Like I said last time, the workload prevented my contributing anything at all to either of the TONY music sections this week. What I forgot, though, is that in a small way I'd contributed to the front of the magazine... even the cover, if you extend the gatefold fully.
Time Out, the original, London-based parent of our local publication, notches its 40th anniversary this week. To celebrate, Time Out mags around the world put together special issues devoted to local heroes, newsmakers, trendsetters and what not. In London, the focus was on 40 figures from the magazine's full lifespan. (Choice quote from Michael Nyman: "I'm grateful to be the only 'contemporary classical composer' on the list!")
Here in New York, we also chose 40 subjects, but concentrated on the 13-year period since TONY was founded as our defining window of influence. (Chicago picked 40 as well.) If you live here, you might well have seen some of the media and blogosphere coverage devoted to some of our picks: Eliot Spitzer (whose inclusion was even kept a secret from the staff!), Michael Bloomberg, Jay-Z, Tim Gunn and Spider-Man were among the top attention-getters.
There were three people that I personally nominated and strenuously lobbied to include in this cover package. Two of them made it: Peter Gelb and John Zorn. (The third can console himself with his shiny new MacArthur -- though his boss made the cut.) Though the interviews were short and mostly consisted of boilerplate questions, each was a challenge in its own way. Each was also a great pleasure.
Most surprisingly, each included a genuine revelation. Would you have guessed that Peter Gelb is a romantic softy, or that John Zorn has no problem with the upscale invasion of his native East Village? I wouldn't have. Also worth noting that Christopher Wheeldon, who was interviewed by my amazing colleague Gia Kourlas (and whose bold choreography this confirmed balletophobe ate up in La Gioconda at the Met on Wednesday), picked Gelb as one of his own favorite New Yorkers.
=====
Now that I've pointed out what you'll find in TONY this week, I feel honor-bound to tell you what you won't find there: three rather important concert listings, the press releases for which fell off my desk and into an overflowing mail bin, where they were subsequently buried until excavation two days ago. (I know, it sounds like "the dog ate my homework," but it's absolutely true.) I rushed all three up to the TONY website immediately, but I'm going to plug them here as well:
The first is mainly important for its novelty: When the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra opens the 55th season of concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art tonight (Sept. 26 at 8pm), the centerpiece of the concert will be Saint-Saëns's perennial charmer, Carnival of the Animals. What makes the performance unusual is that the Ogden Nash verses corresponding to the movements will be recited by Philippe de Montebello, marking the beginning of his final year as the museum's director. Completing the program are Mendelssohn's String Symphony No. 10 and Mozart's Symphony No. 29.
The second I'm truly pained to have omitted: Miller Theatre devotes one of its important Composer Portrait concerts to Peter Lieberson on Saturday night (Sept. 27 at 8pm). Lieberson is best known now for his ravishing Neruda Songs, composed for and memorably recorded by his late wife, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. The Miller program offers a survey of chamber works spanning a period from 1971 to 1996, depicting a stylistic range from early modernist constructions to later, Buddhist-inspired contemplations. Jeffrey Millarsky conducts the Garuda Ensemble, a stellar array of local soloists; Lieberson, who survived a recent cancer scare of his own, will be on hand for a conversation with Fred Sherry. (Full details here.)
The third omission hurts most of all, because it was for an event by an impressive young organization that has consistently presented inventive programs on a shoestring budget. The American Modern Ensemble, operated by Robert and Victoria Paterson, opens its new season on Monday night (Sept. 29 at 7:30pm) in its new home at the Times Center -- in the New York Times building on Times Square, naturally. The program, "Women Who Rock," lives up to its name with pieces by Augusta Read Thomas, Missy Mazzoli, Alexandra du Bois, Gabriela Lena Frank, Vivian Fung, Hannah Lash, Roshanne Etezady and Laura Schwendinger, including four local premieres. It's an incredibly impressive array of compositional talent, performed by yet another squadron of first-rate New York freelancers; the group should (and would) have had my full support, and deserves your consideration. (Full details here.)
Apologies to all concerned for my omission of your events. I hope this makes up for it, at least a little.
