Category: Music

  • ‘Phantom’ Ends. For Musicians, So Does the Gig of a Lifetime.

    The New York Times – Music:

    Broadway’s longest running musical, set to close next month, has been a source of stability for orchestra members, many of whom have grown up with the show.

  • “HUMBLE.” by Kendrick Lamar (2017)

    Reviewed by Ramona Prioleau

    The music video for the 2017 track “HUMBLE,” by Kendrick Lamar was nominated for eight awards at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, and it won six of them. As the video for the debut single of the rapper’s first music in months, the track and the video took the hip-hop world by storm, getting fans all over the world excited for Lamar’s upcoming album DAMN. Featuring Lamar rapping in a number of contexts that emphasize the song’s themes of religion, braggadocio, authenticity and class, the video is a powerful watch that keeps casual and die-hard fans alike coming back to this day.

    There is more inventive film-making in the three minutes of “HUMBLE” than there is in most blockbuster movies today. Crazy camera angles, difficult-to-master zooms, pans, and glitches, and world-bending fish-eye lens shots are just a few of the interesting and fascinating techniques that directors Dave Meyers & The Little Homies use to take “HUMBLE” to the next level. There’s also a lot of creativity to be found in the framing, which in some cases is imitating and replicating various Catholic and religious art. There are also references to other rap and pop culture events, making watching and re-watching the video a sort of I-SPY event for Easter eggs. The video jumps from scene to scene, set-piece to set-piece, with an ever-constant forward thrusting energy. Never too fast, but never too slow to lose attention, “HUMBLE” is an action-packed right from start to finish.

    The video is rich in symbolism, but never didactic. It invites viewers to draw their own conclusions, to bring their own sets of biases to the art, and then walk away with whatever they find there. It’s a trait typical of Lamar’s music, a razor thin margin between ironic and direct, between preachy and accessible. It pairs well with the forceful yet also relaxed nature of the track itself and makes “HUMBLE” one of the most exciting, engaging hip-hop music videos in recent memory. M

    Mar 2023

  • Who Needs a Shave? ‘Sweeney Todd’ Is Back.

    The New York Times – Music:

    Josh Groban, Annaleigh Ashford and a starry creative team are hoping there’s an appetite for Broadway’s first full-scale revival of Sondheim’s Grand Guignol masterpiece in 43 years.

  • Rafael Viñoly, From the Drawing Board to the Keyboard

    The New York Times – Music:

    There is something transcendent about the architect’s spaces: something unseeable that you experience when you enter. They are as fluid as music.

  • A Conductor’s Battle With a Classical Music Gender Barrier

    The New York Times – Music:

    Claire Gibault has spent a lifetime fighting sexism and forging a path in a male-dominated profession. Her next targets: pay gaps and age discrimination.

  • Gary Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd Guitarist, Dies at 71

    The New York Times – Music:

    The last surviving original member of the classic Southern rock group, he played the soaring slide guitar solo on “Free Bird” and co-wrote “Sweet Home Alabama.”

  • ‘The Outsiders’ Review: Growing Pains Both Brutal and Poetic

    The New York Times – Movies:

    At La Jolla Playhouse, the musical adaptation of the novel and film has considerable appeal, but is weighed down by too many characters and themes.

  • The Vienna Philharmonic Tends the Classics With a Perfect Partner

    The New York Times – Music:

    Christian Thielemann led the storied orchestra in three concerts at Carnegie Hall, including a revelatory performance of Strauss’s “An Alpine Symphony.”

  • Translating the Music of Trees Into the Sounds of Opera

    The New York Times – Music:

    The tech-forward composer Tod Machover has made a chamber opera of Richard Powers’s novel “The Overstory,” featuring Joyce DiDonato.

  • Review: The Philharmonic Departs From Business as Usual

    The New York Times – Music:

    “The March to Liberation” offers a rarity that should be more regular: a world premiere, a symphony and an oratorio, all by Black composers.

  • My Father’s Death, an Envelope of Cash, a Legacy in Music

    The New York Times – Music:

    When the pianist Adam Tendler received a strange and unexpected inheritance, he turned it into a project about remembrance and reconciliation.

  • Simeon ten Holt: The Minimalist Composer Who Keeps Getting Left Out

    The New York Times – Music:

    As centenary events celebrate Simeon ten Holt’s work, music historians have questioned his omission from histories of Minimalism, and its focus on American greats.