If he had it to do again, nylon-string jazz guitarist Nate Najar would be playing a different instrument. “If I could start over, I'd play piano,” he says. “I once had a wonderful teacher named Frank Mullen, and he often brought a classical guitar to my lessons before I played one. He talked me into trying it, and made me realize how much more piano-like a nylon-string guitar … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2014
Mainly Mozart’s chamber music-dance finale enchants large audience
The directors of Miami’s Mainly Mozart Festival made much June 22 of the crowd they’d lured to the Knight Concert Hall for their chamber music summer season closer, subtitled My Homeland. And indeed the mood in the big hall at the Arsht Center downtown was festive and celebratory, and they were rewarded with a concert that took the strong and innovative format from last year’s … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 27-29
Art: Kyoko Hazama is a contemporary Japanese artist who specializes in creating sculptures from washi paper, and she brings to her delicate art a wonderful sense of whimsy. From a Quiet Place, an exhibit of her tiny sculptures at the Morikami Museum running through Aug. 31, features many small scenes involving a winsome-looking Japanese girl in the company of extraordinary … [Read more...]
At the Norton, a summery look at iconic toys
If there was a heaven for toys, it probably would look and feel like the Norton Museum of Art’s new exhibition. This is what a toy gets for enduring decades and co-existing with digital era’s sharp apps: a show of its own at a major local museum. If such heaven existed, then Matchbox cars, Hot Wheels cars and Barbie dolls arrived at it last week, with the opening of Wheels & … [Read more...]
‘Le Chef’ a moderately amusing dish
So let’s recap: Jon Favreau’s Chef is about an egotistical, professionally embattled toque (Favreau himself) who feuds with his restaurant’s owner and is forced to forge a new culinary path while repairing a broken relationship with his only child. Daniel Cohen’s Le Chef, meanwhile, is about an egotistical, professionally embattled toque (Jean Reno) who feuds with his … [Read more...]
The A-word, and one sharp comedy
Obvious Child is the best and funniest comedy about women’s reproductive options since Citizen Ruth, but that alone isn’t saying much. The subject of abortion is still largely a third rail in mainstream films, despite the pretense that Hollywood is a bastion of leftism. Even when they’re unplanned, movie pregnancies are usually taken to term and are viewed as gifts. The A-word … [Read more...]
‘The Life’ makes a gritty return at Delray Square
By Dale King The sad and sorry lives of Times Square’s sordid population of hookers, drug- and crime-dealers during the 1980s are brought to the stage with excellent grittiness and striking realism in the musical/drama, The Life, now playing at the Delray Square Performing Arts Center. It’s quite the occasion for Gary Waldman and Jamison Troutman of Florida Theater … [Read more...]
Slow Burn’s ‘High Fidelity’ may be glib, but it’s fun
Habitual list maker Rob Gordon would probably never include High Fidelity on his “Top 5 All-Time Well-Written Musicals,” but that does not mean it lacks entertainment value. Or that it deserved to be panned so dismissively by the New York critics when it opened on Broadway in 2006 and closed 14 performances later. Because it was so negatively received there, High Fidelity … [Read more...]
Rare Mozart sparkles with Bergonzi, Todd
The richness of Mozart’s oeuvre can’t be fully appreciated unless you’re able to hear good performances of every part of it, from his church sonatas to his first attempts at opera. That applies, too, to his chamber music. While performances of the later string quartets and quintets are frequent, and the Clarinet Quintet always gets an airing when a good enough clarinetist is … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 20-22
Art: Community centers are not usually associated with striking art, but a chance encounter with vibrant colors at the Sugar Sand Park Community Center challenges that notion. Currently adorning the center’s walls are imaginative works featuring organic shapes and intriguing textures that bring to life what Farida Morris calls her happiest moments. Every color and composition … [Read more...]