Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall
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by Steven Pisano
(All photos by Steven Pisano.)
Kettle Corn New Music continues to present some of the most interesting and varied programs in the city, at venues as wide-ranging as the DiMenna Center, the Donnell Library, and Le Poisson Rouge, which is where I saw guitarist Dan Lippel last week.
Honestly, I was a little hesitant about seeing a show featuring just one man playing guitar all night. I can listen to solos pretty much endlessly on piano, saxophone, trumpet, violin, or cello. But guitars (and also drums) usually make me start daydreaming. Even some rock god slashing his axe at ear-exploding decibels has a tendency to make me numb.
So imagine my surprise when Lippel grabbed me from the very first pluck of a string and kept me mesmerized throughout the night, and at the end, wanting even more. Lippel isn't loud, flashy, pedantic, or boring. What he is is an amazing master of his instrument. And I guess I've been living under a rock, because when I checked out his website after the show, my head started spinning with all the accolades he's garnered, and the list of contemporary composers who have written compositions just for him is long and jaw-dropping.
Continue reading "Guitarist Dan Lippel at Le Poisson Rouge" »
by Steven Pisano
(All photos by Steven Pisano.)
On Saturday night, the Apollo Theater presented "Soundtrack '63," a production of Soul Science Lab based in Brooklyn. Using a rich gumbo of archive film footage, photographic slide shows, and live musical performances, the show explored black history in this country from the forced transport of slaves in the 18th century, through the Civil Rights movement of the Fifties and Sixties, to today's Black Lives Matter and "I Can't Breathe" protests.
Soul Science's creative director Chen Lo believes that it is vitally important to keep black history fresh in young people's minds according to the Ashanti principle of sankofa--"Seek the past to understand the present and build for the future." For Lo and musical director Asante Amin, this means remembering important landmarks in black history, and the best way to remember them is through music. A 13-musician orchestra and a quartet of knockout singers--Keisha Gumbs, Moses Gardner, Karyn Porter, and Matthew Thomas--kept the stage electric with first-rate music throughout the night.
Continue reading ""Soundtrack '63" at the Apollo Theater" »