There was a clear and easy top pick this week. It is:

JAZZ VOCALS:  APRIL – April Varner – Cellar Music Group

What do Vernon Duke, Pat Metheny, Frank Ocean, Prince and Simon & Garfunkel have in common? They all wrote songs invoking the fourth month of the year. Vocalist/songwriter April Varner can add her name to songwriters inspired by the month best known for April Fool’s Day and paying taxes. She wrote the songs that open and close April.

You would be a fool not to listen to this gorgeous album. Varner won the 2023 Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition. Listening to this album, that’s not a surprise. Her ability to give full emotion and meaning to each lyric and pair that with a beautiful vocal performance is incredible.

Joining Varner for this celebration of all things April are vocalist Benny Bennack III; pianist Caelan Cardello; guitarist Russell Malone; bassist Reuben Rogers; drummer Miguel Russell and saxophonist Dayna Stephens. The album was produced by Ulysses Owens Jr.

Here are my other selections for New In Music This Week: June 28^th

CLASSICAL:  DVOŘÁK  & TCHAIKOVSKY – John-Henry Crawford/San Francisco Ballet Orchestra/Martin West – Orchid Classics

Perhaps you’ve heard cellist Crawford on Christopher O’Reilly’s From the Top on NPR. That’s where I first heard him. He’s since recorded three previous albums centered on works by Brahms, Ligeti, Piazzolla, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Villa-Lobos amongst others.

This new album opens with his performance of the 8 Variations on a Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky. The album closes with Dvořák’s Concerto in B minor for cello and orchestra.

Crawford has said in interviews that he has performed the Rococo (as he says cellists like to say) many times before getting into the studio. That experience pays off in this recording which finds him easily navigating the challenging parts of Tchaikovsky’s work and making beautiful music of them.

I’m not the biggest fan of Dvořák’s work, but I did enjoy this recording of the B minor concerto.

CLASSICAL: JOE HISAISHI IN VIENNA: SYMPHONY No. 2; VIOLA SAGA – Joe Hisaishi/Wiener Symphoniker – Deutsche Grammophon

Hisaishi is best known as the composer of film scores for filmmaker Hayao iyazaki. This album features his 3-movement symphony and 2-movement saga.

The symphony runs just under 38 minutes. The Viola Saga runs 21-1/2 minutes with Antoine Tamestit as the soloist. Both works are enjoyable and do serve as a departure from his film scores. 

Hisaishi conducts the Wiener Symphoniker in this live recording.

CLASSICAL:  WAVES (Music by Satie) – Bruce Liu – Deutsche Grammophon

Pianist Liu beautifully plays Satie’s music. In fact, he beautifully plays it twice: once on a grand piano and once on an upright piano. I’m not sure of the thinking behind recording the 6 Gnossiennes twice other than to inform listeners of the difference between two different pianos.

If you love Satie, you’ll enjoy Liu’s performances. You’ll just have to decide which piano you think sounds better.

JAZZ:  GRATITUDE & GUIDANCE – Zachary Finnegan – Shifting Paradigm Records

Not many people take nine years to create their debut album, but that persistence and patience paid off in trumpeter/composer Finnegan’s Gratitude & Guidance. I’m already interested to hear what a second album might offer – which hopefully won’t be another nine years away.

Eight of the nine tracks on Gratitude & Guidance were composed by Finnegan. The lone cover is Invitation written by Bronislaw Kaper. In the jazz world he’s best known for having composed On Green Dolphin Street. This song comes from the 1950 film A Life of Her Own.

Joining Finnegan (who arranged all the music and also plays flugelhorn) are Matt Gold on guitar; Camile Mennitte Pereyra on drums; Ethan Philion on bass, Leonard Simpson III on alto and soprano saxophones and Julius Tucker on piano. A string quartet joins for three tracks on the album.

JAZZ:  SMALL MEDIUM LARGE – SML – International Anthem

SML is a five-person ensemble that includes bassist Anna Butterss; synthesist Jeremiah Chiu; saxophonist Josh Johnson; percussionist Booker Stardum and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann.

From that line-up alone, you know this isn’t going to be an old-school approach. This is improvisation and some serious funk. It is also a recording made as much in its editing as it was in individual performances.

The result is nothing short of mesmerizing. Small Medium Large is part of the next generation of “jazz” music. As such it gives one complete optimism about what might be next.

JAZZ:  SANYAS – Steve Turre – Smoke Sessions Records

For almost 40 years you have welcomed trombonist/composer Steve Turre into your homes. Since 1985 he has been a member of the Saturday Night Live Band. Beyond that he’s been a innovative jazz trombonist and composer for more than 50 years.

This album was recorded live at New York’s Smoke Jazz Club. It features five tracks (one is listed as a bonus track). There are two of Turre’s composition on this thoroughly enjoyable album: Sanyas and Wishful Thinking. There is a cover of Lee Morgan’s Mr. Kenyatta and two standards: All The Things You Are and These Foolish Things.

Joining Turre are tenor saxophonist Ron Blake, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, pianist Isaiah J. Thompson, drummer Lenny White and bassist Buster Williams.

This is Turre’s first live-album and it’s a damn good one!

JAZZ VOCALS: TIME AND AGAIN – Eliane Elias – Candid Records

Fans of Brazilian jazz and jazz vocals have long known about Elias. She’s been recording since 1985’s Amanda which found her paired with Randy Brecker. She’s recorded albums of music by Chet Baker, Bill Evans and Jobim.  

On Time And Again the songs are all hers. Sung in both English and Portuguese, these songs bring with them her trademark vocals with terrific arrangements true to her Brazilian roots.

I love Brazilian jazz vocals, so this album was a lot of fun and brought me back to my one trip to Rio de Janeiro.  My favorite tracks are Falo Do Amor, A Volta and Making Honey. This is an album full of Carioca spirit.

MUSICALS: THE GREAT GATSBY – Original Broadway Cast – Sony Masterworks Broadway

There are two current musicals* that are adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. The first is this musical now playing at the Broadway Theatre, which has music and lyrics by Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen (Paradise Square) and a book by Kait Kerrigan.

The show received only one Tony nomination for Linda Cho’s costumes. She won. But audiences appear to be won over by the performances of the cast: Jeremy Jordan as Jay Gatsby; Eva Noblezada as Daisy Buchanan and Noah J. Ricketts as Nick Carraway.

It’s hard to get a sense of the full experience of this show from the album, but musical fans already know how talented Jordan and Noblezada are from their previous shows. Rickets absolutely impresses on this recording.

 *The other musical waiting to see the fate of this musical was written by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett and had its premiere recently at A.R.T. in Boston. It plays there through August 3rd.

That’s it for New In Music This Week: June 28^th.

Enjoy the music!

Enjoy your weekend!

Main Photo: Part of the album cover art for April by April Varner

The post NEW IN MUSIC THIS WEEK: JUNE 28th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Here are the twelve concerts I think warrant a journey to the Hollywood Bowl this summer:

JULY FOURTH FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR WITH HARRY CONNICK, JR. – July 2^nd – July 4^th

If you’ve never experienced a fireworks show at the Hollywood Bowl, you clearly don’t know what you’re missing. This year’s headliner for the annual July 4^th concerts is Harry Connick, Jr.

His most recent album centered on songs of faith, but I would expect this concert to focus more on the material he’s best known for which are jazz standards and songs from the Great American Songbook.

Thomas Wilkins leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in these three concerts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

For those not in the Los Angeles area, he’ll be performing at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in San Diego on July 6^th; Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA on July 9^th and 10^th and at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, WA on July 12^th and 13^th. These are the only dates on his schedule right now.

ALL- GERSHWIN – July 11^th

Who could ask for anything more than pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, opera’s Isabel Leonard and Broadway star Tony Yazbeck in an evening of songs and music by George Gershwin?

The program opens with the Cuban Overture and is then followed by Variations on “I Got Rhythm.“ Leonard and Yazbeck conclude the first half with selections of Gershwin’s songs.

The second act features Thibaudet playined Rhapsody in Blue and closes with An American In Paris.

