-soaked refrain in “Belle of the Bar.” Borges surrounds her catchy original tunes with shrewdly chosen covers associated with Dolly Parton (“False Eyelashes”), X (“Come Back to Me”) and George Cartwright (“Stop and Think It Over”).

Guitarist Mike Castellana provides spit-shined twang and broken-hearted steel, while bassist Binky and drummer Rob Dulaney lay down whip-crack beats and lazy shuffles. Producer Paul Q. Kolderie, a veteran of sessions with the Pixies, Radiohead and Uncle Tupelo, adds atmospheric touches here and there but mostly adheres to a useful old maxim: Less is more.

=====

When I first announced some months ago—optimistically, go figure—that I intended to start archiving some of my older pieces here with the collective tag My Back Pages, what I had in mind was a specific Anthony Braxton concert review from last year that appeared in The Wire. Obviously that effort got derailed, though the notion is still very much alive. But when I came upon this choice old CD review this evening on the Time Out New York website, where older pieces disappear without a trace all too often, thanks to multiple migrations, I decided to grab it right away and stick it here for safe keeping.

So now, when I least expected it, My Back Pages has become a real thing, which is nice. Also, I reviewed a show by Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles at Joe's Pub shortly after this CD review ran; it appeared both on this blog and on Time Out's defunct music blog, The Volume, where you can still find it here. Borges is currently raising funds to do a solo album, which I did not know until just this very minute, and just a little over a year ago released a live set, Live Singles, on the piquantly named label Suck a Bag of Discs. I just bought it on iTunes, and you can, too. Or, at the very least, you can give it a listen on Spotify.

Legacy tour.

"Avant-Garde Dancing Feet, Tickling Composers' Minds"
The New York Times, March 18, 2011

An article about the making of Music for Merce, a newish 10-CD box set issued by the invaluable New World record label. The box is devoted to a well-chosen cross-section of the myriad musical scores that came into being through the auspices of choreographer Merce Cunningham and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, which is currently bidding farewell with its Legacy Tour.

Speaking with Christian Wolff and John King about their memories of working with Merce, and about the process by which they selected the contents of the box with David Behrman and Takehisa Kosugi, was a genuine treat. I'm only sorry that further hoped-for conversations with Alvin Curran and David Behrman didn't take place.

I also regret that I was unable to write this blog post until now. It's Sunday night, and as I type these words, Behrman, King and Kosugi have just started to perform Annea Lockwood's Jitterbug live at Roulette in SoHo, during the second of two concerts celebrating the release of Music for Merce. I know this because I'm listening to the concert live on my sofa in Queens, via Ustream. King is playing an electronically treated violin; Behrman is drawing a bow and tapping a dangled weight on what might be a tabletop guitar; Kosugi is making a racket with all manner of little noisemakers. It's a stately bit of jitter and rumble, lovely in both its calm volition and its unpredictability.

But there's one more scheduled event that warrants advance mention: The Merce Cunningham Dance Company starts a six-day, seven-performance run at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea on Tuesday. The program includes three dances: CRWDSPCR, scored by King; Quartet, to music by David Tudor; and Antic Meet, a collaboration between Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg (using John Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra) that prior to this tour has not been staged since 1969. I can't speak for all of the pieces, but King confirmed he'll be playing live during CRWDSPCR.

Alistair Macaulay, chief dance critic of The New York Times, reviewed Antic Meet during its initial revival in Berkeley a few weeks ago. I confess that I have not read so very much dance criticism, and I was surprised at first by how little mention of the music figures into Macaulay's piece; Brian Eno, who created the music for Pond Way (also performed in Berkeley), is not mentioned at all. But perhaps this is beside the point in evaluating dance performances, and likely even more so when evaluating Cunningham, where a coexistence without co-dependency between music and dance was precisely the point.

I understand that tickets are already scarce for the Joyce performances. New Yorkers who miss it will have three more opportunities to see the company: Merce Fair, a 12-hour multimedia presentation at the Frederick P. Rose Hall on July 16 during the Lincoln Center Festival; a Brooklyn Academy of Music run December 7-10; and something enticingly billed as "Park Avenue Event" at the Park Avenue Armory December 29-31 -- the last night being the company's final bow.

Just due.

