71 stories by "Steve Elman"
Exposing the jazz impulses in Emily Dickinson's poetry is not an agenda for the novice.
A writer has to write for the now or to write for the ages. Gleason almost always chose the now, but his best moments go deeper.
Jazz groups of eight to eleven often make fascinating and unusual music, but they rarely survive.
Murray Talks Music shows how brilliant Albert Murray could be even when he didn't have time to polish his prose.
Reading Albert Murray's remarkable rhapsody of words will open a door of …
Both David Bowie and Norbert Stein presents a distinctive and subtle approach to the hybridizing of poetry and music.
The BSO's Americana concert could only provide four beautiful snapshots of a very complicated landscape.
The great mistake we make as listeners or viewers is passivity. Music deserves and needs our active involvement.
What we know of mass-market choice suggests that the more choices a person has, the more likely it is that the person will be dissatisfied with any one choice.
Much more work could be done fertilizing the fields of cross-cultural music, sowing seeds collected from the great touchstones of American culture " innovation, integration, risk, reward.
I would like to think that there are more composers working today who think of themselves as beyond category, and that there are and will be more works that take this trend in exciting and i…
Time to look at the maverick mavericks, composers with feet firmly planted on either side of the dividing line between jazz and classical.
What makes pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet an ideal interpreter of Ravel's Concerto in G is his understanding of and appreciation for jazz.
The tradition of hybrids is there, for anyone who chooses to use it. Our modern media world makes that tradition accessible in hitherto unimaginable ways.
What I've learned from three years of research and listening is that the piano concerto is an ideal vehicle with which individual composers can experiment
More composers who followed their own distinctive paths when they incorporated jazz into their piano concertos.
More composers who followed their own distinctive paths when they incorporated jazz into their piano concertos.
This first group of mavericks all have their roots in the 1920s, but they demonstrate that George Gershwin's way wasn't the only way.
New York and Paris both respected innovation, but Paris demanded that the new have a certain style.
There are still some places where the genius of George Gershwin is underappreciated, and regrettably, they include most of the concert halls in his home country.
My data might be depressing for anyone who wants a lot of novelty in the concert hall. But I found that some orchestras are taking more risks than the pessimists say.
The writing is on the wall, and it's not just a warning to the composer who trifles with the idea of writing a JIPC. It's a warning to everyone who takes music seriously.
The media tools now available have brought us closer than ever to getting the amusements we want as soon as we want them, and this reality puts all forms of art music at a serious disadvanta…
This post is the first of 15 in an ambitious series examining the traditions and realities of classical piano concertos influenced by jazz.
He knew what he wanted to do, he did it, and he took millions along for the ride.
The five compositions and one de facto suite played at the NEC Winds and Winds Ensemble performance spoke with six different voices and carried six different messages.