Lionel Bringuier conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

MAESTRO OF THE MOVIES: THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS AND MORE – July 12^th – July 14^th

This annual celebration of all things John Williams will be a little different. Yes, Williams curated the program utilizing his own music and many classic scores he loves from the Golden Age, but he will not be appearing this year.

Williams had to cancel all upcoming appearances due to a health issue “from which he is expected to make a full recovery.” Does that mean light sabers won’t be at the ready for the inevitable selections of music from Star Wars? Of course not. 

David Newman, who regularly conducts the first half of these concerts each year, will be conducting the full program.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

BIG BAND NIGHT – July 17^th

If you love large ensemble jazz music, this concert is for you. The evening opens with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (who have made countless appearances at the Hollywood Bowl).

Next up is The Count Basie Orchestra who will feature vocalist Nnenna Freelon. 

The headliner is the Maria Schneider Orchestra which is celebrating its 30^th anniversary. Earlier this year Maria Schneider released a 3-lp vinyl box set entitled Decades. You can’t stream that recording, you can only get it here. But you can hear this incredible artist and her musicians live. This is her only US appearance until September.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

STRAVINSKY & KHACHATURIAN – July 30^th

I’ve written before how Aram Khachaturian’s music isn’t performed often enough. As they did in the Walt Disney Concert Hall this season, the LA Philharmonic is breathing new life into his work in this program that features the composer’s Violin Concerto and the Spartacus Suite No. 2.  Martin Chalifour is the soloist for the concerto.

The concert closes with the 1919 version of Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite. Kevin John Edusei conducts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

PROKOFIEV & SHOSTAKOVICH – August 6^th

One of my top five piano concerti of the entire repertoire is being performed by Denis Kozhukhin in this concert. It is Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26. (My favorite recording of it is by Martha Argerich.)

The second half of the program is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. The work was completed the same year that Joseph Stalin died and is widely interpreted as the composer’s commentary on the brutality of the Soviet government during Stalin’s reign. It’s a big and powerful symphony.

Ryan Bancroft leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

HERBIE HANCOCK HEAD HUNTERS 50^th – August 14^th

Where were you on October 26, 1973? Maybe you remember the release of Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters which is considered amongst the best jazz-fusion/jazz-funk albums of all time.

Watermelon Man may not be a title recognize, but I guarantee you the music has burrowed its way into your soul. 

This is the ONLY reunion of Hancock with the surviving members of that record:  drummer Harvey Mason; saxophonist Bennie Maupin and percussionist Bill Summers.  Playing bass is Marcus Miller as original bassist Paul Jackson passed away in 2021.

The original four-track album runs less than 45 minutes. Which means there will be a whole lot more music performed by Hancock and his bandmates.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

THE ELEMENTS WITH JOSHUA BELL – August 15^th

Joshua Bell commissioned five composers to write individual movements based on the elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Space.  Those composers are Kevin Puts, Edgar Meyer, Jennifer Higdon, Jake Heggie and Jessie Montgomery.

Bell performs the work with Rodolfo Barráez conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Also on the program are Aaron Copland’s El Salón México, which opens the concert and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story  which closes the concert.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

SARA BAREILLES WITH THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL ORCHESTRA – August 17^th

What at one point years ago might have seemed like a pop concert, is now pure heaven for musical theater lovers. Sara Bareilles is a three-time Tony Award nominee having received two nominations for Best Original Score (Waitress in 2016 and SpongeBob SquarePants in 2018) and for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for the 2023 revival of Into the Woods.

Of course, she’ll perform music from throughout her career and this is her only concert on her schedule until late September.

But wait, there’s more. Tony Award winner Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton) will open the show.

Thomas Wilkins conducts the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

THE RITE OF SPRING – August 22^nd

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky is one of classical music’s most important and enduring works. Hearing this monumental work outside is reason enough to see this concert. But fans of Stravinsky’s music are in for a full evening of his genius.

Teddy Abrams, Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra, conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a concert that opens with Stravinsky’s arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner. His Circus Polka follows and the first half closes with Leila Josefowicz performing his Violin Concerto. Then the main attraction is on tap for the second half of the program.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

DUDAMEL LEADS BEETHOVEN 9^th – September 10^th

Not sure what else anyone needs to know beyond Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. But here goes:

The soloists for this concert are bass Dashon Burton; mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey; tenor Anthony León; countertenor Key’mon Murrah and soprano Hera Kyesang Park. The Los Angeles Master Chorale also performs.

The concert opens with Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

DUDAMEL AND THE STARS OF OPERA – September 12^th

I couldn’t tell you the last time tenor Jonas Kaufmann performed in Los Angeles, but I can tell you the next time he will – at this concert where he will be joined by soprano Diana Damrau.

The two will perform selected arias and duets.

The concert opens with Verdi’s Overture to I vespri sicilliani which is followed by the ever-popular Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni. Respighi’s Pines of Rome closes the concert.

Gustavo Dudamel leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Those are the 12 Hollywood Bowl Concerts Not to Miss in my opinion. What concerts are on the top of your list? Let me know in the comments.

Main Photo: Hollywood Bowl 2023 (Photo by Craig L. Byrd)

The post 12 Hollywood Bowl Concerts Not To Miss This Summer appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

My top pick is:

JAZZ: ABIDING MEMORY – Phillip Golub – Endectomorph

In Vijay Iyer’s liner notes for this impressive album he writes, “Let’s call this the New Brooklyn Complexity, for its particular amalgamation of high-modernist compositional knowhow and cutting-edge improvisational expertise, it’s rough-and-tumble small-group flair and its chamber-music transparency, a type of artistry trained both in classrooms and in clubs, equally adpeted at nested tuplets and fiery grooves.”

I couldn’t have said it better or even in those terms. What I will say is that this is a stunning album that is worth repeated listening so that you can discover more and more layers to this incredibly layered and thoughtful music. Put it on, tune out the rest of the world and listen with an open heart and an open mind and you will create your own abiding memories of hearing Golub’s music.

Here are the other albums I’ve selected for New In Music This Week: June 21st:

CHAMBER MUSIC: SYNTHESIS: THE STRING QUARTET SESSIONS – Ryan Truesdell – ArtistShare

What do you get when large ensemble jazz composers are asked to write string quartets. Would the end result be predominantly classical? Lean heavily into jazz? Become something unique.

First and foremost, this recording is unique – in all the best possible ways. The composers did provide a mix of music that encompasses both classical and jazz influences with some more overtly classical and others more overwhelmingly jazz. But it’s all fascinating.

Truesdell composed for the album as did Joseph Borsellino III, John Clayton, Alan Ferber, Miho Hazama, John Hollenbeck, Christine Jensen, Asuka Kakitani, Oded Lev-Ari, Jim McNeely, Vanessa Perica, Rufus Reid, Dave Rivello and Nathan Parker Smith.

Amongst my favorites are Playground for String Quartet 1. Copycat and Playground for String Quartet 2. Ropes & Ladders by Oded Lev-Ari; Truesdell’s Suite for CIarinet and String Quartet which features Anat Cohen and John Clatyon’s Tidal Wave.

Synthesis proves that labels/genres are best used as marketing tools and not to describe music. 

CLASSICAL MUSIC: GABRIEL FAURÉ – Renaud Capuçon/Orchestrre de Chambre de Lausanne – Deutsche Grammophon

French composer Gabriel Fauré’s Violin Concerto isn’t part of the standard repertoire given that only the first movement was completed. That work launches this 71 minute exploration of Fauré’s work and makes one wish that the composer had completed the work.

Capuçon also performs the composer’s Masques et Bergamasques, Pelléas et Mélisande Suite and more. Fauré’s very popular Pavane is performed in a version for orchestra as is Berceuse arranged for violin and orchestra.

This is a great look at Fauré’s career with beautiful playing by Capuçon.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: VERDI: Inno Delle Nazioni; Quattro Pezzi Sacri – Riccardo Chailly/Orchestra Del Teatro Alla Scala, Milano – Decca

Fans of Verdi’s operas will certainly recognize the name Arrigo Boito as the librettist who wrote the libretti for Falstaff and Otello. His first collaboration with the composer was on Inno delle nazioni which was composed and debuted in 1862 as part of the 1862 International Exhibition in London. 