 

CD REVIEW: Ben Johnston: String Quartets 1, 5, 10
Kepler Quartet
New World Records 80693-2; CD.
The New York Times, February 20, 2011

Amazon / Ariama / ArkivMusic / Forced Exposure / H&B Recordings Direct

A review of the second volume in an invaluable series devoted to the complete string quartets of Ben Johnston, an amazing, undersung American maverick who's passed through neo-Classical and serialist phases on his path toward microtonality, just intonation and an entirely original voice.

You can read more about Johnston and these specific pieces on the New World site, and about the Kepler Quartet, the outstanding ensemble behind this important series, on the group's homepage. You'll find my Time Out New York review of the previous installment -- String Quartets Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 9, issued in 2006 -- right here.

With luck, it won't take another five years to see the Keplers cross the finish line. Meanwhile, if you're intrigued and have some time on your hands, here's a lengthy video in which Johnston explains his work and influences, in particular Harry Partch, during a lecture at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, date unknown.

Divine madness.

Fritz Wunderlich and Hubert Giesen perform Schumann's Dichterliebe.

"Getting to Know Schumann Again, with Some Favorites"
The New York Times, December 17, 2010

Here's another of those occasional roundups in which the classical-music critics of The New York Times pick their favorite recordings to represent this or that composer: here, Schumann, whose 200th birthday was celebrated this year. (We tackled another bicentennial baby, Chopin, in May.) You'll find my picks on the third page of the feature as it's laid out for the web, but start from the beginning to get the whole picture. As usual, I'm providing direct retail links for the five discs I selected here.

SYMPHONIES NOS. 1-4, OVERTURE, SCHERZO AND FINALE
Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch
(EMI Classics 5 67771 2; two CDs)
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / Ariama / ArkivMusic / ArkivMusic MP3 / iTunes

PIANO CONCERTO; PIANO QUINTET
Rudolf Serkin, pianist; Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy; Budapest Quartet
(CBS Great Performances MK 37256; CD)
Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / iTunes

PIANO WORKS *
Wilhelm Kempff, pianist
(Deutsche Grammophon 471 312-2; four CDs)
Amazon / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / DG Web Shop

* In the very short time since this essay was filed, a newer, cheaper and more comprehensive box of Kempff's Deutsche Grammophon Schumann recordings appeared without much fanfare; this one devotes a fifth CD to Schumann's Piano Concerto and Konzertstück in G (a.k.a. Introduction and Allegro appassionato). Amazon stocks it on disc and in MP3 format, the latter being a serious deal at under $20. It's also on iTunes, and other stores will likely have it; no need to hesitate in choosing it.

‘DICHTERLIEBE’
Fritz Wunderlich, tenor; Hubert Giesen, pianist
(with songs by Beethoven and Schubert; Deutsche Grammophon 449 747-2; CD)
Amazon / Amazon MP3 / Ariama / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / DG Web Shop / iTunes

‘MYRTHEN,’ DUETS
Dorothea Röschmann, soprano; Ian Bostridge, tenor; Graham Johnson, pianist
(Hyperion CDJ33107; CD)
Amazon / Ariama / ArkivMusic / Hyperion / iTunes

Finally, you'll find information on the Hyperion box set of Schumann's complete songs I mentioned in my essay here.

Higher and higher.

CD REVIEW: 'Ombra Cara: Arias of George Frideric Handel'
Bejun Mehta, countertenor; Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, conducted by René Jacobs
Harmonia Mundi HMC 902077; CD
The New York Times, November 28, 2010

Amazon / Amazon MP3 / Ariama / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / eMusic / iTunes

Say my name.

CD REVIEW: 'Music of Tribute, Vol. 6: Berg'
Ieva Jokubaviciute, Vladimir Valjarević, pianists; Marjorie Elinor Dix, mezzo-soprano
Labor Records LAB 7086; CD
The New York Times, November 14, 2010

Amazon / Amazon MP3 / ArkivMusic / Barnes & Noble / Classics Online

I've been an admirer of Ms. Jokubaviciute's playing for some time now, based on hearing her year after year at the Bard Music Festival. It's a good thing to have her on record at last, and in a genuinely imaginative program, to boot. Labor Records, an independent label operated by German-American jazz composer, pianist and producer Heiner Stadler, has issued a series of similarly designed records under the collective rubric Music of Tribute.