If all music forms encompassed a herd of prey animals, jazz might be the unfortunate member struggling to keep up at its rear flank. It’s unfortunate, and not the way it should be, but sadly the way it is in the modern music biz. South Florida has numerous music schools producing quality jazz musicians, yet many need to go into teaching, perform and record popular music, and/or … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2021-22: The season in jazz
“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny,” Frank Zappa announced during the performance of his dizzying, bop-infused composition “Be-Bop Tango (of the Old Jazzmen’s Church)” on the 1974 live album Roxy & Elsewhere. Hopefully, his satirical words about the genre’s decay aren’t proving prophetic nearly a half-century later. The COVID-19 pandemic altered the second half of … [Read more...]
Arts Preview 2017-18: The season in jazz
A pleasant sense of unpredictability has crept into the 2017-2018 South Florida jazz season, as younger, rising singers and players (Gregory Porter, Jon Batiste) and gifted female vocalists and instrumentalists (Tierney Sutton, Anat Cohen) dot the landscape, especially south of Palm Beach County. And even some of the more recurrent acts, like the Marsalis brothers — … [Read more...]
Branford Marsalis, Symphonia get Boca fest off to rousing start
By Dale King The Festival of the Arts Boca opened the musical portion of its 2017 program Friday night on a high note – actually, a number of high, low, harmonious and heraldic tones. The Symphonia Boca Raton, under the able leadership of conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos, paid tribute to maestro John Williams with a full-on production of tunes from the Harry Potter films … [Read more...]
Festival of the Arts Boca set to open 11th edition
The annual Festival of the Arts Boca, now in its 11th season, returns to Mizner Park from March 2-12, with musical performances and author discussions at the Mizner Park Amphitheater and the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center. “We are so excited to present the 2017 Festival of the Arts Boca season and we think the audience will be, too,” said Charlie Siemon, co-founder and … [Read more...]