Tenor Freddie De Tommaso joinsed the Coro Del Teatro Alla Scala Di Milano for this recording of this nearly 14-minute work.

Also on the album is the composer 4 Pezzi Sacri (Four Sacred Pieces). These were written over a period of 11 years and began around the same time that Verdi was composing Otello. 

These are not the most commonly recorded or performed of Verdi’s work. I was much more impressed with the 4 Pezzi Sacri, but this impressive recording is a welcome reminder of Verdi’s non-opera works.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: JULIUS EASTMAN Vol. 4 – THE HOLY PRESENCE – Wild Up – New Amsterdam

This is the fourth year in a row that Los Angeles’ Wild Up has released an album of Julius Eastman’s music. Each year their dedication to Eastman’s music becomes more and more important.

That work continues with The Holy Presence.  The opening track is astonishing and eye-opening. Our Father finds Davóne Tines singing two vocal parts accompanied by Wild Up. It starts strongly and becomes more impressive as the recording goes on.

Pianist Richard Valitutto performs Piano 2 before Tines returns to sing Prelude To The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc. 

These three tracks are the warm-up for The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc which showcases the work of cellist Seth Parker Woods who performs ten cello tracks that are multi-tracked and combined to a staggering result.

There’s so much music of Eastman’s yet to be discovered. I can’t wait to see what next year’s Wild Up recording of his work will offer.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: BETWEEN BREATH – Scott Wollschleger – New Focus Recordings

Composer Wollschleger was commissioned to write music for four different artists. Those artists have recorded each of those commissions for this album that is not for those who don’t want to be challenged by music.

The album opens with Violain(Parts I and II) composed for violinist Maya Bennardo and violist Hannah Levinson who performed  as andPlay. That is followed by the title track performed by pianist Anne Rainwaiter with trombonist William Lang. 

Mezzo-soprano Lucy Dhegrae and pianist Nathaniel LaNasa perform Anyway, where threads go, it all goes well and the album closes with Secret Machine no.7 performed by violinist Miranda Cuckson.

Fans of contemporary classical music will find a lot to admire on this album. 

JAZZ: CHARLES MINGUS EPITAPH – BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin/Randy Brecker – Euro Arts Music International

In 1989, a decade after the death of Charles Mingus, his epic composition Epitaph was rediscovered.  It’s a mammoth work that runs over two hours and requires a large ensemble.

Amongst those who recorded this work in 1989 was trumpeter Randy Brecker. He revisits this work in this incredible recording from the 2022 Musikfest Berlin which celebrated the centennial of Mingus.

 I didn’t know that Deutsche Oper Berlin could swing or that they had a BigBand (that’s the way they spell that ensemble). But they can. Listeners are more than rewarded by spending 136 minutes listening to this album.

JAZZ: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY – Michael Eckroth Group – Truth Revolution Recording Collective

I truly feel like this New In Music This Week: June 21^st has something for everyone – particularly jazz fans. Eckroth is on the piano on this album that is multi-cultural in the best possible ways.

Musical influences from Cuba and Puerto Rico meet up with traditional jazz that finds Eckroth supported by some incredible musicians to play his music. Seven of the eight tracks on the album were written by Eckroth.

They include Alex “Apolo Ayala” on bass, Peter Brainin on tenor saxophone; Mauricio Herrera on percussion; Matt Hilgenburg on trumpet; Carlos Maldonado on percussion; Joel Mateo on drums; Alex Norris on trumpet; Edward Perez and Raul Reyes on bass.

No two jazz albums on this week’s list find themselves mining the same terrain. Eckroth’s album is a joyful excursion to two incredible islands rich with music.

JAZZ: WANDERING TALK – Orlando le Fleming & Romantic Funk – Whirlwind Recordings

This is jazz that dabbles in music with a  funky side. Music that is both free flowing with improvisation while sometimes maintaining a groove that is undeniable. This is a brisk 37-minute album, but one that will make your commute more enjoyable, your daily tasks less irksome and put some pep in your step as day turns to night.

Joining bassist/composer le Fleming on this album are Tom Cawley on piano and keyboards; Philip Dizack on trumpet; Nathaniel Facey on saxophone and James Maddren on drums. Chris Martin of Coldplay and his daughter Nadia are special guests for one track. 

Not every track is funky, but we all need to pace ourselves, right? Wandering Talk has the perfect balance to make all this talk wonderful.

JAZZ: INVISIBLE CINEMA – Aaron Parks – Blue Note Records Classic Vinyl Reissue Series

This vinyl release marks the first time pianist/composer Parks’ Invisible Cinema has been released in that format. It’s a great opportunity to revisit this remarkable album from 2008.

Drummer Eric Harland, guitarist Mike Moreno and bassist Matt Penman joined Parks for this album.

It has been quite a few years since I last listened to Invisible Cinema, but as soon as I heard Travelers, the track that opens the album, it was like coming home. 

This two-LP set also includes two tracks that had previously only been released in Japan:  Memory of a Flameand an alternate take of Travelers.

If you aren’t a vinyl collector, I urge you to check out this album. If you are, I bet you can’t wait to hear Invisible Cinema!

JAZZ: SEPTEMBER NIGHT – Thomasz Stanko Quartet – ECM

This live recording of the late Stanko and his musicians dates from 2004 and was recorded in Munich. The trumpeter/composer is joined by bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz , drummer Michal Miskiewicz and pianist Marcin Wasilewski as he had often been up until the last year before he passed away.

All of the songs are, in some way or another, theatrical which is also the name of the last track on this incredible album. This music feels like it would be right at home in movies like Body Heat or Double Indemnity.

Stanko composed six of the seven tracks on this nearly hour-long album. Kaetano is credited to all four musicians. He was well-known as a free jazz musician. That style is fully on display here but it is performed in such an understated and beautiful way that this is an album I will be returning to over and over again.

VOCALS: DON’T COMPROMISE YOURSELF- THE VERY BEST OF MARY BRIDGET DAVIES – Mary Bridget Davies – Center Stage Records

Davies was a 2014 Tony Award nominee for her performance in A Night With Janis Joplin.  There’s a reason she was cast in that show as she has the perfect rock/blues voice which is showcased in this two disc set.

The first disc has 13 tracks and includes Piece of My Heart, Stay With Me/Cry Baby and the title track. The second disc that has studio recordings of a few of the same songs that appear on the first disc.

On that second disc is Master of Disguise which finds Davies asking “which one is the shadow, which one is me?” These two discs prove that yes, Davies can rock with the best of them, but she can also take things down a few notches and be equally impressive.

This is truly a fun album.

VOCALS: PARTING GIFT: THE SONGS OF GERALD GINSBURG – Various Artists – PS CLASSICS

Composer Ginsburg is not someone with whom I was familiar. Chances are you aren’t either since it wasn’t until his death in 2019 that most of his songs were discovered. Most of them are less than 3 minutes, but they are little gems. 

That they are makes it easy to understand why such artists as Victoria Clark, Jason Danieley, Jordan Danica, Telly Leung, Kelli O’Hara and Elizabeth Stanley have recorded them for this collection. All the artists are accompanied by a 17-piece orchestra.

Ginsburg set poems by Byron, Cummings, Hughes, Millay, Shelley and more for these 23 songs.  The album is released digitally today with a CD scheduled for release on July 12^th.

That’s all for New In Music This Week: June 21st.

Enjoy the music!

Enjoy your weekend!

Main Photo: Part of the album art for Abiding Memory

The post New In Music This Week: June 21st appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Also appearing on the program are Michael Bublé, Cynthia Erivo, Dave Koz and members of the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA). They will all be accompanied by Thomas Wilkins leading the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Six years ago I spoke with Monica Mancini about her father, what he’d think of her career and more. With this Sunday’s concert fast-approaching, I’ve expanded the previous post to include new material not previously published before.

I recently spoke with Mancini, or Monica as she insisted, a couple days in advance of the concert. We talked about her father, his work and what she learns from his music.

You broke out from the world of back-up singing into a soloist after your father passed away. Does that seems like an odd way to launch a solo career?

