The Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio performing at the Jazz Standard in 2010. Photo Credit: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

On one of the most bone-chilling winter nights of the year, Dr. Lonnie Smith’s organ spirit reached exhilarating heights in trio with guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and drummer Jamaire Williams. Though this arrangement lies on the intimate end of Smith’s quintet and nonet spectrum, the band enveloped the Jazz Standard as would a full-sized orchestra. Stirred about by a gently permeating stream of chords off Kreisberg’s guitar, the set began its ascent toward whole-body catharsis with the tune “River Walk”.

The evening eased in with a reflective vibe in the hands of Smith’s bass-like organ hum and Williams’ tenderly rhythmic drums. The mellow piece, featured on Smith’s 1991 release The Turbanator, took an explosive turn a few minutes in, clearing the aural sinuses with an acidic yet soulful flavor. Heads began bobbing across the audience at first listen of Smith’s signature trail-blazing tang. The organist riffed, cascaded, and pounded on his Hammond B3 with blissful abandon, spearheading into assertive zest alongside Kreisberg’s jolting crescendos and Williams’ creative dynamism.

The trio grasped their flaming momentum by the reigns in a rock-jazz fusion jam taken from Spiral, their latest release. A drum-organ storm bubbled and broke the anthem into heavily rhythmic discord, zapped by blurts of guitar. The edgy turmoil abruptly whittled down to light acoustic for a few moments, steeping deeply in Kreisberg’s earthy chord bits and streaming riffs. And just as abruptly, his riffs morphed to fiery grenades, providing a virtuosic battlefield upon which Smith’s piercing, violin-like organ tousled into Williams’ intensely rocking beats. The resulting sound embodied explosive convolution to anarchic appeal, dancing upon the verge of spilling over.

Though the trio undoubtedly masters bold fanfare, its way with heart-touching composition is most gripping of all. “Pilgrimage”, a tune featured on Smith’s 2009 album Rise Up, carried the set to a bittersweet close, at the crossroads of serene romanticism and fierce melancholy. Kreisberg filled the shoes of alto saxist Donald Harrison (who appeared on the original recording), and soon twisted those shoes into a musical sculpture of his own. His tender tone set forth a gently captivating melody laced with enveloping aural warmth. Smith’s sparse vocals were the true clincher, however, mingling with his raspy organ as though the very same instrument.

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The author (third from the left) and fellow Music TRaCers backstage with TALIB KWELI and YASIIN BEY (aka MOS DEF).

Growing up I have always known of Mos Def (aka Yasiin Bey) and Talib Kweli‘s rap-duo Black Star. My mother was – and still is – very in love with them. When I asked her if I could attend their show at the Best Buy Theater she freaked out and told me she would make me go. After seeing them perform I now know why she freaked out.

That night was a night I will never forget.  It was like watching magic happen.  Everyone in the audience was having a good time and was extremely into what they were watching. Me, being someone who hadn’t listened to their music, very much felt like I knew exactly what they were talking about when I really did not. It felt so incredible to be there.

Black Star performs.

My night was interesting: I had shown up extremely early, seen two reality TV stars, heard a fight, and waited for a very long time for Mr. Bey to show up.  The performance and backstage experience made it worth all of it.

It seemed very surreal a kid from the South Bronx backstage at one of my mother’s favorite artist’s shows.  I can’t believe I got the chance to meet them. I can’t stop thinking about it. I just want to relive that show over and over again. I’m very fortunate that I was lucky enough to attend. It was an experience that was absolutely incredible and I am BEYOND happy I was there.

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Frank Wess playing with (from left to right): John Lee (bass guitar), Yotam Silberstein (guitar), and Jimmy Heath (sax). Photo credit: Fran Kaufman

The best way to ring in a new year? A party, of course. If Frank Wess’ 90^th birthday celebration at Dizzy’s Club is any indication of what’s to come in 2012, this year is bound to be a great one. Roy Hargrove’s crisp trumpet launched the festivities with “Dizzy’s Blues”, echoing the pungent, nuanced touch of Gillespie himself. As conductor of the aptly named Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, Hargrove ebbed into rich tandem with the collective swell of over nine strings, saxophones, and trombones, and a powerhouse dose of five outspoken horns.

