The Bak Middle School for the Arts Jazz Band.By Bill MeredithUntil recently, you weren’t likely to hear mention of the local Bak Middle School of the Arts and the Juilliard School in New York City within the same sentence.Starting Monday, that will officially change when Juilliard’s world-class faculty and graduate students come to Bak to educate 81 students, … [Read more...]
Music feature: Delray’s new Arts Garage offers regular home for jazz
The Arts Garage performance space.(Photo by Bill Meredith)By Bill MeredithIf you've parked your car in the Old School Square parking garage recently to go to one of Delray Beach's multiple clubs, theaters, galleries or restaurants, you were in close proximity of a major new downtown arts venue whether you knew it or not.The Arts Garage (www.delraybeacharts.org) was … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 22-24
Jason Edelstein and Rick Pena in Blood Brothers.Theater: In only two seasons, Boca Raton’s Slow Burn Theatre Company has forged a reputation for producing edgy musicals outside the mainstream. The show that got its co-founders, Matthew Korinko and Patrick Fitzwater, interested in creating and running their own troupe is Blood Brothers, the cult hit that opened in … [Read more...]
Music feature: Economic revival? Live-music clubs return to action in PBC
John Yurt has reopened The Back Room in Delray Beach.By Bill MeredithAs financial experts continue to look for indicators as to the status of the economic recession, a trend in Palm Beach County may hint that its grip is on the decline.It’s the opening, or reopening, of live music nightclubs, which historically attract people only if those people have money to … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 5-7
Imagining Elvis as My Daddy (2010), by Kathy Yancey.Art: Just installed at the Florida Atlantic University Galleries is the third iteration of SouthXeast: Contemporary Southeastern Art, a triennial show of works by artists from Southeastern states. This year’s exhibit, chosen from among more than 200 artists by curators and gallery owners from throughout the … [Read more...]
Music review: Jazz bassist Parrott, trio show creativity, surprise in JAMS show
Jazz bassist and singer Nicki Parrott. (Photo by Mary Jane Photography)By Bill MeredithSinging bassist Nicki Parrott’s trio walked on to the stage at the Harriet Himmel Theater in West Palm Beach on Tuesday while still getting used to dry land.Parrott, Italian pianist Rossano Sportiello and drummer Ed Metz Jr. had just exited a Crystal Cruise line ship earlier in the day … [Read more...]
Music feature: Aussie bassist Parrott masters American jazz
Nicki Parrott, who plays the JAMS seriestomorrow night at CityPlace.(Photo by Mary Jane Photography)By Bill MeredithFor every Jaco Pastorius or Charles Mingus, there are countless jazz bass players who never become household names, so most take up the workmanlike instrument for deeper reasons than attaining celebrity.In the case of Nicki Parrott, it was family.At age … [Read more...]
Music feature: Guitarist Rodgers pays homage to the masters of jazz
Guitarist Bobby Lee Rodgers.By Bill MeredithAtlanta-born guitarist and vocalist Bobby Lee Rodgers (www.bobbyleerodgers.com) spent much of the past decade fronting The Codetalkers, a group he founded with former Aquarium Rescue Unit leader Col. Bruce Hampton. The band was a pop-rock vehicle for Rodgers’ quirky songwriting, playing and vocals, all of which … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: Peter Nero, still exploring the intersection of musical styles
Peter Nero.By Jan EngorenBorn in Brooklyn in 1934, pops pianist Peter Nero (né Bernard Nierow) began his formal musical education at the age of 7. At 14, he was accepted to New York City’s prestigious High School of Music and Art and won a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music.A two-time Grammy award winner and 10-time nominee, Nero has released … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 6-12
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in Countdown to Zero. Film: Robert Oppenheimer had a very good idea of what his Manhattan Project had unleashed in the New Mexico desert in 1945, but at the time, his team was all alone in having become “Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Today, an estimated 23,000 nuclear weapons exist, and the makers of the … [Read more...]