Journal
- Thursday, March 28, 2024
The original cast album of Adam Guettel’s Broadway musical Days of Wine and Roses, with a book by Craig Lucas, starring Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James, will be released on CD on May 17, following its recent digital release. “Repeated listenings compound the amazement,” the New York Times says of Guettel’s work, which “has always offered that kind of challenge—initially leaving a feeling of: Beautiful, but wait, I need to hear it again—and those up for it have a way of coming away shining like Moses down from the Mount. The new score has the same effect.”
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist News
- Thursday, December 3, 2009
Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau will perform together at the official National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Washington, DC, this evening starting at 5 PM EST, joining fellow performers Sheryl Crow, Common, Jordan Sparks, and Ray LaMontagne, as well as President Obama and his family. The whole ceremony will be streamed live online and will be broadcast on PBS stations across the country tomorrow night.
Journal Topics: On Tour, News, TelevisionThursday, December 3, 2009Nonesuch Records is set to release the soundtrack from the critically acclaimed documentary about African superstar Youssou N’Dour, I Bring What I Love, on January 12, 2010. The album features all-new recordings of music from throughout N’Dour’s career as well as two new songs, including the documentary’s title theme, and richly represents the music and the message of N’Dour the artist and the humanitarian.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsThursday, December 3, 2009The Magnetic Fields will head off to Europe for a short string of shows in March following their previously announced US dates. The European tour begins in the UK and makes its way through Sweden, Norway, and Germany, before coming to a close in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, tickets for many of the US and Canada shows—including two shows at New York City's Town Hall—are still on sale.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist NewsWednesday, December 2, 2009Ry Cooder's monthlong tour with Nick Lowe through Japan, New Zealand, and Australia came to a close last night in Perth. The Age, in its review of the Melbourne show, describes Cooder as "the slide-guitar messiah." The Sydney Morning Herald reports from the Sydney set that his "guitar playing was of subtle beauty and effortlessness. Elegance and class all round on stage, actually." Cooder performs next as a guest of The Chieftans at Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival in January.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009The latest in NPR's compendium of the year's best music is a list of the Top Ten "New Music" albums, as chosen by WNYC's Nadia Sirota. On it is Alarm Will Sound's Nonesuch debut, a/rhythmia, which offers a diverse repertoire unified by the works' play on conventional notions of rhythm and pulse. "The idea sounds complex," says Sirota, "but the group makes its crystal-clear point joyfully through engaging programming and performances."
Journal Topics: Artist News, ReviewsTuesday, December 1, 2009John Adams, Kronos Quartet Share the Stage for Adams-Curated LA Phil Festival at Disney Concert HallWest Coast, Left Coast, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's festival curated by John Adams, continues tonight with the composer and Kronos Quartet performing California-inspired music at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Adams will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group in performances of Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes and selections from Frank Zappa's Yellow Shark; Kronos performs Harry Partch's U.S. Highball.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Artist NewsTuesday, December 1, 2009Three Nonesuch albums have made the list of the Best Albums of 2009 from David Dye, host of NPR's World Cafe: Wilco's Wilco (the album) ("a masterpiece that felt both ambitious and lived-in"), Dan Auerbach's Keep It Hid, and Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi. Dye also picks "You and I," Jeff Tweedy's duet with Leslie Feist off Wilco (the album), among his choices of the year's best songs.
Journal Topics: Artist News, ReviewsTuesday, December 1, 2009Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica's Nonesuch recording of the complete Mozart violin concertos has received the Silver Award at the Record Academy Awards published by Japan's The Record Geijutsu. Australia's ABC Radio National's Breakfast has chosen the recording as Album of the Week, saying, "played true to the style of when they were written, the music sounds fresh and appealing."
Journal Topics: Artist News, Reviews, RadioMonday, November 30, 2009BlakRoc, the collaboration between The Black Keys, Damon Dash, and some of the biggest MCs in hip-hop, was released on Friday; NPR marked the event on Morning Edition. The Washington Post describes the Keys' contribution as "a mix of gritty, jazzy and psychedelic beats that ... often resemble those of Wu-Tang Clan." The Wall Street Journal says unlike some earlier efforts to bring rock and hip-hop together, the Keys offer "the credibility needed to attempt such alchemy." The Village Voice says that here, "they actually improve one another." The Observer gives the album four stars.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Reviews, RadioMonday, November 30, 2009Bill Frisell performed with his Trio—Kenny Wollesen on drums and Tony Scherr on bass—at the Kennedy Center last month. You can hear the concert online from NPR's JazzSet. In her introduction, host DeeDee Bridgewater describes Frisell as "a superman of contemporary improvisational music and one of the most compelling artists on the scene today."
Wednesday, November 25, 2009The Times (UK) has had its say on the best albums of the decade, covering the best in classical, jazz, world music, and pop, and Nonesuch artists are represented in every one: John Adams at No. 1 on the classical list with Doctor Atomic Symphony; Brad Mehldau and Bill Frisell in jazz; Youssou N'Dour, Orchestra Baobab, "Cachaíto" Lopez, and Amadou & Mariam in world; the Malian duo in pop as well, along with Brian Wilson and Wilco.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsWednesday, November 25, 2009BlakRoc, the brainchild of The Black Keys and Damon Dash, releases on “Black Friday” (a.k.a. "Blak Friday"), November 27, the day after Thanksgiving, featuring music by The Black Keys with a star-studded line up of MCs including Mos Def, Q-Tip, RZA, Raekwon, Pharoahe Monch, Jim Jones, NOE, Nicole Wray, and Billy Danze. The Seattle Times calls it the "most interesting hip-hop approach" of the year.
Journal Topics: Album Release