Roger’s year in music, 2021
Music does something to me, and I’ve never been able to explain exactly why. It just happens. Sometimes when I walk into a supermarket,...
“Funeral,” by Tigercub
This might seem an odd admission, but I pay too little attention to song lyrics or song titles, until I finally do, which often...
Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, et al (Part Two)
You'll notice I reversed their names in the title for the second installment. This 2007 film by Robert Levi helps provide context to the...
Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, et al (Part One)
A Duke Named Ellington was a two-part "American Masters" film on PBS in 1988.
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974) was a musician and orchestra leader...
Van Morrison, “the only gazillionaire rock star to be a pandemic-denier besides Eric Clapton”
The pandemic seems to have deprived Van Morrison of his karma. Or maybe he already was running low.
Musically, the new album isn't unpleasant at...
My year in music, at least so far
I remain wedded to the CD format, but these days I stream music first, then purchase the physical discs of those new releases that...
On the late James Levine
The conductor and pianist James Levine died earlier this month, and yesterday's obituary in the The New York Times is here. Levine was renowned,...
A pint of bitter, please, because it’s The Dubliners at the The Wheeltappers and...
In which three fascinating Anglo-Irish topics collide amid my frequent references to the adjective "elegiac."
It's the mid-1970s lineup of the Irish folk band The...
Big bands: A book about Bunny Berigan, his life and times
Originally this was an "ON THE AVENUES" column from July 25, 2017. It has been lightly updated.
I was born in 1960, and grew up...
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A big damn guide to downtown New Albany (in 2010)
No, not a "dam" guide to his Gahanic majesty's litigation, but a weekend preview of dining, shopping and events in downtown New Albany from...
40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 76: A boy can dream – about...
Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 75: My shoes are filled with Volga mud (1999).
This installment was terribly hard to write. Kindly...
The abstract modernism of “monuments and memory” in Tito’s Yugoslavia
Controversies over the newer monuments in Yugoslavia also came up as we talked. We discussed the memorial at Tjentište in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Ćosić argued that...
