Email Author Aidan Levy

2012 Stories by Aidan Levy

• Saluting Pianist Cecil Taylor

  published May 9, 2012

  Free jazz forefather Cecil Taylor has lived in a three-story brownstone in Fort Greene for nearly 30 years, but the 83-year-old reclusive... More >>

• 'Experiments in Opera'

  published May 9, 2012

  This mini-festival presents four unconventional operas from emerging composers: In "Happiness is the Problem," three women get rich selling a... More >>

• '11th Annual A Great Night in Harlem'

  published May 9, 2012

  This annual rent party for the jazz world's financially struggling draws a litany of living legends: Quincy Jones, Dr. John, Paquito D'Rivera, and... More >>

• Crystal Stilts

  published April 11, 2012

  These local dreamers typify contemporary Brooklynese, a post-punk, post-psych, post-ironic patois with a heavy concentration of native speakers by... More >>

• 'M.A.T.A. Festival'

  published April 11, 2012

  Contemporary classical may sound like an oxymoron to some, but for the uninitiated, this cross-cultural showcase should prove otherwise. Founded... More >>

• The Punch Brothers

  published April 11, 2012

  The Punch Brothers aren't actually related, but they have the psychic cohesiveness of a bluegrass family band: Their recent release, Who's... More >>

• Gotham Chamber Opera

  published March 21, 2012

  Committed to taking opera out of the ivory tower, Gotham Chamber Opera elevates the mundane and makes the profound intimate, so it makes sense... More >>

• Colin Stetson

  published March 21, 2012

  He's a multireedist who specializes in bass saxophone, a behemoth instrument tamed by Anthony Braxton, Hamiet Bluiett, and few others who dare to... More >>

• Gretchen Parlato

  published March 7, 2012

  They say the flute is the closest thing to the human voice, but on the contrary, Gretchen Parlato's lithe, airy voice is quite possibly the... More >>

• The Allman Brothers Band

  published March 7, 2012

  The Allman Brothers might have just won a Grammy lifetime achievement award, but that doesn't begin to suggest the energy that this iconic jam... More >>

• The Chieftans

  published March 7, 2012

  For this hearty St. Patrick's Day feast, the elder statesmen of Irish folk celebrate the 50th anniversary of their founding not with a meal in a... More >>

• Chico Hamilton

  published March 7, 2012

  This West Coast jazz maven is 90, which puts him in the running for the world's oldest living drummer who still plays out. Hamilton grew up... More >>

• Vienna Philharmonic

  published February 22, 2012

  The Waltz King, the stage name of 19th-century chart-topping composer Johann Strauss the Younger, was the Skrillex of his day, leading a... More >>

• 'Robert Johnson at 100'

  published February 22, 2012

  Robert Johnson gave his soul—as in, his immortal soul—to the blues, as in his immortal soul. And who knows if Time Warner services hell,... More >>

• 'Pierrot Lunair'

  published February 15, 2012

  Sprechstimme, a speaking-singing hybrid that gained credence with Arnold Schoenberg's premiere of Pierrot Lunaire in 1912, was employed by... More >>

• 'Avant Music Festival'

  published February 15, 2012

  Hermann Hesse's Siddartha starts and ends at the river, and so does avant-garde composer Eve Beglarian's minimalist tone poem Songs from... More >>

• 'Howlin' for Hubert'

  published February 15, 2012

  "Hubert was Wolf, Wolf was Hubert," said legendary blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin of his two decade partnership with Howlin' Wolf. Credited for the... More >>

• Galactic

  published February 15, 2012

  Never mind Ash Wednesday because this year, the quintessential New Orleans party band is giving up Lent for Lent. Their 10th studio album and... More >>

• Buster Williams

  published February 1, 2012

  In a multi-generational career bridging the swing-era stylings of Sarah Vaughan, the hard bop of Dexter Gordon, the electric incarnation of the... More >>

• David Wax Museum

  published February 1, 2012

  Mexican folk isn't nearly the same as New England folk—the intersection of that Venn diagram might just say "into fringe"—but for this... More >>

• Pablo Ziegler & Maya Beiser

  published January 25, 2012

  Canyengue tango sprang up from the streets of Buenos Aires in the 1930s, a cheek-to-cheek escape from the hardships of life in the slums. Moving... More >>

• Saigon

  published January 25, 2012

  Last February, after years of hanging in limbo, Saigon's debut, The Greatest Story Never Told, finally saw the light of day, quickly... More >>

• Weasel Walter Trio

  published January 18, 2012

  From the bowels of unbridled mayhem comes Weasel Walter, the manic enfant terrible of the downtown scene, percussive bustle in the hedgerow... More >>

• Charles Bradley

  published January 18, 2012

  The soul revivalist practically sweats Brooklyn tap water, but perspiration isn't the only criterion for a heart-stopping tribute to James Brown,... More >>

• Sofia Rei

  published January 11, 2012

  This leading light of Latin jazz had the most infectious smile at the 2012 Winter Jazzfest. The Buenos Aires native infuses the traditional music... More >>