I’ve long felt like a provincial yahoo.
I’m an expert on budget hotels in Amarillo but I’ve never traveled to Africa. I’ve walked countless streets in small towns in central Kansas but I know only a couple hundred words of Spanish.
A visit to Carnegie Hall last week made me feel like less of a rube. I’d never made it to the storied concert hall during a handful of previous visits to New York City.
An unamplified performance by my fellow Kansan Joyce DiDonato with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Perspectives series she curates was sufficiently loud in my $40 balcony seat. The program was dominated by material from DiDonato’s Stella di Napoli, my ninth favorite album of 2014.
A duet between DiDonato as Romeo and Laura Claycomb as Juliet during a selection from Vincenzo Bellini’s “I Capuleti e I Montecchi” is one of the most stimulating things I've witnessed. My cousin Lawrence Brownlee was also impressive.
The New York Times reviewed the concert.
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An appearance by Charlie Wilson was no less memorable than shows I’ve witnessed by James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes. Here’s my review.
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I reviewed a concert by Maroon 5, Magic! and Rozzi Crane.
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I caught a performance by Noah Preminger’s quartet while in New York.
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I contributed a Local Listen segment on the New Riddim to KCUR.
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Earl Sweatshirt’s new I Don’t Like Sh*t, I Don’t Go Outside… initially strikes me as a rehashed version of his amazing Doris. ”Grief” sounds like a suicide note.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
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