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The raft drew beyond the middle of the river; the boys pointed her head right, and then lay on their oars. The river was not high, so there was not more than a two or three mile current. Hardly a word was said during the next three-quarters of an hour. Now the raft was passing more…
Chasing musical legends in Joshua Tree National Park
The wide opens spaces, accommodating inns and restaurants, and the echoes of Gram Parsons draw them to the desert each year. But during this visit, a lively 3-year-old is in the mix. Reporting from Twentynine Palms
BP debt rating is cut as gulf oil leak costs mount
Moodys Investors Service and Fitch Ratings reduce their credit ratings for the oil giant, which estimates the cleanup and containment could cost it $3 billion.Some oil industry analysts say BP might have to sell assets to pay for efforts to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil leak, including the drilling of a relief well, above, more…
The Sounds and Songs of Stanley Cup Rivals
Here at the Wachovia Center, “God Bless America” is performed live by Lauren Hart or with her accompanying a videotape by Kate Smith, who died in 1986. “It´s just so much fun for me,” Hart, wearing her lucky outfit
A Debut, an Anniversary and a Springboard for Young Players
An exuberant cacophony greeted audience members entering Riverside Church before a concert by the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra on Tuesday evening, as ensemble members sat onstage energetically rehearsing. Significant collective and individual preparation had clearly gone into their terrific concert, the orchestra´s New York debut appearance, celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding by more…
Jazz, Featuring Chopin and Bach
You might not think of Le Poisson Rouge as the ideal place for an organ recital: for one thing, it lacks an organ. But an organist can bring a portable one, and that is what Cameron Carpenter did on Tuesday evening, though not without some backstage drama.Mr. Carpenters original plan was to use his own more…
Songs That Rock the Boat, With Heart and Soul, Too
On the face of it, Frank Loesser, one of Broadway´s all-time great wielders of urban slang, and Karen Oberlin, a demure pop-jazz singer who radiates a subdued glamour, are not a natural fit. Had he lived in a later time, Loesser, who died in 1969, might have turned a Martin Scorsese movie like “Raging Bull” more…
Tapping the Roots of American Music
The closing concert of the enterprising Riverside Symphony´s 29th season, on Wednesday evening at Alice Tully Hall, was a thematic program that pulled together 20th-century works with roots in American vernacular music. It was, in a way, the perfect program for our eclectic, genre-hopping time, not only because it illustrated the porousness between formal and more…
On the Horns of Abundance: Jazz Festivals Resound
N extraordinary amount of jazz hits New York over the next two weeks: four festivals, about 150 sets, and much of it extracurricular to the usual riches at the clubs. It´s a time of marathons and breadth and goes in heavy for the new: not just youth, but also new aesthetic combinations, new attitudes toward more…