Lee Byung-Hun in The Good, the Bad, the Weird.Film: Even art houses have to compete with the action movies that major studios churn out in the summertime, so that probably explains the arrival of The Good, the Bad, the Weird, a rock-’em, sock-’em Korean western from director Ji-woon Kim, a master of camerawork and production excess. Set in … [Read more...]
Music feature: Guitarist Kreisberg sets first SoFla gigs in five years
Jonathan Kreisberg.(Photo by Govert Driessen)By Bill MeredithNew York City-born guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg first showed an interest in music at age 10 after he’d moved to Miami with his family. He would go on to study at the New World School of the Arts, appear in Guitar Player and Down Beat magazines while in his teens, and earn a scholarship to the … [Read more...]
Bulletin from Broadway No. 7: ‘Fela!’
Sahr Ngaujah in Fela!By Hap ErsteinMy season-end Broadway visit is coming to a close, and it is fair to say it has been a surprisingly strong year for plays and a pretty disappointing one for musicals.Tony Award nominations get announced Tuesday and the committee is going to have to be pretty creative to fill some of the musical categories. (There are only two musicals … [Read more...]
Music feature: Authentic bluegrass, by way of Switzerland
Jens Kruger, Joel Landsberg and Uwe Kruger of the Kruger Brothers. By Bill Meredith The decline of major recording labels may be the most famous byproduct of the online music retail and radio booms. But another result has been the cross-pollination of genres, the categorical descriptions that were largely created for now-dwindling record stores and musical airwaves in … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 3-7
Dennis Creaghan and John Leonard Thompson in American Buffalo.Theater: This weekend is your last opportunity to see Palm Beach Dramaworks’ impressive production of David Mamet’s early scam drama, American Buffalo, the tale of three Chicago bumblers who plan to break in and steal a valuable coin collection. Director William Hayes and his cast harness the fragmented rhythms of … [Read more...]
Music feature: Jazz singer Milman favors craft over image
Jazz singer Sophie Milman. By Bill MeredithThe recording industry has always been more image- than music-driven, a fact that's been made worse by TV since the 1950s and MTV since the 1980s.The latest example is American Idol, on which youthful toothpaste models-turned-singers recruit text-messaged votes from teenaged fans to springboard toward celebrity. Vocalist Sophie Milman … [Read more...]
Music feature: Mustafa jazz fest keeps the music alive
Russell Hall, bassist for the Dillard Performing Arts High School Jazz Band.(Photo by Mark Hill)By C.B. HanifSouth Florida has not lacked for jazz festivals over the years, but the road to musical fulfillment for local fans of this great art form has been rocky.Consider the once-promising Riviera Beach Jazz and Blues Festival, which from 2002 to 2008 drew people from around the … [Read more...]
Music feature: Jazz phenom Eldar charts course of steady growth
Jazz pianist Eldar.By Bill MeredithAt the age of 23, most jazz musicians are still figuratively getting their feet wet in both their art and their lives. Which puts young pianist Eldar Djangirov at least up to his waist by comparison.Going by only his first name since starting his recording career nine years ago, Eldar released Virtue, his sixth CD overall and fourth for Sony … [Read more...]
Music review: Spalding shows she’s a rising force in jazz
Esperanza Spalding. (Photo by Johann Sauty)By Greg StepanichNo one who attended Saturday night's show at the Duncan Theatre by the rising young jazz bassist and composer Esperanza Spalding could have any doubt about her talent.The Portland, Ore., native is a striking presence on the stage, slim and tallish, with a mountain of very cool hair that she had to tie up and get out of … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 19-21
Anne-Marie Duff, Helen Mirrenand Paul Giamatti in The Last Station. Film: Fans of great acting have a new must-see movie opening this weekend in The Last Station, a diary-based fictional account of the final days of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. He is played with crafty charm by Christopher Plummer, but the film really revolves around his wife Sofya (Helen Mirren, giving the … [Read more...]