Southern Bookman

"Hamilton" close up

We found ourselves by good fortune watching "Hamilton" streaming on the Disney + channel on Independence Day.

The "Hamilton" film shows the orignal cast in an edited version of three live performances of the musical recorded in June 2016. We'd seen the production at New York's Richard Rodgers Theater at about that time, so it was thrilling to see close-up stage views of what we'd witnessed from distant seats.

For the first time, we saw the show's creator Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Alexander Hamilton; he'd been ably replaced by understudy Jon Rua for our performance, with the rest of the cast present.

While Miranda's acting is superb, his singing falls short of the other cast members. But the emotional depths he reaches overcomes the deficiencies of his voice.

Miranda's music is amazing, especially his ability to translate complex historical material into jaunty song lyrics. I'd forgotten that the play's narrative is almost totally conveyed by songs. The frequent rap numbers take the place of spoken dialogue, but many of the pop-oriented songs also progress the story, reminiscent of Rodgers' own "Oklahoma."

As New Yorker writer Lauren Michele Jackson pointed out, "Hamilton" succeeds as a musical, with even politically oriented songs like "In the Room Where It Happened" and "It Must Be Nice to Have Washington on Your Side" as infectious as pop romantic ballads.

The love song "Helpless" recalls the confections of 1960s girl groups, and Jonathan Goff's "You'll Be Back" sounds like a 1950s hit from Dion or Neil Sedaka.

Andy Blankenbuehler's choreography blends with the show, with an admirable absence of ostentation.

Seeing the faces of  the dynamic performers Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, Phillip Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Okieriete "Oak" Onaodowan was overpowering.

The closeup camera revealed the inner workings of stagecraft, yet the theatrical magic remained.

 

 

 

New York Times' A.O. Scott blends film, book criticism

New York Times film critic A.O. Scott on Wednesday explained his recent move to literary criticism.

In an "Inside the Times" essay, Scott points out that he was a book critic before his hiring as the Times' movie reviewer. His series for the Sunday Book Review on forgotten American writers returns him to literary criticism.

Scott in the article supports the universality of cultural criticism over specialization. He quotes the late Los Angles Times food critic Jonathan Gold, who started out as a music critic. "Criticism is criticism," Gold said, as cited by Scott.  "An aria is like a well-cooked potato."

Following Gold, Scott claims that "any product of human creativity, however humble or highfalutin', exists to be appreciated, interpreted and judged. Whenever we take the time to listen, taste, watch or read, criticism is what comes naturally."

Cultural purists would argue that distinctions are vital, that a Beethoven symphony differs from a gourmet meal. Those traditional elitist views have been challenged by the rise of film and other popular arts. That a jazz composition by Duke Ellington displays artistic refinement comparable with a Mozart concerto is no longer disputed.

In supporting the primacy of criticism, Scott makes an appealing call for an aesthetic approach to life. Following Robert M. Pirsig's philosophy of quality in "The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," I've sought to bring such an appreciation to daily life. An Arby's can satisfy while a fine restaurant falls short. Yet, sometimes a potato is just a potato.

Scott began his series, which will appear in the Sunday Book Review, with an appreciation of the Western writer Wallace Stegner. While I found Scott's defense of Stegner's work unconvincing, I will look forward to his subsequent installments.

As Scott points out in his Inside the Times article, books and film are perceived differently yet share affinities. His broader focus is a gift to Times readers.

 

 

 

Of Bob Dylan, Emily Dickenson and William Faulkner

Here are some nuggets from my weekend reading:

"Murder Most Foul": After reading Bob Dylan's interview with Douglas Brinkley in the Sunday New York Times, I finally listened to "Murder Most Foul." Dylan's 16-minute documentary song about the John F. Kennedy assassination is surprisingly the Nobel Prize winner's first No. 1 hit on the Billboard chart. I would have bet "Like a Rolling Stone" had reached the top spot.

Like an ominous Gregorian chant, Dylan murmurs the lyrics against a repeated musical phrase. He recycles the familiar conspiracy themes of the assassination, and with contrived rhymes cites a number of cultural figures connected with it. The result is a collage of cliches with few moments of liftoff.

Emily Dickenson, transsexual: Thumbing through my tattered anthology of American literature from college days, I wandered through the large selection of Emily Dickenson's poetry.

I was surprised to discover that in several poems, Dickenson said "when I was a boy," referring to her childhood. Intrigued, I found a critical essay that said that Dickenson made the cross-gender reference when discussing the scientific education she had received, more like a boy's than a girl's.

William Faulkner's "The Evening Sun": In William Faulkner's short story published in the same anthology, the doomed Quentin Compson narrates a event from his childhood. In the story, Quentin, his sister, Caddy, and brother, Jason, witness their parents' interactions with a family maid named Nancy. The Compsons' black servant, Dilsey, also appears.