It’s true. It’s what happened. In a heartbeat I’d give it all up if he was sill around. I would. It’s just kind of the way life rolled in this case. It is a gift. Our music, this generation of music, the Mancini generation, they aren’t making them like that so much. I enjoy continuing a legacy and reminding people how great this music is.

We live in a culture where if it didn’t happen ten minutes ago you hear the refrain, “that was before my time.” What are the challenges in reaching out to younger audiences who may have no idea who Henry Mancini was?

It isn’t even that young anymore. It blows my mind when someone is 40 and I say “Do you know who Henry Mancini is?” and they shrug. If I say “Do you know the theme to The Pink Panther?” they respond with “I love that song.” His name isn’t a household word anymore. I don’t know what to say or do anymore. I think singers like Lady Gaga and her artistry would appreciate being able to sing a really good song.

Michael Bublé gave the Mancini’s a boost when he did Call Me Irresponsible. We try to always get Dad’s songs when an album was coming up. Gregg Field, my producer and husband, played on Barbra Streisand’s The Movie Album. He brought dad up to James Brolin and she added Moon River.

Though you sing a wide range of songs, you’ve spent a good amount of time celebrating your father’s work. How much work does it take you as a singer to find your own personal way into his songs?

This is still a work in progress. I’ve been singing his music since he passed away [in 1994]. The following year I was given an opportunity to do some tribute concerts. I was a studio singer. Id din’t have designs on being a solo singer. But given the opportunity, it’s been really nice.

I’ve been honing that all these years. I’m still wanting it to be the perfect interpretation. It’s not like I’m flailing, waiting for this inspiration. I’m very happy with my performances of his music. He wrote such beautiful melodies to sing and worked with these awesome lyricists. It’s fun to sing and it’s worth exploring the lyrics a little bit more because some of them are so deep and wonderful.

Does Henry Mancini the film composer take a back seat to Henry Mancini the songwriter?

No because truly when he went to score a film, he went to score a film. Let’s use Moon River. He didn’t set out to write a hit song. He didn’t set out to write Moon River. That was part of the score and part of the job – finding a theme and finding something for Audrey Hepburn to sing. It was a bonus he could write hit songs. I think the process and his whole joy of scoring films kind of was equal to the charge of having a hit song.

I think the process and whole joy obscuring films was equal to the charge of having a hit song. He never talked about it, but I can only surmise. But I don’t think one took a back seat to the other.

One of the films he did was Victor, Victoria. That film took risks when it was released in 1982 in depicting gender and sexuality issues. Why do you think that film still resonates and is still funny and moving?

It’s a perfect movie. It’s brilliant and it’s Blake Edwards at his finest. I was a huge James Garner fan. I could watch him sit and breathe. And Robert Preston. These people are little gifts and you don’t see the likes of Garner or Preston anymore. Their era is gone. Obviously the music is cool. During the film dad was very healthy. But when he was writing the show for Broadway, that’s when he got sick. I was doing demos for Julie Andrews so she could hear the songs. I was close to that experience back then. I don’t know why, but it is just the little perfect movie.

You once told the New York Times that when you asked your father if you could join his shows as a singer he told you, “I work alone, kid.” What do you think he’d say about the career you’ve created for yourself?

He’d say “Never mind.” He would just be a blubbering puddle in the audience. He was always very proud of me. I’ve come a long way from my demo days and It think he would be extremely proud. He was never one of those guys who insisted that any of us go into the business. It wasn’t anything he thought, “I hope my children live up to…”

If he was around he’d be doing it himself. The fact that I’m so at home with his music and I sing it so often – he’s never that far away. I’m not a big believer in heaven and “daddy’s looking down on you.” I’m not there. I hold him. I know where he is in me.

This story was originally published in October of 2018 and has been updated with additional material.

The post Monica Mancini Celebrates the Music of Her Father, Henry appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

A Strange Loop has opened at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles where it will play through June 30th. If you haven’t seen A Strange Loop, the musical is about a Black, gay usher (named Usher) working at The Lion King, who writes a musical about a Black, gay usher, working at The Lion King…of course, that’s the easy description.

Jackson did not rest on his laurels. His musical White Girl in Danger ran off-Broadway last spring. His new musical, Teeth, written with Anna K. Jacobs, opened at Playwrights Horizon earlier this year and is transferring to New World Stages this fall.

With A Strange Loop coming to Los Angeles, I knew it would be a challenge to be one of those people asking Jackson questions. I saw the show in New York and loved it, but there were things I wanted to know. Thankfully Jackson agreed to the interview you are about to read.

Of course, what follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. But you can watch the full conversation on the Cultural Attaché YouTube channel.

Q: What has this musical that you’ve given the world taught you over the course of your five year journey, which I know is a much longer journey because you had been working on it for 20 years?

It taught me that persistence is key and that we, as human beings, have a lot more in common than we have not in common. That’s been an interesting sort of lesson to learn each time I encounter the piece out in the world.

While in New York I strongly encouraged a straight couple and their teenage daughter to see A Strange Loop. I wasn’t fully sure how they would respond. They all came out of it loving it because they saw themselves in Usher. Is that the response you hoped for when writing the show?

The show is about a character who is exploring very explicitly his own internal makeup. I feel that when people watch it, they can’t help but do that for themselves. So it’s an exploration of the self. He is a fat, Black gay man. That’s the makeup that he has to work with. That’s not what everybody else’s makeup is necessarily, but they all have whatever their makeup is. 

Why do you think the show has resonated the way it has?

I think because the show is very open and very truthful and honest – sort of to its fault lines. It says things out loud that most people don’t really talk about openly, except maybe with an intimate friend or therapist. I think that it gives people permission to wade into certain territory that they wouldn’t ordinarily do in mixed company. 

And yet they all end up on their feet at the end of the show.

I think Usher’s journey is a really interesting one where he’s so miserable for so much of it and yet, by the end of it, there’s a brief but amazing moment of self-acceptance. I think that’s a cool change to watch. 

You’ve regularly been asked about how autobiographical this show is and I love your response that it’s emotionally autobiographical. Do you think people finally understand that you are not Usher and Usher is not you?

No, I don’t understand that at all. I’ll just keep telling them that until I’m dead in the grave and even beyond then. I’ll keep telling them it’s not autobiographical, but that there’s still many people who won’t believe me.

Why do you think that is? Nobody thinks that. Nobody thinks that Stephen Sondheim is Joanne in Company. 

Right? I mean, I think it’s because there is so much about it that is personal. Usher is, you know, a fat Black gay man with a famous name who’s writing a musical. I am a fat Black gay man with a famous name. I never said that it’s not a personal piece or that I didn’t draw from personal experience. I just said it’s not autobiographical because autobiography is a specific genre. It’s a specific form. That’s not what A Strange Loop is. It’s something stranger, frankly. As much as you want to make it be about me, there’s just too many ways in which it isn’t.

If anything, it’s a self portrait. It’s an attempt to capture a kind of experience from the inside. Something that I began when I was about 23 years old. I’m now 43 years old, so I’m literally not the same person. I have a very different life now than I did then.

For the original Broadway production the entire cast was queer-identifying. Is that something that is part of what you want all productions to embrace? 

I just saw a production in Boston which was the first regional production of it that wasn’t affiliated with the Broadway production. Everyone in the production identifies as Black. But there was one cast member who I believe was like a Puerto Rican or something. Everybody in that production was queer. Not everybody in this production is. Not everybody in the London production was queer either. But they all rose to the task of the character, of the spirit of the piece. I’m really excited, as it continues to be produced, for companies to decide for themselves what the spirit of the piece is, how they’re going to do that, and who are the people who they’re going to task with honoring the spirit of the piece.

I’m not going to say that I want there to be like an all-straight A Strange Loop or anything like that. But I will say that I believe in performance. I believe in acting. I believe in the material. I think there’s more flexibility in how and who can do that. I’m interested in how far people can push it before it becomes something else.

You went on as Usher for three performances in January of 2023. What your perspective being on stage watching a Broadway house see your show, particularly when it got to the point where you’re doing AIDS is God’s Punishment? 

