As you look at all the seminal legends and stars of jazz that have performed at the Newport Jazz Festival, now celebrating its 65th anniversary, a phenomenal list of artists follows that is also a ringing endorsement of this organization’s legacy, bringing these historic figures to the stage. A...
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OPENING PERFORMANCE OF BOSTON LYRIC OPERA’S ADAPTATION OF ‘THE HANDMAID’S TALE’ AT HARVARD CREATES WINNING FORMULA
The opening performance(May 5th, at Harvard University’s Ray Lavietes Pavilion) of the Boston Lyric Opera’s original adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dark, dystopian novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale” had by coincidence found the site – Harvard campus – where the author had originally planted her masterpiece of a brutal authoritarian society....
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Glory: A Life Among Legends
As Dr. Van Scott has led a life so rich in human experience and followed so many journeys as an activist, artist, educator and becoming a central voice in the civil rights movement, there is one clear quality: her fierce independence. In the memoir “GLORY: A Life Among Legends”...
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WADADA LEO SMITH MAKES VAST MUSICAL DISCOVERIES ON ‘ROSA PARKS’
Wadada Leo Smith, acclaimed jazz trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and “creator” has released a new musical composition, an oratorio of seven songs inspired by the iconic civil rights leader Rosa Parks(1913-2005). In his own words, the oratorio is “concerned with ideas of freedom, liberty and justice, a meditation centered...
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Bessie Smith Empress Of The Blues Tribute At The Cabot
In a wonderful coincidence of timing, The Cabot, in Beverly, Ma. celebrated and honored the great and legendary blues vocalist icon, The Empress of the Blues—Bessie Smith -at the very same time the beautiful newly renovated 1920’s theater venue is turning 100 years old with this fund-raising kick-off event....
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Pat Metheny invigorates with new younger quartet
On a very special night at the intimate and newly renovated 1920s Cabot Theater, in Beverly, MA., a sold-out performance was delivered by extraordinary jazz virtuoso, musician, composer and phenomenal guitarist, Pat Metheny. A highly respected musician among his peers and now a veteran, having received all accolades including 20 Grammy...
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PERMADEATH takes a dark tale in world’s first videogame opera
At first glance, the title of Cerise Jacobs’ upcoming world’s first videogame opera PermaDeath seems to imply another dark take or tale using the commercial success and wide-spread popularity of the multiplayer video game phenomenon . But anyone familiar with Ms. Jacobs’ librettists-driven operas, such as Ourboros Trilogy(2016) and...
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Jean-Luc Ponty At The Cabot
A perfect match was found between the intimate setting at the Cabot’s newly renovated 850 seat, former 1920’s art-deco period theater in Beverly, Ma. and the soaring, melodic and mesmerizing sounds of masterful electronic jazz-rock French violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. The venue offered the perfect fit….Read More
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2018 Newport Jazz Festival Showcases Women Artists and Emerging Talents
This year’s Newport Jazz Festival was to feature and highlight particularly an incredibly diverse selection of female performers and female ensemble groups. Wein, in his newsletter “Notes from the Wein Machine”(March, 2018), was very direct in his statement about the “sophisticated ladies” in jazz, “As I look back more...
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George Wein: A Life And Legend In Jazz
Last summer, in June of 2017, I had the privilege and opportunity to interview George Wein, founder and producer of the seminal Newport Jazz Festival. At 91, he was just in the process of supporting and transitioning the new artistic director Christian McBride into this demanding and critical role...
