Sixth time around. The British funk band Cymande’s fame was momentary 50 years ago or so. They released three notable albums [their self-titled 1972 debut, followed by Second Time Round (1973) and Promised Heights (1974)] with less essential efforts in 1981 and 2015, toured with Al Green and Patti Labelle and headlined at the Apollo before calling it quits. Their grooves […]
Wiggly Air, on music with Kurt Gottschalk Read More »
As a critic, I’m wary of addressing issues of taste. Taste is personal, it’s what we like and what we don’t—I love how in Italian you say you like something with “mi piace,” which means “it pleases me”—and there’s very little taste-wise that is truly bad. Bad taste, done with affection, is kitsch, which is
Jazz: Being Here, Now Read More »
Happy New Year and welcome to the 1st column of 2025 for Tits Up Big Apple!! While December maybe a time to reflect on the past year’s adventures, January brings us new exploits, new music, along with the best NYC has to offer when it comes to residencies and tried and true traditions. What is a
Medea Hoar: January 1 is always Hank Williams Day Read More »
“Peace and health – this is my journey as an artist,” Jon Tsoi says. “It’s who I am as a human being.” Tsoi says his art is guided by the Tao, an eastern philosophy meant to harmonize human life with the natural state of the universe. The exhibition is titled War and Witness, running through
Jon Tsoi performing and painting for peace at White Box Art Space Read More »
Fowl Play: Conference of the Birds is an experimental play. Let’s get that out of the way before anything else, as without that knowledge, the viewing experience will be quite confusing. Now, Fowl Play is also not a puppet theater. Let’s get that out of the way, too, as, again, without that knowledge, the viewing
I opened my eyes and there was a face, a spirit face, hovering inches above my face. It had no body, per se. Just a face and a long tail of spiritual essence that trailed off into nothingness. So, in the late 1970s I became fascinated with the work of the poet Robert Graves. This
A visitation on East 7th Street, by Stephen DiLauro Read More »
Cecily Brown’s work is in the order of delicious maximalism and has by no means ever been an easy read. Indeed, certain passages in her paintings are busy beyond perception, and one may even ask after a long standing view are they occluded indecipherable visual entities, or rather, rapturous musical movements akin to a Joan
Revisiting Reubens and Breughel and more, by Lee Klein Read More »
Susan Swartz’s exhibition is enjoying an extended stay at Georges Berges Gallery in SoHo. Visitors will be able to view the vibrant, intriguing works now on display until November 20. Both a nature and abstract painter, in the same compositions, Swartz’s work is provoking discussion worthy of a major talent, which she is. The curator
Seeing great art free in downtown Manhattan, by Stephen DiLauro Read More »
Something in 4/4 time. Late last year, Robert Fripp—the lynchpin between ambient music and prog rock—appeared on an episode of Daryl Hall’s home cooking and barn jam show Live From Daryl’s House. The series has been airing intermittently since 2007 and is generally a pleasure. (All of the episodes can be found on YouTube.) The
Wiggly Air, by Kurt Gottschalk Read More »
Moral panics have been around long before Socrates was forced to commit suicide for corrupting the youth of Athens. Since civilization began, there’s been an endless cycle of social/political/artistic change provoking reaction from those who are fearful of any change whatsoever, or even, in Mencken’s immortal words, “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be
Crime Jazz By George Grella Read More »
