Gusto
- Blue(grass) holiday
-
The connections between jazz and bluegrass music have always been implicit. Both are improvisation-based forms that, traditionally, employed familiar songs, melodies and chord progressions as leaping-off points for flights of creative fancy. But not until New York City native Bela Fleck emerged to fuse his love for Flatt & Scruggs with an equal propensity toward the legends of bebop did the union become an explicit one.
(Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM )- complete story >
When the African-American Cultural Arts Collective formed in 2005, its goal was to bind three cultural organizations whose fiscal health wasn’t exactly ship-shape. Now its constituent parts — the Paul Robeson Theatre, Buffalo City Ballet and Ujima Theatre — are launching a joint subscription meant to give audiences a glimpse at the significant output of the city’s longest-established black arts organizations.
(Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM )- complete story >
EVENT LISTINGS FROM GUSTO
- A little tease
-
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM This is not your grandfather’s burlesque show. Like plenty of people participating in the nationwide resurgence of the burlesque form, the women of Buffalo troupe the Stripteasers are dressing up (or down) like Gypsy Rose Lee and the slinky stars of the form’s heyday to transport audiences back to the prohibitionist era’s favorite type of near-illicit stage entertainment. But their performances, politically motivated and conceived as a critique of gender roles, are aimed as much at the brain as the libido.
- Live Ives
-
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM The Ives Quartet is named for the American composer Charles Ives because, the musicians say, they were inspired by his passionate artistic commitment and his unique temperament. The musicians play a wide repertoire, with a special feel for neglected American repertoire and new works they commission. Which isn’t to say that they don’t also adore Beethoven. Tonight, the Ives Quartet pulls into Slee Hall to bring their “rock ’n’ roll intensity” (I am quoting a critic here) to Beethoven’s Quartet in D, Op. 18 No. 3, and the Quartet in F, Op. 59, No. 1. In between, the quartet will scale the “Great Fugue,” Op. 133 — one of Beethoven’s thorniest works and one of the great achievements of Western civilization. The piece has challenged audiences ever since the night of its premiere, while Beethoven waited uneasily in a tavern across the street. The musicians not only have to play the demanding, startling music, but they also have to be guides and interpreters, helping the audience through it. It will be exciting to hear the Ives take on that task. Hear the Ives Quartet at Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall at 8 tonight. Admission is $20. For information, call 645-2921. — Mary Kunz Goldman
- Top pop
-
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM As has been the case for many years now, the annual Kissmas Bash celebration — the holiday-themed roundup hosted and presented by Buffalo’s Kiss 98.5 FM — gathers together a wide variety of artists known for performing divergent interpretations of what might be called “pop music.”
- CLUB CHATTER
-
News Pop Music Critic
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM Laptop frenzy
- THIRST QUENCHER
-
Special to The News
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM The opening of Thirsty Buffalo has been highly anticipated. All summer, people buzzed about the new place opening where Jimmy Mac’s once was. When opening day finally arrived, I was eager to try it out. By the size of the crowd inside, I knew I wasn’t alone.
- Unwelcome addition
-
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM Roll up! Roll up! They’re announcing the nominee list for the 2008 Grammy Awards! And there’s gonna be a big concert to celebrate!
- Discs
-
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM Pop
- Still evolving
-
Associated Press
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM Il Divo first swept onto the music scene in 2005. Fast-forward three years and the pop-operatic quartet — Carlos Marin, David Miller, Sebastien Izambard and Urs Buhler — has sold more than 22 million albums. Their latest, “The Promise,” is No. 5 on Billboard’s U. S. album charts. They’re planning a world tour in 2009.
- Wayne’s world
-
Associated Press
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM LOS ANGELES — Lil Wayne didn’t get a Grammy nomination for “A Milli,” but his total haul was still pretty amazing — eight.
- Night writer
-
McClatchy Newspapers
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM Candice Night laughs at the apparent contradiction of the two major events in her life this year.
- IT’S ELECTRIC
-
News Classical Music Critic
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM Put together 32 trucks, 16 buses, 30 musicians and $1 million a month for pyrotechnics, and what do you get? A “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” that really rocks the house. That’s the winning formula of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. “The whole idea is basically, you take the next five biggest bands, Springsteen, etc., you combine them together, our show is still way bigger,” boasts band mastermind Paul O’Neill.
- Sounds of the season
-
Updated: 12/05/08 7:04 AM Do you hear what I hear? Here is just a taste of the great buffet that is Christmas music in Western New York.
- Comedy group scores some laughs
-
News Arts Writer
Updated: 11/28/08 11:26 AM By the time Randy Reese had entered his 32nd straight hour of improv comedy at North Tonawanda’s Riviera Theatre, he was just about ready to collapse.
