Friday , April 26 2024

Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Publisher and Executive Editor of Blogcritics as well as lead editor of the Culture & Society section. As a writer he contributes most often to Music, where he covers classical music (old and new) and other genres, and Culture, where he reviews NYC theater. Through Oren Hope Marketing and Copywriting at http://www.orenhope.com/ you can hire him to write or edit whatever marketing or journalistic materials your heart desires. Jon also writes the blog Park Odyssey at http://parkodyssey.blogspot.com/ where he is on a mission to visit every park in New York City. He has also been a part-time working musician, including as lead singer, songwriter, and bass player for Whisperado.

Music Review: Eliane Elias – ‘Man of La Mancha’ in Latin Jazz Style

Eliane Elias Man of La Mancha

The Brazilian jazz pianist goes full-tilt from the start, with dense and intense rhythms, indeed a florid, Lisztian intricacy, on "To Each His Dulcinea." One listen to Elias's substitutions on the theme and you know she's playing with a full quiver of creativity as well as a twinkle in her eye.

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Metropolitan Museum of Art: Musical Instrument Galleries Reopen

phillip ii virginal metropolitan museum of art

Among the fascinating objects associated with major artists and historical figures are a narwhal-tusk flute made for Frederick the Great, a 16th-century Amati violin made for the marriage of Philip II, guitars owned by Segovia, and a clarinet that belonged to Benny Goodman.

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Music Review: Kim Richey – ‘Edgeland’

Kim Richey

There's a feeling of fine control you get when you listen to a Kim Richey album. Her songs dig outward in two directions from country/americana, into both folk and pop. And her silvery vocals, burnished with a constant, cool vibrato, lack twangy affectation, sounding almost weirdly non-manipulative – to paradoxically emotional effect.

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Theater Review (NYC Off-Broadway): ‘Good for Otto’ by David Rabe

The play buffets us from patient to patient, crisis to crisis, and dream sequence to real-life therapy. Artifice this skillful glows with a heightened authenticity. The glittering cast including Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Rhea Perlman, Mark Linn-Baker, and F. Murray Abraham.

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Concert Review: New York Polyphony – ‘Tallis Lamentations’ (NYC, 24 Feb 2018)

New York Polyphony (Chris Owyoung)

The a capella singers presented a succinct, enlightening survey of Thomas Tallis's groundbreaking 16th-century music. The concert also offered a reminder of why the composer's best-known works, such as the 'Lamentations,' remain popular after more than four centuries.

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