Tag Archives: jazz

Jul 17

Every Story is a Galaxy of Stars: “The Boy Who Kissed The Sky”

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Presented by Company One Theatre in partnership with the City of Boston’s Office of Arts and Culture
By Idris Goodwin
Music by Divinity Roxx and Eugene H. Russell IV
Directed by Summer L. Williams
Music directed by David Freeman Coleman
Choreography by Victoria Lynn Awkward
Dramaturgy by afrikah selah

The Strand Theatre
543 Columbia Rd
Boston, MA 02125

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON, Mass. — The cast of The Boy Who Kissed the Sky performed admirably on Saturday evening despite technical difficulties and intense heat. The beloved Strand Theatre is old and, despite its renovations, failed under the extreme heat. The actors and band met the moment with indomitable will and aplomb. 

Idris Goodwin’s The Boy Who Kissed the Sky is a fantasy on the childhood of Jimi Hendrix in music, dance, and color. A Boy (Errol Service Jr.) lives with his father (Cedric Lilly) in Seattle. The Boy imagines universes across a history of rock music with pencil set to paper as he strums a broom that bleeds corn bristles.

His multidimensional, intergenerational guide and musical conscience is J. Sonic (Martinez Napoleon). Together with the groovy Feedbacks (Yasmeen Duncan, Kiera “Kee” Prusmack, James Turner, and Adriana Alvarez) they witness a world of experiences so the Boy can find his own rock n roll voice.  Continue reading →

May 09

Conjuring History from Between the Lines: “Omar”

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JAMEZ MCCORKLE C. AS THE TITLE CHARACTER IN BLOS OMAR. PHOTO BY OLIVIA MOON PHOTOGRAPHY

Presented by Boston Lyric Opera, co-produced by Spoleto Festival USA and Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Music by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels
Libretto by Rhianon Giddens
Conducted by Michael Ellis Ingram
Directed by Kaneza Schaal
Inspired by Dr. Ala Alryye’s translation of Mar ibn Said’s autobiography in his book, A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn
Published by and presented with permission of Subito Music Corporation

Emerson Cutler Majestic Theater
219 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116
May 5 – 7, 2023

WCRB recorded a performance of BLO’s production for an episode of WCRB in Concert that will air in fall 2023. Sign up for recording broadcast updates here.

Critique by Maegan Bergeron-Clearwood

BOSTON, Mass. —

This past Saturday night, I was witness to a conjuring. Omar, a new opera co-created by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, is not just in conversation with history. It brings the past to life by filling in the gaps of archival memory and giving voice to a narrative that has otherwise slipped through the cracks of history.

Until now, the story of Omar ibn Said has largely been contained to academic circles, where it holds a critical place as the only known surviving account of United States slavery to have been written in Arabic. From this account, we know that Omar was an accomplished and devout Islamic scholar in present-day Senegal, when, at 37 years of age, in 1807, he was captured, transported to Charleston, South Carolina, and sold into slavery. Continue reading →

Apr 14

SHADOW/LAND: A poetic force reckoning with the past

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Presented by The Public Theater
Written by Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Directed by Candis C. Jones
Music composed by Delfeayo Marsalis
Sound design by Palmer Hefferan
Featuring Te’Era Coleman, Lizan Mitchell, Lance E. Nichols, Lori Elizabeth Parquet, Sunni Patterson, and Michelle Wilson.

The Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street
(at Astor Place)
New York, NY 10003
The Public Theater on Facebook 

Review by Afrikah Smith

PODCAST — Making its world premiere, SHADOW/LAND is a poetic force to be reckoned with. Mixing jazz and jook joint writing, Erika Dickerson-Despenza presents a vibrant play with a reckoning with the past. Continue reading →

Mar 25

“Paradise Blue”: Rich and dynamic audio play

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Presented by Audible Originals & the Williamstown Theatre Festival
Written by Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Sound design by Darron West
Music composed by Kenny Rampton and Bill Sims Jr 
With André Holland, Kristolyn Lloyd, Simone Missick, Keith Randolph Smith, and Blair Underwood
Williamstown Theatre Festival on Facebook

Audiobook is available at Audible.com on March 25 at 3 PM.

