No Woman Is An Island
BY ELIZABETH ZIMMER | Gabri Christa’s quiver holds many arrows. She dances, choreographs, writes, makes films, and teaches at Barnard. She was formerly a member of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, and later the artistic director of Staten Island’s Snug Harbor Cultural Center. She’s also a wife and mother, concerned with issues of family and nurture. […]
On Deck for Fall, A Cornucopia of Dance
BY ELIZABETH ZIMMER | CROSSING THE LINE FESTIVAL Sept. 18-Oct. 13 (crossingthelinefestival.org) Produced by the French Institute/ Alliance Française, the eclectic festival with the slightly transgressive title foregrounds dance events across the city in its 12th season.It opened with American choreographer Trajal Harrell showing “Caen Amour,” a re-imagining of hoochie coochie, Sept. 18 & 19 […]
Black Voices Coming Together
BY STEVE ERICKSON | Dev Hynes wears many hats. He’s worked as a musician, producer, and/ or songwriter for artists like A$AP Rocky, Carly Rae Jepsen, Solange, Florence and the Machine, FKA twigs, Kylie Minogue, and Blondie. As a solo artist, he’s used two different “band” names: Lightspeed Champion and Blood Orange. He’s a black gay […]
They’re Not Asking
BY STEVE ERICKSON | iTunes genre tags are rarely very creative. I can’t count the number of rock albums I’ve downloaded that are described as “Alternative,” a term no one has seriously used since about 1992. In protest of the way African-American singers automatically get classified as R&B, Frank Ocean labeled his mixtape “Nostalgia/ Ultra” as […]
Life In A Cabaret
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE | They were the icons of an era — The Tropicana, El Morocco, and The Stork Club — clubs that defined New York’s nightlife in the 1940s through 1960s as the sine qua non of the glamorous life, dripping with stars and churning with gossip, all to the tune of fantastic entertainment. […]
New Theater Space Expands Birdland’s Vocal Range
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Ages and ages in the planning stages, venerable Midtown music mecca Birdland Jazz Club is finally sitting in the catbird seat, having announced the completion of a nesting place that promises to up its game by taking audiences down a level — to the lower level, that is, which is where the […]
Singing Cowboys in Love
BY ELI JACOBSON | Back in 2008, the late impresario Gerard Mortier, then general director designate of the New York City Opera, commissioned from composer Charles Wuorinen an operatic adaptation of Annie Proulx’s 1997 short story “Brokeback Mountain” to be the centerpiece of his inaugural season. Mortier ended up never taking over the opera — […]
Affirmations and Adrenaline as Singer Celebrates 60th at Port Authority
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Broadway or bust, so the saying goes. Or… you could also sing near Broadway — in a bus terminal. Not just any bus terminal, that is, but the most famous and busiest one in the world. That’s what Jonathan Kuhn did for his 60th birthday, giving a 90-minute virtuoso performance during […]
Rick Skye’s Liza Returns to Mama
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Whether crossing herself for the spiritual strength to knock “New York, New York” out of the park or repurposing a song from “Cabaret” to address the mobility issues of an aging hoofer, Rick Skye’s Liza Minnelli walks (and occasionally Fosse-Fosse-Fosses) the thin line between reverent and ruthless. Singing in his natural voice […]
World Music Enlivens Carnegie Family Program
BY ALEXANDRA SIMON | Haitian songstress Emeline Michel will perform a few of her classic hits at Carnegie Hall on Dec. 16 in a special program geared to young children. The singer is performing at “My City, My Song,” a family-oriented show that is part of Carnegie’s Musical Explorers program — an in-class musical education segment […]
