The jazz and popular music drum set is deceptively difficult to play; you can quickly learn to bash it, but to do it justice and create music requires as much practice and creativity as any other instrument. The great jazz...
Read MoreJordi Savall will probably not play “La Bamba” when he performs at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on Thursday, September 30–though it’s not entirely out of the question.Acknowledged as the...
Read MoreHaiti had very little classical music before the January earthquake–just two music schools and one small concert hall–and the quake turned them all into ruins. Romel Joseph, the Julliard-trained and blind-from-birth...
Read MoreThe close bluegrass harmonies wafting through the trees cheerfully set the tone for the day as we park and get out of the car. As my four children and I walk through the old cemetery to get to the Webster Fall Festival, the kids...
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Collage is one of the defining aspects of twentieth century art, and its influence pervades our contemporary culture, from the popularity of sampled beats to the increasing use of computer-generated characters in movies. The...
Read MoreThere may be hope for this generation of young people. That’s the thought that kept going through my head last fall when I first saw the White Ravens. Though still (barely) in my 20s, I was one of the oldest members of the...
Read MoreIn her first novel, Rich Boy, Sharon Pomerantz has gone after a large American theme, one many recent writers have been reluctant to address. In this big book, Pomerantz writes about class–that often unspoken division in...
Read MoreWith its hypermodern skyscrapers, robots, swarms of extras–almost 38,000 of them–and lumbering political ideas, Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction film Metropolis is the original blockbuster. The film shows...
Read MoreThis March, Billy Bragg took the stage at a festival in Florida, alone with his electric guitar. He tore into “To Have and To Have Not,” an explosive song from his first album about a working-class British kid trying...
Read MoreAntonio Agee–Tony to his friends, Shades to the art world–is sitting by the window at Cafe Zola. His trademark Arnette sunglasses tipped up on his head, his iPhone and iPad on the table in front of him, he’s...
Read MoreIn April of 2008, after making friends, dances, and songs in Ann Arbor for twenty-seven years, I moved away. For my husband, Al, born and raised here, it was, perhaps, an even more significant relocation. We’d planned it...
Read MoreRemember that old late-night TV ad that claimed some washed-up yodeler named Slim Whitman had sold more albums than the Beatles? Well, sit down for a similar crazy-sounding entertainment fact. The 1991 Guinness Book of World...
Read MoreFrank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening begins with a dress that the character Wendla’s mother wants to lengthen to hide her daughter’s emerging sexuality. In The Spring Awakening Project (TSAP), by Jason Sebacher in...
Read MoreChicago is notorious for many things: stockyards, railroads, architecture, theater, rough politics, and old jazz. But during the last few decades, the great city has also become known all over the world for its vibrant and...
Read MoreTwo things immediately stand out about Frontier Ruckus: the visually descriptive songwriting and the well-crafted instrumentation. Their singer-songwriter, Matthew Milia, writes articulate and intricate lyrics, like these from...
Read MoreFor many, the name Richie Havens is synonymous with the famed 1969 Woodstock Festival. His electrifying performance of “Freedom,” highlighted in the subsequent movie, made him internationally famous and boosted a...
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