It was a really profound and they were powerful performances for me. I went from having lived the life that I drew from in order to write this piece, to having to then perform the piece and direct that outward. I’m the only person in the history of A Strange Loop who looked at clouds from both sides now. I’d seen it from both vantage points. I felt the loop in both directions. I feel very blessed to have had that opportunity to do that.

Getting to AIDS is God’s Punishment, that song has so many meanings to me, in part because of things that have happened in my life that influenced the writing of it. It was an honor for me to step inside of that and get to literally embody it for those performances. 

I don’t know what your perspective was on stage, but I know sitting in the audience when Usher encourages to clap along, I just said, oh no, no, no, there is no way I’m clapping along to this. Did you see people with hesitation? Did you see a divide, people who clap and people who won’t at all?

My favorite part of A Strange Loop is the moment when everyone has to decide what their relationship to the gospel play is. I clap every single time. Every time I see the show, I clapped. It’s my honor to clap. I love it. Some people start and they stop. Some people never start. Some people look around and are angry that other people are clapping. Some people are confused.

But all of those responses are literally what Usher wants. That’s what it feels like to be him. It’s to have conflicted emotions in this sort of musical fantasia. In this hate-filled but beautifully underscored, beautifully sung gospel moment. That’s what it feels like inside of him. He is directing that outward so that people can experience it because he’s been showing you his impression of it the whole time. But until you’re in it, you’ll never know.

There’s a lyric in Tyler Perry Writes Real Life: “I’m into entertainment that is undercover art.” How much does that ideal guide you whether you were creating A Strange Loop or White Girl in Danger or Teeth?

I’m always pushing for entertainment that’s undercover art. That’s the work that I’ve always liked the best. That’s what inspired me. I looked to this as my guiding light and my guiding star as I was honing my craft and learning how to make the work I wanted to make. But that work is not always going to win the box office.

How much do you want to express yourself in a way that is organic and natural to you as opposed to trying to satisfy algorithms or any other formulas that either computers or executives think are the way to make art work? 

I’m often thinking about that, about how I don’t want to sell out. I want to honor my artistry. But it’s getting a lot harder. The economics of theater are so, so, so, so, so difficult. I’m often wondering, what do I do? Because it’s not really in me to sell out. I spent so many years perfecting the thing that I do that I don’t just have this other instinct in my back pocket. It doesn’t come naturally to me. I guess that means I have to continue to push my little Sisyphean boulder up the hill and see if I can get it to the top, or if it will press me on the way down.

I read the tweet that you posted on April 8th in relation to Jerrod Carmichael’s reality show. You wrote, “Every act of content creation is an act of content destruction. Stop wasting our time. We have less of it to spend than we think.” I love the idea that every act of content creation is an act of content destruction.

Joni Mitchell has this lyric on her 1972 song Electricity that goes, “I’m out of touch with the breakdown of this century.” That’s sort of how I feel in the content era. Everybody’s on their phone. There’s a meme for every emotion that you could possibly feel or not feel. There’s this constant pressure to broadcast every aspect of your life. I have been very guilty of this, so I’m not at all above it, but I do think that everything about our lives is so disposable. And I just hate that.

I never thought that everything was so disposable growing up when I was reading books or watching movies or TV. Maybe it is, but I’m resistant to that. I want the art that I try to make, I want it to last. I want it to mean something to people and to be something that you can go back to and that it can resonate with you beyond just the moment that you watch a two second clip of it online or a meme. I don’t want to be a meme. For good or for ill, that’s what I’ve been trying to do all these years.

Langston Hughes is quoted as saying, “Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people, the beauty within themselves.” How has the totality of the experience of A Strange Loop allowed you to accept that you have interpreted your own beauty and how will that inspire you moving forward? 

It’s been a real loop roller coaster ride for me because sometimes I would feel like, wow, what a cool thing I’ve made that has shown, as you say, beauty to the world. But then other times I felt like, oh, God, I made something that’s just a vehicle for narcissism and navel gazing. But then I come back to I made something that is a real vehicle for a lot of Black actors to come together, to tell a story of a person trying to find themselves and somewhat succeeding. That feels like a win. So I can only hope that continues. That there’s a will to continue to tell that story and to find artists who want to tell that story as difficult as it is to tell.

To watch the full interview with Michael R. Jackson, please go here.

Main Photo: Michael R. Jackson (Photo by Zack DeZon/Courtesy Center Theatre Group)

The post Michael R. Jackson Is Not Usher in “A Strange Loop” appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“Yuval was very complimentary about Afterword, which was great for me,” Lewis told me recently of Sharon’s response to Lewis’ 2015 opera. He continued, “So at some point he called and said he was interested in double consciousness. I had just been reading The Comet, which is a short story by W.E.B. Du Bois. a kind of proto-Afrofuturist.”

The end result is The Comet / Poppea which combines parts of Monteverdi’s opera with Lewis’ The Comet. Performances begin at The Warehouse at Geffen Contemporary at MOCA on June 14th and run through June 23rd. The libretto is by Douglas Kearney.

In Du Bois’ story, a comet has struck the world and all that survived is a Black man and a white woman.

Lewis then discusses the plot of this short story. “They find each other and they start to think about what life has been like and what it could be like, perhaps under a new regime. And this is something where Du Bois gets a chance to think about social forces and their role in upholding white supremacy, patriarchy, and so on.”

But it still seems like a stretch to combine a new opera with Poppea. But Lewis tells more.

“They’re both about power and privilege and about patriarchy and time travel, or travel across dimensions or parallel universes. So there’s a double science fiction aspect. That becomes already something where you get maybe more than double consciousness as you get multiple consciousness.”

Perhaps to better understand how this might work together, perhaps defining double consciousness would be helpful.

“I think the original Du Bois formulation, as I recall, was that you were sort of like The Bourne Identity,” Lewis said. “Black Americans used to hear about this consciousness themselves as human beings, that’s how it should be and then as a Negro. How those two inform and deform, their everyday experience.” Though Lewis went on to fully reveal the full story, reading Du Bois’ writing or seeing The Comet / Poppea is a better way to have it unfold for you.

If it sounds confusing, rest assured Lewis is more concerned with where his works lead you as opposed to whether or not you understand them.

“Some people don’t have to understand what I was thinking. They can come to their own ideas about it and then they can enjoy that. I’m more interested in this: I want people to come out of the experience, thinking, wow, that was really different. I’ve never heard anything quite like that before. And then the next step in their thinking is, that was different. So I wonder what else around here could be different? What needs changing. You’ve already changed me.”

Since that is a philosophy at least in some part shared with Yuval Sharon, their partnership on this project makes complete sense.

“I think that this is something that Yuval has managed to do throughout [his] whole time with The Industry – which is to make make things that not only challenge you, but to cope with experiences you’re not going to be able to predict in advance. Even if you’ve heard it several times, you can hear it again and you still don’t quite know how it’s going to be. I think that’s very important to sort of play around with memory and to make sure that memory is something that we have to build, that we just can’t accept nostalgia. I think that’s what’s going to happen in this opera.”

Sharon and has team have carefully blended to the two works into one seamless production. The Comet / Poppea is performed on a rotating stage allowing audience members to see different aspects of the story as the stage rotates – thus creating a physical double consciousness.

“We want to give the audience freedom. That’s why we don’t make fixed relationships between the music and the dance, because we want to give people freedom to create their own relationships. We’ve created one relationship. But it’s not a matter of just decoding what the composer and the creators think. It’s kind of using this as a springboard for your own thinking.”

Lewis is also looking for new ways for himself to think. To create. To evolve. Yuval is doing the same as are other directors working in the opera world. This production allows both of these men to move the needle, yours and the art form’s.

“It’s not like you’re looking for influence. What you’re looking for is the possibility for other people to do things. What’s happening is that ideas are sort of moving back and forth between the historical realms, which are always making new histories. I’m looking at this more as increasing the amount of freedom or the feeling of freedom that we have to make these kinds of interventions. I think that anyone who sees this, it’s going to be wow, that was different. I guess I could do stuff different too, which means I’ll probably have to change a lot of what goes on now.”

