Celebrity Series of Boston Blog

Loved songs from Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

Pianist Dan Nimmer, bassist Carlos Henriquez and Wynton Marsalis during their encore number, viewed through the Symphony Hall backstage monitor

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis came to Symphony Hall last night for a program called The Songs We Love. Here are the set lists for the evening, featuring some very lovable songs:

First set
On the Sunny Side of the Street
April in Paris
I Left my Heart in San Francisco ("This may be impolitic since we're in Boston...")
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans
A Night in Tunisia
Tea for Two
Stardust
Down by the Riverside

Second set
Autumn Leaves
All of Me
Blue Skies
Happy Birthday (for Laurie Temperley, wife of J@LCO baritone saxophonist Joe Temperley)
My Favorite Things
Rhapsody in Blue

Encore
Midnight Blues (alternate title: Wynton Tears It Up)

Backstage following a J@LC concert is always a bit chaotic, in a loose and friendly sort of way, and last night was no exception. The band packed amidst a throng of people, good naturedly carrying saxophones, drums, basses and all to the stage door, chatting all the while. Wynton held court in the usual way and I heard him say several times in a familiar, soft, high-pitched voice, "well, we're just tryin' to play, you know, we're just tryin' to play..."

Boys Choir of Harlem founder dies

Walter J. Turnbull

Walter J. Turnbull, founder and longtime leader of the Boys Choir of Harlem, died last Friday in New York. Turnbull, a native of Greenville, Mississippi, founded the choir in 1968. He was 62 years old.

The Boys Choir of Harlem made four appearances on the Celebrity Series between 1996 and 2000.

New York Daily News obituary

Los Angeles Times obituary

Boys Choir of Harlem web site

Barbara Cook charms everyone

(Left to right) Jeff Thomson, host of the BDO Siedman reception, Barbara Cook and Celebrity Series President Martha H. Jones at Symphony Hall last Saturday night.

Barbara Cook sang her audience into a kind of frenzy of adoration last Saturday. She had 'em in the palm of her hand all evening. For song after song and all the patter in between it was we-love-you-just-keep-telling-stories-and-singing all night. Then she came to a reception afterward and charmed everyone one-on-one. One staff member remarked, "I want her to come and live with me!"

Barbara Cook on Lakisha Jones

Barbara Cook is in town. She got here today in advance of her performance tomorrow night at Symphony Hall. On her way to the venue to have a look around, Ms. Cook waxed rhapsodic about Lakisha Jones of American Idol fame:

"Just go to Youtube and watch Lakisha sing that song from Dreamgirls or God Bless the Child. That girl's got a voice!"

OK, we'll bite. Here's a video clip of Lakisha Jones singing God Bless the Child.

"Tales from the 'Hood," Jon Garelick on Wynton Marsalis

Is that an aircraft hangar he's standing in or a REALLY big club?

Jon Garelick ruminates in today's Boston Phoenix on Wynton Marsalis, mostly covering his new CD, From the Plantation to the Penitentiary, but also the legacy of performers he has inspired, his politics, etc. He even manages to get in our Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton concert next Wednesday at Symphony Hall. All in all, a thorough outing from Jon. Here's a taste:

"From the beat of the first hand-slapped tambourine, you know who you’re listening to. For all the cries back in the bad old days about how conservative his music was, what was true then is true now: no one sounds like Wynton Marsalis, and he doesn’t sound like anyone else. Looking back at his "Live at Blues Alley" (Columbia, 1988), critic Ben Ratliff pointed out that the music was accessible rather than obscure — “Yet if a traveling musician from an earlier generation of jazz were plopped down in the middle of one of these burnout tunes and asked to hang in there, he’d be at sea."

Here's the rest of Tales from the 'hood.

Twilight Savings Time

Just got around to this delightful little "twilight savings time" post from fullermusic, a recital review complete with photos of Boston in a state of near near-Spring. Now where did I put that camera...?

"Warm with showers," The Phoenix on Cirque Eloize's "Rain"

Marcia Siegel reviewed Cirque Eloize for The Boston Phoenix. Here's a bit of her review:

"Early in the evening, a woman stands in a dogmatic downlight and asks, “What’s with this new circus anyway? It’s so cerebral . . . ” Another woman wanders in and tries to explain: “New circus explores the unconscious.” While they’re debating æsthetics, an object that looks like a size 14 sneaker falls out of the flies and thuds to the floor. Then another and another. “That’s beautiful!” the young woman remarks in an aside, as the argument continues."

Read all of Warm with showers.

Giant Post-it note table...genius!

The Genius Table

It's a table with a top made of giant post-it notes. They're calling it a "Genius Table," but other than that misnomer it was practically made for me. Just ask anyone who has seen my desk...I heard about it via this post on boingboing.net.

Boston Globe reviews National Phil of Russia

Jeremy Eichler from The Boston Globe offered a more mixed assessment of the National Philharmonic of Russia than did Mr. Gantz, but since this isn't an email thread between the two of them, Mr. Eichler's review will take precedence here. Here's a smidge of Russian orchestra makes a booming debut (I sense a theme running through these...):

"The group's playing overall was pleasantly booming and extroverted, with aggressive brass and extremely spirited if roughly groomed strings. The Shostakovich bubbled and popped in all the right places, and the Tchaikovsky brimmed, if not with pathos, then with visceral orchestral excitement, though it was marred by some wayward passages in the winds and brass. Spivakov's resume earns him more authority as a violinist than as a conductor, and this program offered little evidence on which to revise that opinion, but it hit the major bases and was very enthusiastically received."

Read all of Russian orchestra makes a booming debut.

Big Like the Motherland: The Phoenix on National Phil of Russia

National Philharmonic of Russia

Lot's of people braved the storm to hear the National Philharmonic of Russia with Vladimir Spivakov and Olga Kern last Friday at Symphony Hall - lots of reviewers, too. Jeffrey Gantz of The Boston Phoenix was out of the gate first with a review bearing the oddly enjoyable headline, Big Like the Motherland. I think it should be the title of the Orchestra's next CD, but that's me:

"The orchestra got off to a good start before even playing a note, having seated itself with first and second violins deployed antiphonally rather than grouped together on the conductor’s left; this is the arrangement that Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky wrote for, and the one that many conductors (BSO music director James Levine among them) are returning to.Shostakovich’s Festival Overture was first performed (there’s some question about when it was written) in November 1954, in celebration of the 37th anniversary of the Revolution. It’s a kind of Russian Pops piece, the slow introduction giving way to zippy fare that could accompany the Rockettes or the June Taylor Dancers. Under an unostentatious Spivakov it never sounded the least bit cynical or cheap; the introduction was heavy-footed and hymn-like (you could hear the Orthodox chant influence), and the release of tension when Spivakov changed speeds conjured great Russian conductors of the past century, Evgeny Mravinsky and Igor Markevich. Who knew Shostakovich could be so much fun?"

Read all of Big Like the Motherland.