Faulkner's novel "The Sound and the Fury" reveals the Compsons' adult fates. One chapter is narrated by Dilsey, who upholds traditional values.

In the story, the Nancy. fears being killed by her common-law husband, Jesus, because he believes she's pregnant with the child of a white man.

The young Compsons barely understand the adult actions. Illustrating the closeness of whites and blacks in the segregated South, Nancy lives close by, and even stays in the children's room for a night.

The children's father, Jason, discounts Nancy's fears. In the last scene, Nancy brings the children to her primitive house, hoping that their presence prevents Jesus from murdering her. The story ends with the father coming to take the children home, leaving Nancy alone. The implication is that she will be killed.

Faulkner critics point out that Quentin is about 24 when he narrates the story, although in "The Sound of the Fury" he commits suicide at age 19 while a student at Harvard. The children's relationships foreshadow their tragic adult personalities.

Maligned because of her race, the character Nancy blends stereotypical elements and surprising individuality. While undoubtedly offensive to black readers, the story gives a complex view of black-white relationships in the Jim Crow era, rising above crude racism.

 

A Sunday morning choir

The butterfly house in our front yard has never attracted any butterflies.

It's full of life these days. Sunday morning, I heard the chirping of small birds from within the dilapidated structure.

The straw of a bird's nest was visible in the openings between the walls.

A small bird flew out and returned, as the chorus sang.

 

 

Jazz will live again at Village Vanguard, with live-streaming of Billy Hart Quartet

Music will return to the Village Vanguard, through live-streamed performances by the heralded Billy Hart Quartet.

The acclaimed drummer and his group will perform at the Village Vanguard beginning at 7 p.m. June 13 and 2 p.m. June 14 , the jazz cathedral announced. While the small club's packed seats will remain empty, a worldwide live-streaming audience will share in the Vanguard's storied ambience. Tickets cost $7.

Other New York City mucic clubs closed by the coronavirus pandemic also are live-streaming performances, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Hart, who will perform along with tenor sax player Mark Turner, pianist Ethan Iverson and bassist Ben Street. told the WSJ that when he comes to the Village Vanguard, he feels the presence of past performers. That aura will inspire his performance, he said.

Such live streaming offers a promising model for cultural events after the pandemic ends. The Metropolitan Opera, which recently announced the cancellation of its fall season, shows productions on movie theaters around the country, a model not yet followed by Broadway shows. Live-streaming would make cultural events available to a much wider audience.

 

Discovering "Law and Order"

I never watched the old "Law and Order" show when it ran for 20 years on network TV.

But now I'm hooked on the police/trial procedural, whose episodes run in a continuous loop Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays on the We TV channel, which offers vintage crime serials and trashy pop-culture productions.

"Law and Order," like "Naked City" before it, is known for actors who appear in unexpected roles before they gained fame.

Recently, I've seen a selection of eventual "Sopranos" cast members: Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese, John Ventimiglia, Vincent Pastore, Edie Falco and Burt Young. I've been hoping for James Gandolfini to show up, but he never appeared on "Law and Order." Nor did Tony Sirico, who played "Paulie Walnuts."

Eventual "Gilmore Girls" star Lauren Graham appeared in fetching mini-skirt suits during a three-episode saga in which she played a striving Hollywood insider smitten with detective Ray Curtis, played by Benjamin Bratt. A young Ron Cephas Jones, memorable as Randall Pearson's biological father in "This Is Us," has played roles in several episodes.

Already well-known stars also appear. I was so excited to see Elaine Stritch as a defense attorney that I had to watch the midnight episode rather than going to bed.

The rotating cast of cops and district attorneys allows fans to divide the show into different eras. Before the long reign of Sam Waterson as the driven prosecutor Jack McCoy, Michael Moriarty held the chair as Benjamin Stone. Chris Noth stood out as detective Mike Logan, but Jesse Green and Bratt also deliver strong performances. S. Epatha Merkerson gives subtle personality shadings to her role as police supervisor Anita Van Buren.

Following Steven Hill's years as the cryptic D.A. Adam Schiff, Diane Wiest comes in, raising one of the show's many cross-references. Waterson and Wiest portrayed an ill-fated couple in Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters."

And then there are  the savvy and beautiful young assistant district attorneys:. Jill Hennessey, Amy Harmon, Carey Lowell, Alana de La Graza. Their professional competence always comes with a dark side.