Playlist:
The Residents - The Bunny Boy (Santa Dog/MVD); Commercial Album (Cryptic/Mute); WBR:RMX (Euroralph)
The Dears - Missiles (Dangerbird, due out Oct. 21)
Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw (Constellation)
Willie Nelson - Phases and Stages (Atlantic/Rhino)
Ikhwani Safaa Musical Club - Zanzibara 1: A Hundred Years of Tarab in Zanzibar (Buda)
Michael Rother - Remember (The Great Adventure) (Random/WEA Germany)
Neu! - Neu! (Astralwerks)
DJ Envy & Tapemasters Inc. - Purple Codeine, Vol. 18 (mixtape)
TV on the Radio - Dear Science (4AD/Interscope)
Kyle Bobby Dunn - Six Cognitive Works (Kning Disk/eMusic)
Nas - Nas (Columbia)
George Frideric Handel - Concerti Grossi, Op. 3; Sonata a 5 - Academy of Ancient Music/Richard Egarr (Harmonia Mundi)
Dave Holland Sextet - Pass It On (Dare 2/EmArcy)
Groupe Issaoua - title unknown (Fassiphone)
Groupe Ahl Touate - Groupes Dar Dmana (Fassiphone)
"What does Time Out mean to you?"
Christopher Wheeldon: "Time Out keeps me informed. It’s the first thing I pick up when I land in New York or London. It is pretty much an entertainment bible."
Is he serious? Did he say this with a straight face?
And I'm squinting here - but is Jay Z the only black person in this select "40" of people who "define" and "influence" the city I've lived in and created music in for ten plus years?
Beaming back to my planet now...thanks for the early morning surreal...
Posted by: Chris Becker | September 26, 2008 at 09:21 AM
Chris, your points are welcome as always, but it's also eminently clear you're personally never going to be satisfied by a mainstream publication. Let's just put that out there.
Wheeldon's quote is far from unusual: I hear it regularly from people to whom I speak, as well as public figures I interview, who have no reason to flatter. I don't view it as an ego boost, but rather take it to mean that the listings have always been the most comprehensive arts and entertainment reference resource available prior to the explosion of the Internet.
Your comment about race is a more pertinent one, frankly, and not unexpectedly we've received a mountain of mail on precisely that subject. Derek Jeter, you should know, is of mixed racial heritage. But then the accusation becomes, "Why are the only black people on the list a rapper and an athlete?"
I'm sure part of that is due to the method by which the heroes were selected, with each section editor nominating a handful of candidates and the top brass winnowing down the master list. It also has to do with that specific 13-year window of influence; Spike Lee comes to mind most readily, but has he been the dominant figure since 1995 that he was before that?
Speaking strictly for myself, the one artistic figure who really ought to have been here and isn't is William Parker; the one politician and social mover who likely most merited inclusion was Al Sharpton -- and I'm being completely serious about that.
So Chris, here are two questions for you; I'd like you to address them either here or your own blog. Given the specific purview of the thesis -- New Yorkers who've had a broad cultural influence here specifically since 1995 -- who would you have included, and why? And if a team of several dozen smart editors from a wide spectrum of disciplines and backgrounds came up with the list you're seeing and not another one, does it condemn the compilers as myopic, or might it possibly also say something deeper about the current state of the city in which we live?
I'd love to see a real dialogue come out of this.
Posted by: Steve Smith | September 26, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Hey, Steve. My initial response to you was originally a little more nuanced, but I found myself getting frustrated by (you're right) a "mainstream publication" and I opted for a more curt but honest blurb. So it's humbling to read your response and your request for some online dialogue.
I'm with Zorn...I don't really think in terms of "lists" and "top tens..." My experience of New York (I've been here 10 years - I'm a composer in case anyone is wondering...) is going to be unique to me and no one else. So the whole idea of measuring individuals in terms of "influence" and presenting them in a list in a "mainstream publication" just seems silly to me. You talk about the editors making their choices as if they are not bombarded with materials, emails, and phone calls from publicists who would kill to have their respective clients on the cover of Time Out. The selection that appears is a very contrived one. I'm hip enough to realize this.
With all of that in mind, my reaction to the cover then is probably little overblown. Time Out magazine is a slick piece of disposable fun. Do I REALLY look to it to guide me through the complex cultural history of this city? Well, no.
The myopia you refer to is everywhere, not just in the offices of the editorial staff of Time Out. So I can't and don't "condemn" anyone for their own relative lack of world experiences. We're all growing - we all have the capacity to be surprised. I believe part of my job as an artist is to push myself out of my comfort zones in my creative work. I and the individuals I work with feel similarly and we also ask the same of our audiences. And that spirit is - in my opinion - something you can tap into - like a vein or a river - here in New York City. That spirit is a part of this city's history - it's there in the concrete, the subways, and in the nasty air...
I don't look to Time Out to reflect this spirit or my experiences with this city. How can it? That's not its function.
Posted by: Chris Becker | September 30, 2008 at 08:42 AM