Review by Afrikah Smith

AUDIOBOOK — Rich, dynamic jazz fills my ears. Paradise Blue starts off with explosive keys, steady drums, a wailing trumpet solo, and a bang. The silence that followed piqued my curiosity until cymbals shook it off and the jazz picked up once again. We are whisked away to Paradise Club. The best place to hear jazz in Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood. Continue reading →

Dec 01

Salty Peanuts: “A Charlie Brown Christmas Live On Stage”

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Image found via Facebook

Presented by Boch Center Schubert Theatre
Story by Charles M. Schultz
Music by Vince Guaraldi
Adapted by Eric Schaeffer

Dec. 1-2, 2018
265 Tremont, Boston, MA 02116
CB on Facebook

Review by Diana Lu

(Boston, MA) The CBS television special A Charlie Brown Christmas, which premiered in 1965, has long been a holiday favorite of mine. Before I understood its sophisticate themes or even its dialogue, the adorable cartoons, slow jazz, and children’s voices were instinctively and irresistibly soothing. Decades later, Charlie Brown’s dark horse demeanor and romantic ideals still hold up as a paragon of optimism in a world that makes it so easy become disenchanted and give up our hopes and dreams.

Continue reading →

Sep 07

Langston Hughes as “The Black Clown”

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The Black Clown Production Photo
The cast of The Black Clown.
Photo: Maggie Hall.

Presented by American Repertory Theater
Adapted from Langston Hughes’ poem
Adapted by Davóne Tines and Michael Schachter
Music by Michael Schachter
Choreographed by Chanel DaSilva
Directed by Zack Winokur
Music Direction by Jaret Landon
Trumpets by Dave Adewumi and Robyn Smith
Keyboards played by Jaret Landon and Bethany Aikin
Reeds by Rajiv Halim, Isaiah Johnson, and Jason Marshall

August 31 – Sept 23, 2018
Loeb Drama Center
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
ART on Facebook

Written by Bishop C. Knight

(Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA)  In The Black Clown program, the A.R.T. Artistic Director wrote how “Langston Hughes drew deeply on the traditions of African American music,” and Hughes would have been pleased with this production.  

The pit orchestra breathed life into spirituals and added rhythmic profundity to operatic adaptations of Hughes’ poems. Keyboards were played by Jaret Landon, a Chicago-based composer who was the show’s Music Director, and Bethany Aiken, who studied Music History at Oberlin College.  A theater experience fusing vaudeville, gospel, and jazz, Black Clown brought Langston Hughes’ verse to life onstage.  Every musician in this production – from the trumpet players, to the actors who themselves are acclaimed singers – every musician, per their participation in this production, paid respect both to Hughes and to the African American music at the heart of Hughes’ art. Continue reading →

May 11

Caravan Palace, 5/22, House of Blues, Boston

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Promo by Gillian Daniels

Want to see a time traveling big band Sunday, May 22nd at the House of Blues? Well, one isn’t playing there, but the closest thing to it is. Caravan Palace is an energetic, vibrant, French electro-swing monster. They’re strange, science fictional, and sensational.

Caravan Palace is my personal ear candy and has been since I first heard “Bambous” off their self-titled 2008 album. Their sound is cheerful and energizing, something that gets me up on hard mornings and cools me off after bad days. They’re the retro-future earworm I’ve longed for, the jitterbug robot brass band perfect for listening to on loop. Continue reading →

May 06

Dancing with Sergent Garcia and the Devil

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Presented by World Music/CRASHarts

Thursday, May 2, 7:30 PM
Johnny D’s
17 Holland St Davis Square
Somerville, 02144
World Music/CRASHarts Facebook Page

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Somerville) “Let’s dance the dance of the Devil! One step forward and two step backward!” said Bruno “Sergent” Garcia through his thick French accent. It was right in middle of his performance at Johnny D’s this past Thursday and the audience, including the couples who had gotten up to dance, responded with a cheer. Then the Sergent and the Cumbiamuffin All Stars launched into their next, Caribbean, Afro-Columbian tinged
song. Continue reading →

Apr 29

Sergent Garcia with the Cumbiamuffin All Stars at Johnny D’s

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Presented by World Music/CRASHarts

http://www.sergentgarcia.com/en/

Thursday, May 2, 7:30 PM
Johnny D’s
17 Holland St Davis Square
Somerville, 02144
World Music/CRASHarts Facebook Page

Post by Gillian Daniels

On Thursday, Davis Square’s very own Johnny D’s will be hosting the Paris-based style-fusion artist, Sergent Garcia.

Bruno Garcia, originally a renowned, apparently hyperactive DJ, fuses the music gleaned from a European, punk upbringing in France with a passion for Latin and Caribbean rhythms. He combines jazz, reggae, hip-hop, and salsa for an energetic genre he has affectionately dubbed, “salsamuffin.”  The “muffin” of “salsamuffin,” apparently, is a reference to “ragamuffin” or “dancehall,” a kind of reggae.

Garcia, himself, is named in homage to the sidekick of the fictional Zorro, Sgt. Demetrio Lopez Garcia.  The musician is part of an effort by World Music/CRASHarts to bring diverse, one-of-a-kind voices and
acts to New England.

This will be Sergent Garcia’s Boston debut.  He will be performing with the Cumbiamuffin All Stars at 7:30pm on May 2nd.