If you surmise this deep-thinking composer is concerned about his legacy, you’d be as mistaken as I was when I asked the question.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen there. I mean, I wrote a few books. I wrote a lot of articles. I contributed to various fields trying to write music. Who knows what happens with it, you know? I try to help people in general, whatever it is, writing or music, writing or whatever. Maybe there’s something that takes a spark in them, and then you hope they go out and help other people. I hope I was helpful.”

Main Photo: George Lewis at a rehearsal of The Comet / Poppea (Photo by Erin Baiano/Courtesy The Industry)

The post Composer George Lewis Gets Struck by a Comet appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

As it was last year, Herbie Hancock and Kamasi Washington serve as the curators for the festival. Each show offers traditional jazz combined with artists who blur the lines of how one defines jazz.

One quick reminder if you are planning to attend, one of the parking lots adjacent to the Hollywood Bowl has been converted to exclusively ride-share drop-offs and pick-ups. So parking is a bit more challenging than you might be accustomed to. This might be a good time to explore public transportation to get to and from The Bowl.

Here’s my sampler for Saturday’s line-up:

Mulatu Astatke – “Azmari” from his 2013 album Sketches of Ethiopia

Cimafunk – Playa Noche

Andra Day – Probably

Charles Lloyd – The Ghost of Lady Day

Christian McBride – from the Torino Jazz Festival earlier this year

Here is my pre-game playlist for Sunday:

Baby Rose – KCRW Live from HQ

The Brian Blade Fellowship – Live from San Antonio

The Soul Rebels – Last year’s Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival

Cory Henry – Switch

Kamasi Washington – Asha The First

The summer truly kicks off for me with the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival. I’ll be there…hope you will, too.

The post Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival Sampler appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Schubert now steps up for another challenge: the sole singing role in Kate Soper‘s Ipsa Dixit. Long Beach Opera is performing Ipsa Dixit at the Art Theater in Long Beach on June 8th and 9th. It’s a very difficult work that Soper wrote for herself to sing accompanied by three musicians on flute, percussion and violin.

For this production, director James Darrah is adding two dancers (Anna Souder and Leslie Andre Williams) from the Martha Graham Dance company performing choreography created by Janet Eilber.

There are also film elements from Carl Theodore Dreyer’s silent film classic The Passion of Joan of Arc. Christopher Rountree conducts.

Recently I spoke with Schubert about her passion for contemporary opera, taking over a role originally performed by composer Soper and finding the inspiration to tackle such complex roles. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: You are a passionate advocate for new works and for contemporary classical music. What do you think are the greatest misconceptions about what new music is today?

I think one of the greatest misconceptions is that the audience won’t understand it or won’t respond to it, or especially that new audiences will not want to see it. Every time I do any new work I have people come up to me afterward that say, this was my first opera, or, this was my first time coming to see something like this. I didn’t know opera could be like this. I didn’t know that this kind of music existed. And they’re always really excited, just entranced by what they saw. 

You have worked with Kate Soper before on The Romance of the Rose. What do you most respond to in her work? 

I think an advantage that Kate has as a composer is that she knows what she wants and she’s very exact about what she writes and how she wants it in the score. Oftentimes she’ll write staging out. In The Romance of the Rose there was staging written in already. With Ipsa Dixit there’s like 30 pages or so of performance notes before the score, that have text and translations and notes about what certain figures might mean – in terms of the sound that you’re supposed to produce. Everything is written in there for you. 

But there is freedom for you as an artist to bring what you do to it as well, right? It’s not regimented.

There’s plenty of room for artistic interpretation as well. But she is very meticulous in the details of her work. More so, I think, than other composers that I’ve worked with. But yeah, there is still plenty of room for like, how do I want my face to look or what kind of a forte do I want to make this. It doesn’t have to be the exact same as everyone else’s or hers. She was the first one to perform this and the person who most performs it well.

That gives her an advantage as a composer because she is writing for her voice, which means she must know very well how to write for voice. 

I think she knows very well how to write for a lot of instruments. She does write really well for voice, but I think also she has like a unique instrument that she writes for specifically. As a soprano, I rarely have to go below a middle C, and she goes below middle C a lot because I think she has a very unique range where she can just belt out in her chest voice. I think the lowest note I have to go down to in this piece is a D flat below which I had never sung out loud before. Then the highest note is a high D, so it’s a very rangy piece.

You’re kind of trying to fit into the the box that she created for you. If maybe you’re used to kind of existing over here, well, for this piece you need to exist here. So you better figure it out.

If you were to describe Ipsa Dixit to people who have no idea what it is, how would you describe it?

I don’t know, because it’s not an opera. And it’s not a song cycle. And it’s not really a chamber piece, but it is also all of those things. It is hard to define it. It is just like a doctoral thesis, encapsulated in a piece of music. It’s very, very, complex and intricate and there’s a lot of philosophical text; there’s philosophical questions posed and answered. There’s also drama. There’s also poetry. There’s the drama of opera, but there’s also the poetic nuance of art song and then there’s also a bunch of extended technique and the wild things that we’re doing.

Given how many different sources are used for the text, is there any part of the text that you most that most resonates with you that you are most passionate about?

I think the metaphysics movement – which is movement five of the whole piece. It’s this whole existential question where she’s talking about what is matter? What is existence, really? It’s the only part of the piece where I get a break as the singer, where the instrumentalists just take over for a few pages. It’s kind of eerie, but it’s also calming in a way.

This is not your first collaboration with Long Beach Opera. Nor is it your first collaboration with James Darrah, who, I thin, in the best possible way, is a disruptor. But only in the sense of moving the art form forward. How does this production accomplish that goal?

This is an opera company and this is a very nontraditional performance for an opera company to offer. I think something that James is very passionate about, and something that I appreciate as a performer myself and someone that loves to do new works, is that he programs so much new music on the main stage. It’s part of the main season. It’s not a side project.

Opera, whether new or old, I think is at its best when it’s dealing with really big emotions and complex issues. But what are the personal challenges of delving so deeply into this kind of material?

For me, that’s always been about having some kind of balance. I know with p r i s m, it just weighed so heavily on me while we were rehearsing it. I mean, how could it not? When I’m here, in my home, your time is your own. In the weeks leading up to this, I was just rehearsing by myself at home as much as I could. Now that we’re in rehearsals, I’m trying to keep my home a much more sterile place. I’m done rehearsing for the day, I’m going to go home and do dishes and make food for myself and see my family and take my dog on a walk. I think that helps compartmentalize.

When I spoke to Kate, she told me that she hopes that one of the reasons her stuff is you’re sticking around is because it’s just really challenging and interesting and a fun experience for the performers. Is this work fun to do?

I’m going to be honest, this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever put together. I was actually going to send her an email today saying as much. Memorization wise, it’s definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever had to memorize. All new music is more challenging than we’re used to when you’re only studying super tonal, melodic, beautiful, romantic things in school – which is often the case. I don’t think that this kind of music is studied enough or prioritized enough in conservatories, at least in the US.

This music is very, very challenging, and I’m sure she wrote it to be that way. But therein lies the satisfaction of putting it together. I think she’s right about that, because it is challenging. That’s one of the reasons that it’s had a long life because everyone wants to climb that mountain, right? When you see something difficult, you’re just like, well, I want to show people I can do that.

There’s a manipulated film component to this production and that’s Carl Theodore Dreyer’s, silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc. Dreyer is quoted as having said, “There is no greater experience in a studio than to witness the expression of a sensitive face under the mysterious power of inspiration. To see it animated from inside and turning into poetry.” How does the mysterious power of inspiration work in your life, both professionally and personally?

It’s still mysterious to me in a lot of ways. Inspiration strikes me at all those inconvenient times [like] when I’m trying to fall asleep at night. When I’m working on a piece and I’m just really in the thick of it, I find myself going to sleep at night and thinking about the words.

I tend to find the most inspiration when I am outside, away from overstimulation. Definitely on a hike. Or I like to be outside at night. I can’t count the number of times I’ve just gone on night walks by myself and listened to music that I love.

You have a whole universe swirling around because you’ve been able to just block out all the extraneous noise. The stillness in there. So that I think that is when I find my mysterious inspiration strikes.