Once Wess graced the stage on “Without You, No Me” (composed by saxist Jimmy Heath, who also performed throughout the evening), the powerful set infused with vivacious complexity. His tenor saxophone, understated yet intricate, brewed forward amid the song’s fiery flair, as did his flute on the tune “Search”. Wess’ delicately assertive way with the flute was an interesting complement to his brassy craft, both floating above and lushly melting into the cruising, urban vibe of the Gillespie Big Band.

Roberta Gambarini belting out some James Moody. Photo credit: Fran Kaufman

Roberta Gambarini’s vocals echoed that breezy instrumental atmosphere on “Moody’s Groove”, a piece penned by saxist, flautist, and Wess collaborator James Moody. Gambarani conjured Moody’s wittily bold musical style with finesse, diving into the highest and lowest of pitches as smoothly as Douglas Purviance’s yipping bass trombone. Her inventive range shook the band – and audience – to riveting heights on another Moody original, liberally salted with regal horn accents and John Lee’s plump bass guitar inflections.

Gambarini edged her vocals into a tide of flaring trumpets, sparking a scat-brass battlefield that gripped just about every pair of ears in the full house. Hargrove spontaneously jumped out from behind his horn a few minutes in, playfully countering Gambarini’s vocals with some “bee-bap-de-baps” of his own. If that surprise weren’t enough, drummer Lewis Nash halted his light beat and emerged from a corner of the stage to join in on the scat, while claps from the audience kept the rhythm alive.

It’s not every day that an NEA Jazz Master and sax legend like Wess rings in a ninth decade of prolific artistry. But after this evening of both signature classics and wild surprises at Dizzy’s, it’s not just 2012 that’s going to be a great one: here’s to a happy 90^th year for the great Frank Wess – and many more to come.

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The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is itself  work of art. The somewhat recently redesigned MAD building is modern and does a better job of representing the intensely awesome art that is on display within it than the building it replaced. The architect, Brad Cloepfil, called his work “editing” because the building was worked on while it was still standing (Robin Pogrebin, “Renovation Slowly Adds Some Light to Lollipops”, New York Times, 5 June 2007).One of the most radical changes was the opening up of many rooms by cutting away part of the building. Cloepfil then filled these openings with glass as to create views of Central Park and more importantly shed some of the much needed light on all of the artwork. The old building was ill equipped to be used as an art museum because the inside held little space for large exhibits. Now, thanks to Cloepfil’s work, the building can easily and efficiently function as a museum, with its own restaurant too.

Otherwise, after personally observing the building, inside and out, I feel confident in saying that it is a breathtaking work of art. From the outside, the building draws the attention of any passerby because of the added glass and obvious radiance. It seems as if all of Columbus Circle should stop and observe the building because of its uniqueness and utter beauty. On the other hand, the innards of the building are what make it so unbelievable. The architect changed the building into a curator’s dream. The large glass windows bring in warm sunlight throughout the day that seems to be much appreciated by the perusing visitors.  As I traveled from floor to floor I saw how the natural light didn’t only bring warmth but appeared to save money on lighting for the museum. Furthermore, the building has a lot less in it because of the “300 tons of concrete” that were taken from the site while construction was still in progress (Robin Pogrebin, “Renovation Slowly Adds Some Light to Lollipops”, New York Times, 5 June 2007). For use as an art museum the new MAD building has been equip with the most efficient floor plans to maximize space. Another important aspect of Cloepfil’s glass additions is the view of Central Park and the surrounding city. I realized his train of thought and concluded that on warm sunny days, during any part of the year, no one wants to be inside. The best way to bring the outside inside was his glass additions. Now as the people visiting the museum stroll leisurely from exhibit to exhibit they can see the outside and feel the warmth. The building’s new design is not only attractive in appearance but attracting in terms of bringing people inside. All year round the museum will see jubilant visitors coming and going thanks to the work of Brad Cloepfil and his fellow architects.

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Lee Krasner's "Mosaic Table" in "Crafting Modernism" at MAD Museum. Photo Credit: Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Have you ever thought whether design and art was the same concept? Well, they are not. There are actually many differences between them. Having spent ten weeks at the Museum of Arts and Design (the MAD Museum), I’ve come to some conclusions.

