Words and Music

BE-BOP WAS THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT JAZZ STYLING to achieve popularity without first having been co-opted by white musicians, but its formative...

THIS HAS BEEN THE KIND OF YEAR that imprints its many aspects on all edges of our cultural life, and we need to go into 2017 with music that...

THANKS TO DENZEL WASHINGTON, we have a Moroccan restaurant in Schenectady. “I’d signed a lease on a building in Harlem,” says Aneesa Waheed,...

THERE WAS A TIME when it was considered unseemly to perform Bach’s solo violin sonatas without added piano, and Schumann was among those who...

Girding Our Loins Dept .: The national tour of “Dirty Dancing” landed at Proctors in Schenectady shortly after the election. The timing offe...

THIS YEAR'S THANKSGIVING theme was French Country Bistro, an excuse for making as many casseroles as possible, thus sparing me a lot of ...

From the Culinary Vault Dept .: What with Thanksgiving looming, let’s skip dinner and move right into dessert – or make dinner a little more...

From the Vault Dept .: Singer-songwriter-guitarist Jim Gaudet has been a folk scene fixture for enough decades to earn every accolade availa...

THERE’S NO GOOD TIME for a flood, but late August has to be the worst for a farming community. The Schoharie Creek ran up over its banks whe...

TWO THINGS ARE HAPPENING on the stage of Catskill’s Bridge Street Theatre this weekend: Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” gets stripped to its d...

BY THE TIME LESTER YOUNG hit the studio in 1936 to make his first recordings, the 27-year-old already had developed a significantly original...

In a Stew Dept. : I recently taught a very successful class about making French stews (at Different Drummer’s Kitchen in Albany, NY), one s...

IT’S EASY, THESE DAYS, to investigate the evolution of motion pictures, but live theater is an experience of the moment and wears its histor...

From the Classical Vault Dept .: Among of the highlights of my busy reviewing schedule thirty years ago were the trips into New York’s Washi...

From the Vault Dept .: The New Vaudeville still struggles to find a mainstream toehold, and I suspect it never will. Which, while it may hel...

THERE’S NOT A BIG BARBECUE PRESENCE in Provincetown, Mass. Stroll down busy Commercial Street and you’ll be exhorted to try burgers and pizz...

MARTHA ARGERICH’S LUGANO FESTIVAL ( Progretto Martha Argerich ) is in its 15th year, with a just-completed schedule of events that bodes to ...

From the Concert Vault Dept .: I’m listening to some recent releases by Jordi Savall and will write about them in this space in the coming d...

From the Seller’s Cellar Dept .: Pennsylvania approved the sale of wine in grocery stores two months ago, prompting some talk of New York lo...

From the Vault Dept. : Let’s go back thirty years to visit a piece I wrote about an issue that hasn’t changed much in the interim, except fo...