Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz Jazz Alliance When I’m on the road, I feel especially lucky if I find a radio station carrying Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. For 25 years, McPartland has hosted one of the most engaging shows on the airwaves, interviewing and playing spontaneous duets with jazz greats. Her personality is so engaging that […]
Music Reviews
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Record Review
Pavement Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Redux Matador Records (ole-557) The ’90s were a sorry time for rock. Rap-metal hybrids, hordes of Nirvana clones, and many other no-talent morons pummeled the music into a tuneless, soulless, angry slab of crap. The only bright light in this dark decade was Pavement, a band of relentless […]
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Recordings
Chris Arduser Hostage Drummers have a mostly deserved reputation for being knuckleheads. On the other hand, folks come along every now and then who step out from behind the kit to display broad musical gifts made all the more wonderful by the perspective of a percussionist. Levon Helm, Phil Collins, and even Karen Carpenter come […]
Posted inMusic
Recordings
Avenue A to the Great White Way: Yiddish and American Popular Songs 1914-1950 Tanz! With David Tarras and the Musiker Brothers Sony Legacy Anyone who has listened to National Public Radio’s “Yiddish Radio Project” on All Things Considered knows the story: While visiting the crowded office of an elderly radio show host, Klezmer scholar Henry […]
