By JON ROSS
Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points is not the typical realm of the piano trio. The movie-theater-to-music venue, which has a generous dancing area in front of the stage, is, after all, better suited to amplified electric guitars than acoustic pianos.
Pianist McCoy Tyner is the last link to John Coltrane's quartet from the early 1960s -- check out Tyner on "A Love Supreme" and other seminal Coltrane records. On Saturday, he brought a trio featuring bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt to the rock stage.
Tyner last performed in Atlanta two years ago at Georgia Tech's Ferst Center for ...
By JON ROSS
It's been confirmed that the 2010 Atlanta Jazz Festival will return to Piedmont Park on May 29 and 30.
The event hasn't been held on the 10th Street stage since its 30th anniversary in 2007. Woodruff Park hosted the festival in 2008, and musicians performed in Grant Park during the 2009 iteration. This year, the two-day concert will mirror the scheduling cutback seen in recent years — the festival changed from three to two days last year — but will feature neither the Future of Jazz nor the Youth Jazz Band competitions last held in 2008, says Nnena Nchege ...
Tonight's Film Love event, "Open to You," features classic early video works by the pioneering artist Vito Acconci. Curator Andy Ditzler will introduce the works before the 8 p.m. screening at Atlanta's Eyedrum music and arts space, but I invited him to share with us some thoughts on Acconci, perhaps as an extra enticement to attend. -- Cathy
BY ANDY DITZLER
From 1969 to about 1973, in the course of his remarkable journey from experimental poet to art world visionary, Vito Acconci created a staggering amount of works: performances, “activities,” photos, films, videos, writings, installations, audio.
Most of these activities center on Acconci’s body. This artist is famous for the extent to ...
Editors' note: The Atlanta writer and Renaissance scholar Frank Manley, a beloved member of the community, died in November. Vincent Murphy, an Emory University professor and former artistic producing director of Theater Emory, wrote this affectionate tribute for ArtsCriticATL. -- Pierre and Cathy
By VINCENT MURPHY
On Monday, Feb. 1, several major theater artists will join the late Frank Manley at the campfire he invoked in his beautiful, haunting play, “The Evidence.” In this drama, a Bigfoot creature also shows up at the campfire, often with the look of a dearly departed family member. I expect to see, at least in my mind’s eye, ...
By JON ROSS
Aside from the most obvious venue -- Churchill Grounds next to the Fox Theatre in Midtown -- jazz in Atlanta can be hard to find. On Monday nights at Café 290, trumpeter-vocalist Joe Gransden's 16-piece big band functions as a sort of search engine, bringing the best local players together in one place.
For the past six months, the wide, low-ceilinged club in Sandy Springs has hosted the band on the first and third Mondays of the month. What started as a low-key gathering quickly spawned into a regular event that has become surprisingly popular. In the process, the regular ...
Editor's note: We're happy to introduce Jon Ross, a jazz specialist, who from time to time will write about the local scene for ArtsCriticATL. Jon has written for DownBeat magazine, among others, and blogs at Jazzlanta. -- Pierre
By JON ROSS
Polyglot trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' "Blues Symphony" seems to be experiencing some growing pains. And the story still isn't over.
A co-commission of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony, "Blues Symphony" is billed as a complete fusion of classical and jazz styles. Subtitled "Symphony No. 2," it revives a form birthed from composer Gunther Schuller's Third Stream experiments in the 1960s.
Each movement ...
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