This would be a pretty boring blog if all I did was link to articles I've written elsewhere. But given my drive to and from Richmond over the weekend, as well as work-related pressures, I've only been out to see one performance during the last week: the Met's rather fabulous Orfeo ed Euridice. At the request of my daytime employers, I wrote up a brief, cheeky report on the TONY Blog, which you'll find here. (My enthusiasm is clearly not shared by everyone.)
I'll be good and busy this weekend, but for the moment I'll have to send you elsewhere for diversion:
Here is my Time Out New York feature on the Bad Plus and their excellent new CD, Prog. The title is not mine; I wanted "Progressive talk." But I can live with it, given the context. From a purely technical perspective, this is also an instance in which my personal proclivity for occasional short, broken-off quotations was thwarted by the house preference for long paragraphs. The content remains exactly the same, but breaking up the exchanges between Ethan Iverson and Dave King into separate blocklets, I think, would have provided a better visual sense of the quick-witted repartee between these two old friends. Still, with any luck, some of the sheer fun of this conversation comes across.
From the same issue of TONY, here is my review of Heart Mountain, an absolutely gorgeous new CD by pianist Myra Melford and violinist-violist Tanya Kalmanovitch. Without question, this is one of the finest improv discs I've heard this year. A live set recorded in 2005, this was just issued on Kalmanovitch's label, Perspicacity (available via CD Baby, where you can listen to excerpts). New Englanders, take note: The duo plays Philadelphia on Friday, Baltimore on Saturday, New York City on Sunday (the Tenri Cultural Institute, to be exact) and Cambridge on Monday. Complete tour details are here.
Dr. LP, my soon-to-be-official better half, recently attended the Experience Music Project (EMP) Pop Conference in Seattle for the first time. NewMusicBox has her report ("EMP is the Elvis Costello of conferences.").
And back to the Bad Plus, sort of: Ethan Iverson's wife, Sarah Deming, has just published her first novel, Iris, Messenger. It's a fantasy tale for readers aged 10 and older, and a thoroughly charming, giddy, erudite delight. (I devoured the first 50 pages or so in a single sitting.) You can read a detailed review here. And do pay a visit to Sarah's blog, The Spiral Staircase.
More, soon.
Playlist:
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Roger Vignoles - Songs by Mahler, Handel and Peter Lieberson (Wigmore Hall Live)
Redhooker - The Future According to Yesterday (Soft Landing)
Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption and Death by Manipulation (Earache)
Immortal - Sons of Northern Darkness (Nuclear Blast)
Satoko Fujii Min-Yoh Ensemble - Fujin Raijin (Victo)
Vinicio Capossela - Ovunque Proteggi (Atlantic)
I love it when you're cheeky, Steve!
Posted by: Alex Ross | May 11, 2007 at 09:15 AM
Since you don't allow comments on yr. NYT reviews...I'll write this here: You used "mitosis" in a concert review. Rock on!
Posted by: Marc Geelhoed | May 15, 2007 at 11:37 AM
Say the word prog, and what immediately comes to mind is not musical innovation but half-hour solos and concept albums about hobbits
Oh for pete's sake, what's wrong with people? What you're describing is Led Zeppelin and their clones. Name me one really long solo in the classic period (1971-74) of ELP, Yes, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Tull and Van Der Graaf? Emerson's incredible Moog work on the Welcome Back My Friend version of Aquatarkus, *maybe*. The hallmark of those bands were tight arrangements, no doodling solos like the 20 minute + Humble Pie thing I heard the other day.
And there's not one fucking hobbit to be found in any of those bands ouvres.
People who use those cliches should be banned from commenting on music. Using them is like saying "The Ramones were musical virtuosos who wrote complex, multipart songs using classical formal principles", that's as much connection to reality that they have.
Posted by: Henry Holland | May 16, 2007 at 03:04 AM
Um, sorry if the above is a little fiery, it's a pet peeve, obviously. :-)
Nice article about the Bad Plus, I've been curious about them, the new album is now on my list of stuff to download for a listen.
Posted by: Henry Hollandq | May 16, 2007 at 03:10 AM