Vivaldi's Cello: Yo-Yo Ma, Ton Koopman, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Spotify

While rifling through the endless, yet convenient lists of musical artists featured on Spotify, one of my newest best friends, I typed "Vivaldi" in the search box and discovered a compilation of works by the Red Priest. Illustrious and commercial-friendly pieces, like the allegro movement of the Spring concerto and the other Four Seasons, were drawn from my search query. Various artists, some who I'd never heard before, also spattered my computer screen (like Pavel Sporcl, the Czech Republic's gypsy rock-star).  I came across, however,  Yo-Yo Ma's 2004 CD release of Vivaldi's Cello.  Intrigued, I stopped searching to listen further.

The Jazz Gallery presents: Steve Coleman and Five Elements

 

     The Jazz Gallery, a cozy, mysterious music venue nestled between New York's famous Soho and its outskirts at 290 Hudson Street, hosted a performance the previous two nights featuring Steve Coleman and Five Elements. As their name, Steve Coleman and Five Elements, suggests, Steve Coleman lead the ensemble and his five elements (Jen Shyu, vocals; Johnathan Finlayson, trumpet; Marcus Gilmore, drums; Miles Okazaki, guitar; and David Virelles, piano and keyboard synthesizer) supported him by coloring Coleman's compositions with their distinct musical voices and sounds. 
    Upon entering the Gallery, one is greeted by a set of aged, wooden steps.  If you look closely enough, each step's varnish is worn away where, over time, the footprints of the many people traversing its steep climb has exposed the woods' grains leaving only worn, white spots.  These weathered spots serve as a reminder that, after all, the role of the jazz musician is a role that depicts honesty and self-identity.  Because the wood's appearance is so bare with nothing left to protect it, the jazz musician, during a performance, is similar by the way his or her voice is revealed during improvisation.  The slow but gradual sense of growth towards developing a voice (i.e., how one moves away and toward a piece's melody during improvisation) is like the wood: polished and exposed through the continuous progression of time and the elements which rub its varnish away.  
       Passing the ticket man who sits at the top of the steps, there is a room with at least ten rows of chairs and a stage which is practically on top of the audience.

One further update -- City Opera's plans still under construction

Via Anthony Tommasini -- a New York Times update .