To see the full interview with Anna Schubert, please go here.

Main Photo: Mona Tian and Anna Schubert in Ipsa Dixit (Photo by Jason Al-Taan/Courtesy Long Beach Opera)

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This is the 12th year of the event that celebrates the legendary Garland while also raising money for the Ali Forney Center, an organization that provides housing and services to homeless LGBTQ+ in New York City.

Bond, who uses v as the preferred pronoun, is a transgender singer, actor, cabaret artist whose shows (including Rare Bird which premiered at Joe’s Pub in New York in early May and will be performed May 30th – June 1st at Feinsteins At the Nikko in San Francisco; Bond will debut Night Shade at Joe’s Pub June 20th – June 30th) range from the brilliant to the absurd in equal measure. V is also one half of Kiki & Herb with Kenny Mellman.

In 2021, Bond collaborated with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo on a show called Only an Octave Apart. The critically-acclaimed show was recorded and the album was released in January of 2022

Last week I spoke with Bond about Garland’s influence, whether having a legacy is important to v and the role of dreams in one’s life. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with Bond, please go to our YouTube channel.

You are the first recipient of the Judy Icon Award at Night of a Thousand Judys. How did that feel when you found out?

I’m very honored. Justin Sayre is somebody who I’ve respected for a long time. The work that he has done in the queer community, his performances and what he has to say with his work has always been very important and inspiring. So, to be honored by him and the group of people that he works with on the show is very flattering, obviously. You know, to get a Judy award, that’s pretty fancy. 

I read an interview that Anthony Roth Costanzo gave to the New York Times in September 2021 when you were doing Only an Octave Apart. He talked about the process of working with you and said, “I’m always looking for structure. And Viv is always like, ‘Don’t box me in because it’s not going to be as good.'” That sounded like something Judy Garland would say. How much of an influence has Judy Garland been on you both as a as a professional and as a person? 

When I was a kid, as everybody who grew up the generation I did, every year The Wizard of Oz played on TV. And every year I was terrified by the flying monkeys and the Wicked Witch and I identified with Dorothy Gale. Growing up in a small town as a queer person, you know that somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly, why can’t I? That was the question I asked myself when I was very young.

Of course, when you’re young and you see these sort of tragic stories play out, they’re very dramatic. But now that I’m 61 and knowing that I’m a decade-and-a-half older than she was when she passed away, it gives you a different perspective. But she has given me, I don’t know, fodder and intellectual inspiration, I guess, for my entire life.

Has the role she’s played as an influence in your own life evolved as you’ve gotten older and as you’ve come to understand that she was much more than just the character of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz? 

Yes. There’s no way that I think you could really understand fully what she experienced if you haven’t been in show business. I also feel like being a minority in show business, a marginalized sort of person, what people try to get away with because they feel like you are more powerless than they are, can be galling. But fortunately I have somehow managed to avoid that for the most part. I do that not by being in the mainstream, but by basically forging my own path. So I think maybe I learned that from her as a cautionary tale, as well as just the brilliance of her talent and hard work. 

In a 1967 interview that Judy Garland gave Barbara Walters on the Today Show she said, “I’ve gotten to the age where I rebelled, and I’m going to hit and hit back.” With all the political rhetoric that we’re facing right now, from all walks of life, about trans, non-binary people, what’s the best way to to rebel against that vitriol that accompanies these comments and actually inspires even greater vitriol?

My strategy, for the most part, has always been to put my body where it needs to be; whether it be on the street, whether it be at a protest, whether it be at a meeting or whether it be on the stage or sometimes on the screen. I feel like the most powerful thing that I can do as a trans person is live as full and rich and joyful a life as I can possibly live, in spite of all of that. I take a lot of comfort in knowing that the people who are coming after us are invariably much less happy and much less comfortable with who they are than we are. 

There’s that old axiom that success is the best revenge. But I think happiness is the best revenge.

I agree completely, and happiness is a skill that you develop and also something that you can’t be all the time. So if you aren’t happy at certain moments, you have to address them. I have a therapist who said, “Well, you are depressed, but you have a good reason for being depressed.” So work on getting through that, addressing it and dealing with it, and then hopefully it will pass. Sometimes it takes the medication, sometimes it takes therapy and sometimes it just takes time.

Kenny Mellman last year compared your level of fandom to Garland’s. “It’s as if Viv were a Judy Garland, but alive.” Of course, that sounds like a variation of your Whitney Houston joke. Your fans will know what I’m talking about, but what parallels do you see between your fan base and the fan base that Judy Garland has? 

They have, what was the line? Judy said they have good taste. I love my fan base and I’m proud of having a very intelligent, witty, and loyal fan base. I try to keep myself as fresh and invigorated for them as possible. It makes it easy because they’re so receptive to what I do and they’re willing to go with me where ever I may take them.

This year is the 55th anniversary of Judy Garland’s death. If 50 or 55 years after you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil somebody wants to prepare a Night of a Thousand Vivs, what would you like it to be? 

I couldn’t care less when I’m dead. I really don’t care. I don’t care if anybody ever remembers me after I’m dead or not. I don’t care about that, honestly. I just want to enjoy my life. That’s up to other people, too. I don’t have that kind of ego where I feel like, oh, I want to live on forever. I really don’t. I think that’s part of why I don’t make so many records, because I don’t really care. I’m not there when people listen to them. So I don’t get any pleasure out of them. You don’t make any money. 

I like singing live, and I guess that would be something also that I have in common with Judy Garland, because her live performances are so much more legendary, and the recordings of her live performances, than her studio records. There’s that chemistry that happens, the empathy and the relationship that you develop with the live audience, that you can’t really create. I think that’s also why working on Only an Octave Apart with Anthony in the studio might have been more powerful than doing solo records in the studio, because we were there together. We were performing for each other, and that, I think, ups the ante.

Even though there’s just a few weeks difference between when you debuted Rare Bird at Joe’s Pub and will now be doing it in San Francisco, does your relationship with the material change? Do you alter the show?

The material will not be the same because when I did the show here in New York, I did it with my full band. I’m coming to San Francisco with David Sytkowski, my pianist. He’s been with me at Feinstein several times now, but the only reason I ever wish I was more famous or more successful is so I could tour with my band because it’s so expensive. It’s impossible. But that doesn’t make the show any less interesting. I spent an entire career and it was just Kenny Mellman and I – pianist and singer on stage. I don’t feel like the audience is losing out on anything. But because of that, I have to work a little harder and come up with a different set list that has a lot of the same material, but some of the things just sounded better because you had background vocalists or just little things that technically wouldn’t work as well.

You’re going to Joe’s Pub for nine performances in late June which will be a completely different show.

Yes, that show is called Night Shade. It’s about how queer people exist at night and songs about nighttime and songs that you would listen to at night. I haven’t completely narrowed down the setlist yet, but I’ve been having a lot of fun picking it out.

When you said Night Shade, I thought, oh, it could be just the crap, the shade, we throw at each other. 

It could just be what we do with eggplant emojis.

You appeared in Desert In, which is a video series that Ellen Reid and James Darrah and christopher oscar peña did. I love how unconventional that series was. What stood out to you most about being part of of that? How much do you think projects like that and Only an Octave Apart, are going to inspire people to explore other ways of presenting music that may not be conventional, or may not even be music that they’re used to listening to?

That was an amazing experience and I felt so lucky to be able to do that during the pandemic. And I have to say, Ellen James and Brad Vernatter who’s the [General] Director at Boston Lyric Opera, found a way to pivot and keep all of these artists engaged and working throughout that pandemic. It was so great because each scene was written by a different composer. It was a huge amount of people and it was so much fun. James is a terrific director. It was a wonderful way of working that I would encourage more people to try because it really appealed to a lot of people.

I think the same thing with Anthony and I. You know cabaret is not one of the top genres in popular entertainment. But I’ve always tried to stay relevant because I just tell the truth. And the only truth I can really tell is my own truth. So working with Anthony and somehow contextualizing all of this opera music that he sings, which is so beautiful…But, you know, I went to his show Orfeo ed Euridice [at the Metropolitan Opera], which premiered last week. I turned to my friend after the show and I said, “The only problem with these operas and they’re all very old – the music’s beautiful, but the characters are all idiots.” You can’t believe how stupid these characters are. So I really love contemporary opera because contemporary opera, a lot of it appeals to a much broader audience because it’s hard to sort of take these things seriously if you’re there for a story because the stories are kind of simple.