According to dictionary.com, the literal definition of design is to “prepare the preliminary sketch or the plans for (a work to be executed), especially to the form and structure of:” In other words, it can also be defined as to plan skillfully. Designs are in a commercial sense and are calculated. They are more of a problem solving through communication. Communication is a way to figure out what the designer conveys. Some questions you should ask yourself when you come across a design are: what does this mean? or What is the message that the designer is trying to tell us? These questions are made to make you think and analyze the piece.  If you do not understand what the designer is trying to convey in his piece, then he has failed and the design is not successful. Unlike art, designs are always objective which makes it easier to depict whether a design is good or bad. Many people can immediately tell if the design was good and easy to understand, or bad and misunderstood. Designers make their designs to be audience driven. It is meant for the viewer to be entertained and have fun. Designers are limited due to the costumer’s requirements. Furthermore, designs are more architectural and building rather than being open-minded and unlimited.

Art is a form of expressing one’s self in way that you can easily tell what the message of the artist conveys. It also expresses one’s feeling and emotions. I feel that art is a more loose and unlimited content. Anything around you can be considered as art.  It can be interpreted as many things, and can be used to express yourself through paintings, drawings, sculptures, and even pictures. Thus, according to dictionary.com art means “the quality production, expression, or realm according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.” Comprehension is one thing that is not important in art. You might come across a painting that has both happy and depressing colors in it. In a picture described as that, no one would know what the artist is feeling, and it isn’t important to find out. The objective of an art piece can be created by what the artist is feeling through the color he uses. Artist uses art to burst out their creations in mind. Their art piece is not supposed to be audience driven. It shouldn’t have to target an audience whether they do like it or not. Art is subjective. A painting can have many different interpretations. And no interpretation is considered correct or incorrect. An artist can have an analysis for why he created a specific piece, but a viewer can have a different analysis for what that piece means to him. This is the difference between the two.

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John Mason's “Sculptural Form”; Peter Voulkos's “Vee”; Claes Oldenburg's “Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich)”; and Trude Guermonprez's “Banner" in "Crafting Modernism." Photo Credit: Kirsten Luce.

I’ll bet the curator of Crafting Modernism at the Museum of Art and Design didn’t intend for her exhibit to look like hipster version of IKEA, but unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.

It seemed to me that many of the peices there were functional enough for everyday use, but there was always at least one element that made them completely impractical. Take J.B. Blunk‘s “Scrap Chair” for instance. One half of the chair looks rather inviting, but the other half is composed entirely out of multicolored string, making the work interesting to look at, but not much else. Or, take the wooden baby cradle that doubled as a small wardrobe. Surely, you COULD leave your baby in it, but the woodwork was so dark and menacing I don’t imagine any child would ever enjoy rocking in it.

In terms of showcase, the entire two floors worth of art are poorly lit and difficult to navigate. The only thing stringing these completely unrelated pieces together was their connection to Modernism–which would have been fine if it were better organized. You could start off looking at one of Betty Cooke‘s extravagant, fashion-forward necklaces made of precious metals, soon find yourself face to face with one of Alexander Calder‘s untitled scribble paintings, and then end up staring at Adolph Gottlieb‘s simplistic stained glass without taking more than five or so steps. This idea of mixed mediums pervades through the whole scene with little connectedness between adjacent pieces. Variety is a marvelous thing when kept under control, but when it isn’t, it leaves the viewer disoriented and simply not amused.

Much like a perilous trip to the aforementioned IKEA, you could walk into Crafting Moderning expecting one thing and shuffle out with something completely different, novel, and unexpected. Perhaps, admittedly, I should have looked at the exhibit from more of a traditional artistic standpoint than a design-oriented one, but either way, while Crafting Modernism certainly won’t be the worst display you’ve ever seen, a trip to The Met will more than satisfy any Modernist appetite you may have.

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A photograph of Maurizio Cattelan hanging in the exhibit. Photo Credit: Jill Krementz.

