Part II of a two-part article
Ron Netsky
Posted inNews & Opinion
Hard truths
Visitors to the Rare Books Library at the University of Rochester this summer may feel like they have entered a parallel world. Filling 19 large display cases are books, articles, manuscripts, journals, letters, and photographs by, or related to, the man writer Ishmael Reed has called the greatest American novelist of the 20th century. So […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Righteous roots
Pop stars come and go like disposable commodities in our culture. It’s a rare occurrence when a singer emerges whose sound and creative energy are distinctive enough to endure for the long haul. Erykah Badu is that kind of performer. Even over the phone the difference is apparent in her voice — that deep, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Mixed signals
If you are used to tuning in to the non-stop line-up of African-American programming on Friday or Sunday evenings on WRUR 88.5 FM, you might find yourself scratching your head this summer. Car Talk? What station is this anyway? Over the past several weeks, WRUR, the radio station run by the University of Rochester, has […]
Posted inMusic
Grander than you can imagine…
Excitement seemed to build higher during the final six days of the Rochester International Jazz Festival, with a full house for Tony Bennett at the Eastman Theatre on Wednesday evening and a sold-out Water Street Music Hall for Ray Barretto, despite the poor sound. Festival promoter John Nugent says the 2003 festival made a […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Finding a groove
In a music industry that insists on categorization, Medeski Martin & Wood have successfully refused to be pigeonholed. With very little radio airplay, they have built a following across the country and around the world. Perhaps most surprisingly, they have managed to combine borderline avant-garde jazz with catchy grooves, drawing fans from all over the […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Pacin’ the Trane
When Rashied Ali was growing up in North Philadelphia in the 1940s and 1950s, he may have occupied the most fertile ground for the development of jazz talent anywhere on earth. His second cousins, Charlie and Bernard Rice, were both drummers playing gigs with an up-and-coming local saxophonist. “I grew up on his music […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Arranging to soar
Maria Schneider has to admit it; she was not quite the average child when it came to music. It may have been normal to dance around the room when her mother put on a Duke Ellington or Artie Shaw record. But then there was that time when she was 7… “My mom had […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Tailoring a sound
Watching Keter Betts’ fingers glide effortlessly over the strings of the bass, you might think that a pint-size bass awaited him in his cradle when he was born. But Betts began his musical life as a drummer. It’s just that there was this problem. “I’d worked my way up to the Gene Krupa […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Bending science into art
After a long, harsh winter, the April ice storm was enough to leave most Upstate New Yorkers exasperated. But scientific photographer Ted Kinsman was having the time of his life. “I shot 60 images on Friday morning; then I went out and shot another 200,” Kinsman says. “It was very good. A lot of […]
Posted inMusic
Fun with music
Paul Hofmann is on a mission. He wants to prove that musical creativity is not reserved for a small group of geniuses. In his Community Education classes at the Eastman School of Music, Hofmann’s students enter with a wide variety of musical backgrounds. But, before long, all of them are sitting at the piano […]