As with Gandolfini in "The Sopranos," the show's biggest draw is Jerry Orbach as Lenny Briscoe, the street-hardened detective with a heart of gold. Orbach's cynical wisecracks contrast with his compassion for crime victims, devotion to his different partners and worldly wisdom. A Broadway star who originated the show-stopping  number "Try to Remember" in "The Fantasticks," Orbach brings an enigmatic dimension to the role.

Briscoe's like King Lear turned New York City detective, a poignance heightened by the realization that Orbach battled prostate cancer for years doing the show.

I wish show creator Dick Wolf could have found a way for Stritch and Orbach to do a musical duet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell, Jimmy Cobb

Miles Davis instructed drummer Jimmy Cobb "Just make it sound like it's floating."

Davis, Cobb and several other all-star musicians had gathered at Columbia Records' 30th Street studio in New York City on April 22, 1959 to record "Kind of Blue," a jazz album based on George Russell's modal musical theories.

With Davis's trumpet solos, answered by saxophonists John Coltrane and "Cannonball" Adderley, and impressionistic piano work by Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, "Kind of Blue" culminated the hard-bop era and heralded a new era of experimentation. Cobb, along with bass player Paul Chambers, laid down the music's oceanic heartbeat.

Cobb, the last survivor of the sextet who recorded the best-selling jazz album of all time, died Sunday of lung cancer at his home in Manhattan, according to The New York Times. A National Endowment for the Arts jazz master, the 91-year-old Cobb bridged generations.

A more subtle player than some of his contemporaries, Cobb accentuated his steady cymbal sound with clusters of drumbeats. Following Davis' instruction, he gave "Kind of Blue" the sensation of floating on a blue sea.

Along with accompanying Davis on "Kind of Blue" and other classic recordings, Cobb played with an impressive group of musical geniuses. For several years, he backed singer Dinah Washington, with whom he had a romantic relationship. He was the last musician to have played with both Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday, and also joined Chambers and Kelly in recordings and performances.

Cobb was not as celebrated as the other "Kind of Blue" musicians. But he gave the album its defining sound.

 

 

 

Boston's counterculture rocks again in Ryan H. Walsh's "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968"

Boston psychedelic bands "Ultimate Spinach," "Orpheus" and "Beacon Street Union" never came close to the national fame of San Francisco's Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead.

While Boston's "Bosstown Sound"appears as ludicrous today as one of its participants, Chevy Chase, remembers, the birthplace of the American revolution played a significant role in the 1960s counterculture, as Ryan H. Walsh details in his wide-ranging "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968."

San Francisco veered from the Summer of Love to the Monterrey Pop Festival, and Los Angeles's era of drugs and celebrity crashed with the Charles Manson killings. Not as prominent nationally, Boston also had a long, strange trip.

A key moment was Van Morrison's move to Boston and Cambridge in 1968 to flee mobsters threatening him over a record deal.

Walsh examines how the singer of "Brown Eyed Girl" developed songs for his album "Astral Weeks" while playing in small clubs during those months. Neglected when released in 1968, the album is now recognized as one of the era's masterpieces. He portrays Morrison as an antisocial, mystically obsessed egoist.

Walsh ranges far beyond his account of the Irish singer's stay in Boston. From the early 1960s to the counterculture's demise in the disco era, Walsh explores an impressive variety of personalities and historic events.

Cult leader Mel Lyman, who first gained recognition playing harmonica in Jim Kweskin's jug band, plays a larger role in the book than Morrison. Walsh gives an engrossing history of Lyman's Fort Hill Family, a cult that Lyman controlled through LSD and psychological manipulation.

But unlike Manson, Lyman didn't exhort his followers to commit murder. Lyman died in 1985 - Walsh dispels rumors that he's still alive - but the family continues.

Leaving his music career, Kweskin led the family's successful construction business. He's returned to performing in recent years with jug band stars like Geoff and Maria Muldaur.

One of the bizarre stories of the family is how Mark Frechette was discovered on Boston's streets to play the lead role in Michelangelo Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point," one of the 1960s' biggest bombs.

Frechette's also unknown co-star, Daria Halprin, joined the family for a while before leaving and marrying Dennis Hopper. After an odd bank robbery attempt, Frechette hung himself in jail, a purported suicide victim.

Walsh also looks at Timothy Leary's LSD experiments at Harvard in the early 1960s and the transformation of Leary's colleague Richard Alpert into the spiritual leader Ram Dass.

The Boston Strangler receives attention, along with a vibrant cast of obsccure musicians, writers and film-makers briefly touched by fame.

In the book's most dramatic passage, Walsh looks back on James Brown's concert in the Boston Garden following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Brown's performance, shown on Boston's public TV, is credited for saving Boston from the rioting that decimated other American cities.

Walsh interviewed a number of participants in Boston's countercultural scene. His gives compelling accounts of visiting them 40 years later.