During the pandemic James created videos for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra that took classical music off of the concert stage and put it into our day-to-day lives and I feel like Desert In is part of that as well. That’s the way people are going to get seduced by the art form.

It was an interesting story that was kind of provocative. It had queer tales, it had heterosexual [tales], it had diversity and the writing was fantastic. Yeah, that’s what we need.

In André Breton’s Manifestos of Surrealism he wrote, “I have always been amazed at the way an ordinary observer lends so much more credence, and attaches so much more importance, to waking events than to those occurring in dreams.” You have spoken throughout your career about the role dreams play in your life and their significance. Is Breton right? How much does that perspective inspire you?

When I lived in San Francisco, I went to the Jung Institute and I did therapy there when I was in my 20s. When I moved to New York, I found an analyst who worked at the Jung Institute here. So dreams are very informative. Whether they’re waking dreams or just keys into what’s going on or your own anxieties, or how you relate to other people and how they appear when they’re in your dreams. So I think dreams are important. Also being in my 60s now and having had a lot of my dreams come true and finding out, you know, sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes it’s not as exciting as you thought it would be. I think it’s important to never stop coming up with new ones.

It’s always important to realize, even when you have reached your dreams, that there are still more dreams.

Yes, absolutely. Because then if there aren’t, what’s the reason to be alive? My mother passed away last year and I told her the last day of her life how I was so fortunate to have her as a role model because she did not stop growing as a person. Becoming more open to new things and learning things and changing until the very last day of her life. And I hope that I can be that way as well.

Could you have dreamed that you would have this career, that you would be at this place in your life? 

Oh, yeah. And now I have to come up with new dreams. When I was in high school, I used to love The Merv Griffin Show because he had amazing people that were in New York that I had never heard of before. One of them was Alberta Hunter. She was this jazz singer who was successful in the 20s and 30s and into the 40s. But at a certain point, she stepped away from show business and became a nurse and she lied about her age. So when she was 70 or 72, they thought she was 65 and they forced her to retire from nursing. Then she was rediscovered and she put out a few albums and she had a residency at this club here called The Cookery every Monday night for years. And I thought, that’s how I want to end up.

I want to be an old lady who has a residency and a cabaret in New York and I can go sing my songs every week and never stop working. And that’s what I’m planning on. But I want more things to happen between now and then.

UPDATE: This story previously stated the the Joe’s Pub shows were sold out. They are not. Cultural Attaché regrets that error. There was a a link built into that paragraph where you can click co to purchase tickets and get more information.

To see the full interview with Justin Vivian Bond, please go here.

Main Photo: Justin Vivian Bond (Photo by Ruben Afanador/Courtesy Justin Vivian Bond)

The post Mx. Justin Vivian Bond Is Over the Rainbow appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

With there being a holiday there aren’t a lot of new releases. Which is too bad, given the extra day to explore music. But here are several great options.

My top pick for New In Music This Week: May 24th is:

MUSICALS: THE OUTSIDERS – A NEW MUSICAL – Original Broadway Cast Recording – Masterworks Broadway

When the now Broadway musical The Outsiders had its premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in the spring of 2023, critics said there was much to admire, but that perhaps the show had bitten off more than it could chew.

Flash forward and the results of some reworking by the creative team have yielded 12 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical.

I haven’t seen this adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel, but one listen to this OBCR and you immediately get the appeal of this show.  The music and lyrics are by Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay & Zach Chance) and Justin Levine. The book is by playwright Adam Rapp.

Stephen Sondheim always said you must let the audience know in the first 15 minutes what kind of show they are going to see. Tulsa ’67 perfectly accomplishes that as the opening song. The rest of the album is just as strong.

I will definitely see this musical on a future trip to New York City. Until then we al have this wonderful new album.

Here are my other choices for New In Music This Week: May 24^th:

CLASSICAL MUSIC: SCHUBERT: LÄNDLER – Pierre-Laurent Aimard – PENTATONE

Fans of Franz Schubert’s music will certainly want to check out this impressive collection of dances composed by Schubert and performed beautifully by pianist Aimard.

There are 45 different compositions performed on this album including selections from the composer’s Valses sentimentales, Op. 50; 18 German Dances and Ecoissaises; 20 Waltzes, Op. 127 and 36 Originaltänze, Op. 9.

These are seemingly simple pieces, but as everyone know, simplicity is very tough to master. Aimard more than masters the art of simplicity on Ländler. 

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: RENAISSANCE – Matteo Myderwyk

This is the first of two albums on this week’s New In Music This Week: May 24^th that finds composers revisiting their works in a new form. For composer/pianist Myderwyk, music that was previously recorded on an upright piano have been re-recorded on a concert grand piano.

This is my first introduction to Myderwyk and I enjoyed listening to Renaissance. Baroque Voyage, the second track on the album, reminded me of music I have heard on the show Succession, though his playing and writing is much more delicate than the music heard there.

With the exception of Crossing Border and Leaving Time, this is a particularly quiet album. That makes Renaissance an album to savor during troubled times.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC:  GABRÍEL ÓLAFS: ORCHESTRAL WORKS – Reykjavik Orkestra/Viktor Orri Árnason – Decca Records

Icelandic composer/pianist Ólafs has composed new arrangements of tracks from his studio albums (Absent Minded, Solon Islandus and Lullabies for Piano and Cello) for this recording.

I hadn’t heard Ólafs’ previous albums, but there’s something vaguely film score-esque about this music and I mean that in a good way. I easily saw images in my mind, perhaps even of a silent film from Europe, while listening to Orchestral Works.

This is beautiful music to listen to when you just want to escape your world and free your mind.

JAZZ:  OUT OF THE QUESTION – Allegra Levy – Steeple Chase

When I first received this album, I immediately went to eighth track: What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life? It has a haunting melody by Michel Legrand and has been covered hundreds of times. What would Levy do differently?

So impressed was I that I immediately start this album from the very beginning. Each song title asks questions and I had my own question: Where had Allegra Levy been all of my life?

Her singing reflects a number of styles and influences. You also have to admire her chutzpah to perform Should I Stay Or Should I Go? by The Clash. She goes from almost Peggy Lee/Fever type singing to singing the blues. I loved it!

I can answer the question posed by that Clash song: Levy should definitely stay and continue working with her all-female band: Mimi Jones on bass; Allison Miller on drums and Carmen Staaf on piano. 

JAZZ:  SELAH – Jesus Molina – Dynamo Productions

Columbian pianist/composer Jesus Molina’s new album is a kaleidoscope of musical influences wrapped up in 10 original songs.

He is front and center of his trio that includes Guy Bernfield on bass and Cain Daniel on drums. All three musicians graduated from Berklee College of Music.

My favorite tracks on Selah are Dear Fall (with Hubert Laws), Pichi and Blue New Year. Listen to just those three tracks and you’ll get an idea how diverse and broad his imagination is.

JAZZ:  HORIZONS – Alex Sipiagin – Blue Room Music

Trumpeter/composer Sipiagin was a member of the Gil Evans Orchestra and the Mingus Big Band. Those experiences paid off and are on full display in this impressive new album.

Sipiagin, who also plays the flugelhorn, is joined by Matt Brewer on bass; John Escreet on piano and keyboards; Eric Harland on drums and Chris Potter on saxophones for this 10-track album.

Six of these tracks were composed by Sipagin. Two, While You Weren’t Looking which opens the album and When is it Now? were written by Pat Metheny for this album.

There’s a reason Metheny wrote songs for Sipiagin. He’s very talented as Horizons richly proves.

They say that 7 is a lucky number and this week’s New In Music: May 24^th offers some lucky listeners great music.

Enjoy the weekend!

Enjoy the music!

Main Photo: Part of the album art for The Outsiders – A New Musical (Courtesy Masterworks Broadway)

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