Coming into the Guggenheim and seeing their latest art exhibit dangling from the ceiling is a bit unusual and overwhelming. Usually when viewing art, people look at every work individually which leaves time to think about it, but with Cattelan’s exhibition you have no choice but to take it all in at once. Maurizio Cattelan’s exhibit, Maurizio Cattelan: All, is on display until January 22nd. This of course is meant for the more cynical art lovers or the more open minded ones (and not the people in the middle) since Cattelan’s work is set on critiquing other artists. After this exhibition he said that he would be retiring, and who knows; maybe that’s for the best. A person who only has works that critique everyone else is most likely lacking the talent to create his own original artwork. Cattelan uses many artists and their works as examples to illustrate his main point; that nowadays anything can be considered art. He uses the character of Zorro from a very popular movie and takes his signature and shows it cut into the canvas as one example of mediocre art. Another example would be a broom put up against canvas creating folds. He also uses a lot of implicit as well as explicit disrespectful slang in his pieces. One example was when he put a cat, a donkey, a dog and a rooster on top of each other so of course after a while you realize what those animals are called in street slang and feel slightly offended. So if you are one of the people who enjoy this type of art criticism in art itself, I would highly recommend seeing this show; for others, not so much.

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Marin Ireland and Peter Kim in "Maple and Vine." Photo Credit: Sara Krulwich.

Jordan Harrison’s play Maple and Vine at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Anne Kauffman was a very intriguing story. Marin Ireland plays Katha a woman who has nightmares and hasn’t been the same since she had a miscarriage. That day changed her life, since then she felt empty with no path worth taking, she wasn’t sure who she was. She is married to Ryu played by actor Peter Kim who stood by her side all the time. One day, Katha meets Dean played by actor Trent Dawson who shows her a different life, the path worth taking towards happiness, or so Dean promises.

Living in the 21^st century can be harsh to people that have been through a lot, but imagine having the opportunity of going back to 1950s? The community offered a door that she found while seeking happiness. This play doesn’t only focus on Katha and Ryu’s life but also the life that people lived in that period of time where everybody thinks it was blue for boys and pink for girls. In the 1950s, society was harsh towards homosexuals, it was not accepted and people lived in great fear.

I feel empathy for Katha because she lived in a world where people couldn’t understand her. Some people heal fast and some don’t. I feel sympathy towards Dean even though he acted so perfect but turned out to not to be. The whole idea of “the mixed race couple” gave a feeling of how the show was going to end. Towards the end, I changed my opinion because I thought about and it took Katha a while to stop having those nightmares about the 21^st century but for the first time she felt alive like belonged there and she wasn’t going to let that go. It is ironic how Katha and Ryu became just like Dean and Ellen. I would think twice before taking a kid to see this play it has some sex scenes that might not be appropriate for a child to see.

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Polly Lee and Rachel Leslie in "Nightlands." Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg.

These are the Night lands that’s what they said

You love someone so much and life takes it away

It doesn’t matter what it is, is what you have inside

Nobody has the power to discriminate that right

When you feel like you are not alive

Then that just means you are dead inside

A family that’s what he wants

But it is too late to ask for that

She needed you but you could not see

The person she wanted to be

You can not blame no one for something you did

That’s just life which you have to learn to live

Back then there was hate in every eye

Every mind, every soul people live in the angry world

If you do not stand for what you want

Then people won’t respect you for who you are

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Martha Graham. Photo Credit: Barbara Morgan.

“Fast forward, rewind, pause, hit that position…NO, wait, go back a little tiny bit, more, THERE, okay…STOP!” The Martha Graham dancers, busily rehearsing, acknowledge a single TV set with eyes furrowed in concentration. They are attempting to bring to life Graham’s Every Soul is a Circus, 47 years after it was created.  How can this older choreography be seen as fresh and modern today? Blakeley White-McGuire, who will take on Graham’s original role, shares how she manages: “Well I approach the choreography from the characters viewpoint [asking], what are her emotions, her intentions…?”

It begins as a Circus Ringmaster (originally Eric Hawkins) follows and calls out to his Female Empress (originally Martha Graham) to perform all sorts of odd gestures and movements. She really can’t help but return mocking, flirty glances. Graham played with humorous themes to, not only create memorable characters, but also to reveal, as a 1986 New York Times article points out, that the stage is “an arena of everyday life.”

The artists of the Martha Graham Dance Company dance out loud as if that were the only way they’d truly recognize and embody their characters, and later find themselves incorporating their own qualities into the role. With the feverish mingling of mind with body, body with mind, breath with soul, rhythm with actor we can truly tell this upcoming season will be one nobody should miss.

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