Peter Wolf, eventually a superstar as the leader of J. Geils band and as a solo performer, played in Boston's clubs before making it big. He was a frequent companion of Morrison during his months in Cambridge and Boston. The singers' friendship began when Wolf was an all-night blues DJ for a local radio station, and Morrison began calling him to make requests.

Wolf at the start of the book mentions an audiotape of a Morrison performance in a Boston club.Walsh's efforts to hear the tape are thwarted until the last part of the book.

With big historical moments and such small moments, Walsh brings back the era.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musical stars stand in support of World Health Organization as Trump disparages agency

The World Health Organization received glowing tributes during an all-star musical special Saturday night, clashing with Donald Trump's cutoff of U.S. funding for the agency.

So much for "One World Together," the theme of Global Citizen's event featuring at-home performances from a dazzling array of musical talent, ranging from the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Jennifer Lopez and Paul McCartney to Lizzo, Lady Gaga, Kacey Mulgraves, Billie Ellish, John Legend, Sam Smith, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes.

The uneven performances included Mick Jagger playing acoustic guitar, Keith Richards doing something with his instrument on the couch and Charlie Watts banging his sticks on the furniture on the Stones' split-screen "You Can't Always Get What You Want." The old boys' raucous spirit gave a welcome respite from the younger performers' solemnity.

The old trouper McCartney delivered an endearing"Lady Madonna" with his fading voice, while Lopez diverged from the tehme with a slick, obviously prr-recorded performance of "People." Barbra Streisand must have been busy.

Lizzo's rendering of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Going to Come" jangled nerve endings, while Ellish's living room offering of the 1960s pop confection "Sunny" was not much better than any moderately talented high school kid could do.

John, playing piano in his backyard," showed that he remains the king of infectious hooks with a spirited but ragged rendering of "I'm Still Standing."

Mulgraves' "Rainbow" performance was sincere, but won't make anyone forget Judy Garland, and Taylor Swift presented an emotional"Soon You'll Get Better" while playing piano.

Videos throughout the show highlighted WHO's work throughout the world, especially in Africa, essential services that would be crippled by Trump's cutoff. Trump hasn't commented upon the special. Presumably, he would treat it with the same contempt he hurls at CNN and other news organizations during his daily propaganda appearances.

Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon in hosting "One World Together at Home" displayed more gravity than Trump.

"One World Together at Home" also saluted the heroic health-care professionals pushed to the limit by the coronavirus epidemic. While doctors, nurses and medical technicians make their valient efforts, Trump's supporters want to undermine them by prematurely reopening businesses.

New York magazine reveals Trump outrages

Trump seeks to squeeze U.S. hospitals caring for Covid-19 victims, according to two reports by New York magazine, which has provided outstanding coverage of the epidemic as it ravages its home city.

National affairs reporter Jonathan Chait's astute analysis of Trump's malign handling of the crisis continued Mondaywith an article outlining  the administration's plan to force states to prematurely open their economies by starving their finances, reducing medical supplies and fomenting right-wing rebellion. A major purpose is to shield Trump from responsibility and cast blame on the states.

David Foster-Wells, noted for his extensive reporting on climate change, has also produced essential work on the pandemic. Supporting Chait's findings,Foster-Wells revealed how the administration is blockading medical supplies, even those directly purchased by hospitals.

The magazine's John Barro has delved into the pandemic's economic devastation, while Frank Rich has punctured Trump and the GOP with his weekly "National Circus" columns. Political writer Ed Kilgore analyzes the panedmic's ramifications for the presidential election.

New York readers were upset when the magazine switched to a pay-wall model. But that's given the magazine reserves for its strong pandemic coverage. We hope it can continue its stellar work.

 

Farewell, John Prine

Today, the country's singing John Prine songs.

The great songwriter and performer died Tuesday at Vanderbilt's Hospital in Nashville, the latest musician taken away by Covid-19. He was 73.

His songs burst into America's consciousness in the dark days of disco, emblems of a new wave of rock creativity that included Bruce Springsteen, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jackson Browne and Ry Cooder.

Like Raymond Carver, Prine gave voice to the neglected and forgotten, lonely and addicted. Along with songs of heartbreak and doomed love affairs, he joined Randy Newman and Roger Miller as satirists who made listeners laugh until they cried.

Prine's songs were covered by many other artists, revealing that his compositions were more sophisticated than his performances showed. He was the top interpreter of his work, his voice as prophetic as Woody Guthrie's, Bob Dylan's, Springsteen's and Neil Young's. Not known for his guitar playing, he enhanced his songs with distinctive finger-picking riffs and steady thumb-driven rhythm.

With John Prine gone, I will stop and count the years.