Frank Arthur

AN ACT IN THE DARK For her debut at 54 Below in NYC – a nearly solo cabaret which was recorded for release on Broadway Records – the triple-threat Arielle Jacobs opened by letting us know that this will be the story of how she got “to here” (to Feinstein’s/54 Below, I guess). Some of…

GET HAPPY I had the privilege of seeing Audra McDonald’s Tony-winning performances in  Carousel,  Master Class, and  Ragtime, but it  was her turn as Clara in  Passion  at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival that proved McDonald is, as Stephen Sondheim maintains, “one of the glories of the American theater.”  Not only is she a refined singer with a golden soprano voice of purity and…

SERENE, SEDUCTIVE, SENSUAL Perfect for background music at a Sunday brunch, Guitar Music of Mexico is an accumulation of almost-all late twentieth-century Mexican compositions for guitar, each played by the extremely articulate Veracruz guitarist Cecilio Perera. Similar in tone to the great Spanish works by Albéniz, Granados, Rodrigo and Turina – all of whom wrote…

YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS ARE ANSWERED Everyone knows that lullabies help babies sleep. But studies show that they can also ease pain and stress. These tender ditties are much more than a baby song as well. They are an intimate connection between the singer and the baby. And singing lullabies is good for parents. Singing…

JONESING FOR JO JONES Jo Jones (1911-1985) is one of the most important percussionists in jazz history. In 1934, he joined Count Basie’s band, influencing the Great Buddy Rich and the Great Louie Bellson. He was a backbone for Basie’s traveling troupe up through 1948. He influenced swing and bop drummers by shifting the timekeeping…

AMERICAN QUARTET; AMERICAN ENSEMBLE: OH, BEAUTIFUL! Dvořák’s American Quartet is one of the most famous and loved string quartets, mostly because of the memorable pentatonic melodies (five note per octave scales, which are often found in American folk music) that invoke the wide open prairies of the undeveloped heartland of the country for which it’s…

THE FUCHS, THE PROUD, THE MINGUET When Robert Fuchs died in 1927, just a few days after his 80th birthday, he was already a forgotten figure. He had been a friend of Brahms, who praised his music warmly, and he had taught a whole generation of composers including Sibelius, Mahler, Wolf, Zemlinsky, Schmidt and Schreker….