AltWeeklies Wire
Bop and Swing Give Way to New Percussive Influences in Jazznew
Almost no one disputes the achievements of bebop and swing percussion. The big argument today is whether that's the way jazz drumming has to sound or whether it's just one of the ways jazz drumming can sound.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
11-03-2009 |
Music
In 'Hound Dog,' Songwriting Duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Remember Redefining Postwar Pop Musicnew
Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography is a delightful read. Both men are terrific storytellers, witty and succinct, with a sharp eye for the telling detail.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
08-18-2009 |
Nonfiction
Sam Mendes Takes Aim at the Suburbs Again and Gratingly Misses the Marknew
Screenwriter Justin Haythe and director Sam Mendes are so intent on hammering home the bleak message of Richard Yates' source novel about an unhappy couple caught in the conformist suburbs that they make even Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet blank, bland, and blobby.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
01-13-2009 |
Reviews
Country Music Rediscovers Its Whiskied Small-Town Rootsnew
Taylor Swift's recent album, Fearless, is such a triumph, both artistically and commercially, that you'd think it would be the answer to all of country music's problems. But it's not -- because it's not really a country record.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
01-06-2009 |
Music
Poet Grace Cavalieri Projects Herself Into Her Latest Famous Womannew
In her latest book of poems, Anna Nicole, the poems are delivered from the imagined perspective of Anna Nicole Smith, the tabloid celebrity known for her Playboy spreads, her marriage to a millionaire 63 years her senior, and for her own TV reality show. So it's appropriate that the book's cover is a deliberately garish painting that gives the pin-up model magenta hair and green eyes.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
12-09-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Maryland Blues Label Severn Records Celebrates 10 Yearsnew
If it can't match the budgets and stars of the biggest blues labels--Alligator, Blind Pig, Rounder, Delmark, Telarc--it has emerged as a major presence on the second tier.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
09-30-2008 |
Music
Roger Spottiswoode's Western-Do-Gooder-in-the-Third-World Flick Lacks Heartnew
The script suggests that the whole point of the brutal Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s was the moral redemption of a cynical British journalist and a guilty American ex-army wife.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
07-08-2008 |
Reviews
Dusting off Dusty Springfieldnew
From Lesley Gore to Amy Winehouse, female singers wanting to open the throttle on romantic need and desire have inevitably borrowed more than a little from Springfield -- especially if they were white women who loved black R&B.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
04-01-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Dusty Springfield
America's Past Timenew
Tom Flynn offers a tour through Baltimore's baseball history.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
04-01-2008 |
Sports
Tags: sports & fitness
Meet John Duchacnew
X frontman and solo artist John Doe revisits his Baltimore roots.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
03-04-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Evolving From Freedomnew
Jazz pianist Myra Melford distills composition from chaos.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
02-05-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Bob Dylan's Legendary Grinnew
There's a reason he's pegged his concerts as the "Never Ending Tour": The only way he's been able to stay out in front has been to convince us -- and himself -- that he's still an active, modern artist, whose career is far from ending. It's hard, though, because the past keeps getting reinforcements.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
11-27-2007 |
Concerts
(Re)Making the Bandnew
Marin Alsop conducts the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra into the 21st century.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
11-27-2007 |
Profiles & Interviews
Arthur Alexander Was Country's Soulnew
The music on Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter still provides a living link between hillbilly twang and R&B.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
11-06-2007 |
Reviews
Merle Haggard has Served His Time Making Musicnew
Haggard turned 70 in April, but he hasn't slowed down a whit: Over the past year and a half he has released five albums of new music in addition to a flood of reissues.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
09-04-2007 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Merle Haggard
