Michael Janairo

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  • Trans-Siberian Orchestra brings new show to Albany

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    You’ll be a bit disappointed if you go to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s annual holiday concert expecting to hear the group to play its holiday rock opera “Christmas Eve and Other Stories.”

    They’re not doing that this year.

    Instead, the bombastic rock act has chosen to rock “The Lost Christmas Eve,” the final chapter of its popular Christmas trilogy—which began with 1996’s “Christmas Eve.” “The Lost Christmas Eve” — which will be played in its entirety — focuses on people in a rundown hotel, an old toy store, a blues bar, and a Gothic cathedral in New York City on Christmas Eve. But don’t worry.

    The TSO will heat up its huge light and laser show and dust off yuletide favorites such as “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24” during the second half of the concert. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Times Union Center, 51 S. Pearl St., Albany. $33-$73. 487-2000; http://timesunion.com

  • Dave Brubeck, 91, has died

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    Dave Brubeck, 91, has died. The jazz pianist and composer, perhaps best known for “Take Five” (watch video below).

    Read the AP obituary here.

    Brubeck was no stranger to the Capital Region. The venues he performed in include the Saratoga Jazz Festival at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Proctors in Schenectady, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, the Massry Center for the Arts at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Mass., His most recent performance was with his son’s band, Chris Brubeck Triple Play in June 10, 2011, at Zankel Center at Skidmore College.

    What are your memories of Brubeck?

  • Trey Anastasio Band to play Palace Theatre on Jan. 26, 2013

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    Trey Anastasio Band will return to the Capital Region to play on Saturday, Jan. 26, at the Palace Theatre in Albany, Live Nation has announced.

    The band is touring in support of Anastasio’s latest solo release, the album “Traveler,” which was released in October by ATO Records.

    Rolling Stone magazine called the recording “gorgeous” and said of the song “Pigtail”:”all class-clown philosophizing and noodle-dance groove – is the slam-dunk: a reminder of what he does better than anyone else.”

    The band’s line-up includes Cyro Baptista, James Casey, Natalie Cressman, Jennifer Hartswick, Russ Lawton, Tony Markellis and Ray Paczkowski.

    Tickets for the show will be $42.50 go onsale at 10 a.m. Dec. 15. They can be purchased via LiveNation.com, at the Palace Theatre box office at 19 Clinton Ave. in Albany or charge by phone at 800-745-3000.

  • Cool things to do today and the week ahead

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    Family fun
    There’s just something magical about trains and Christmas. The sight of a Lionel engine, billowing smoke from its toy smokestack as it chugs around the tree, is heartwarming—and quite common during the first half of the 20th century. A visit to the Great Train Extravaganza will bring those memories flooding back. The annual model train showcase, presented by the Upstate Train Associates and the Hudson-Berkshire Division of the National Model Railroad Association, will feature more than 200 tables of model trains of all gauges, train sets, parts, accessories, books and railroad memorabilia. And this year, there will be a “massive” train layout made of Legos. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. today (Sunday, 12/2). $7; free for kids under 12. Empire State Plaza Convention Center, Albany. 668-9892; http://www.gtealbany.com

    Kids didn’t watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” for the music. But its Vince Guaraldi’s stellar jazz soundtrack from the classic Christmas special that brings back yuletide memories for Baby Boomers. Guaraldi’s instrumental takes on “Christmas Time Is Here,” “Oh Christmas Tree,” and “Linus and Lucy” are quintessential holiday fare. Guaraldi’s genius will be celebrated in “It’s A Jazzy Christmas!,” a concert featuring The Peanut Gallery Jazz Trio. The group — local pianist David Gleason, Schenectady school district music teacher Mike Lawrence and drummer Pete Sweeney — will play Guaraldi’s holiday faves. 3 and 5 p.m. today (Sunday, 12/2). $10-$20; free for children under 6 (ticket is required). Kathleen McManus Picotte Recital Hall, Massry Center for The Arts, The College of St. Rose, 1002 Madison Ave., Albany. 337-4871; http://bit.ly/Ukp2Yi

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  • On exhibit: Muse at Home at Skidmore

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    By Amy Griffin

    Think about the items you choose to decorate your home. Are they simply there to beautify your walls or do you have a deeper connection to them? For the 27 contributors to “The Muse at Home” at Skidmore’s Schick Gallery, it’s deeply personal. The artworks they choose to surround themselves with are like old friends, sometimes created by friends.

    Rebecca Shepard, curatorial assistant to the director of the Schick Gallery, says that within the idea of a show about collecting, she felt the focus should be on exploring more fully how people feel about the art they own.

    “It’s really more about what people get from living with the work in their home,” says Shepard. A call was sent out to everyone involved in visual art at Skidmore. Faculty and staff from the Tang Teaching Museum, the studio art and art history departments and the visual resources area of the library responded. Fifteen of the 27 contributors are working artists themselves. (more…)

  • Why you know someone in a band: The Capital Region is dense (but not popular) with music

    To control for the effects of population, this map (above) shows the distribution of musical acts per 10,000 people. Note how dark it is in and around Albany. From http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/11/americas-most-popular-music-scenes/3588/

    Richard Florida, who coined the term creative class — about how the development of cities can be dependent upon the rise of a class of professionals involved in creative industries — recently published a study in the Atlantic Online about the most popular music scenes in the U.S. (A hat tip to my colleague Leigh Hornbeck to pointing me to this map on the Idiotsbeingidiots blog.)

    Florida’s post offers four maps:

    • Raw Number of Musical Acts (LA is on top, followed by NYC and Chicago)
    • Density of Musical Acts per 10,000 (This is the map above, with LA on top, followed by Napa, Calif., and Las Vegas — the Albany metro area comes in ninth)
    • Music Popularity Index (in millions) This comes from MySpace data in 2007 (!) and has LA, NYC and Atlanta in the top 3
    • Popularity Index per Capita (Nashville tops this list, followed by LA and Atlanta)

    The article states that the data come from MySpace in 2007, so it can be out of date. Florida writes:

    In early 2007, at the peak of the site’s popularity (it had more visitors than Google at the time), my team at the Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI) and I organized and collated information on the more than three million artists that were listed. We cleaned the data, organizing it by location, popularity (as reflected by fans, plays, and page views), and key musical genres. Overall, we were able to code almost two million acts to metro areas.

    It is stunning that Albany area is so highly ranked in the density of musical acts with 154 for 10,000 people.

    Now this doesn’t mean the city of Albany, but the metropolitan statistical area, which includes the four counties of the Capital Region (Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga Springs and Schenectady) and more than 800,000 people. But if the math is correct, and you take that 154 per 10,000 and apply it to a population of 800,000, that means in 2007 there were 12,320 musical acts in the Capital Region.

    To me this study, and Albany’s rank in it, means a few things:

    • It confirms what I’ve long suspected and what other data, like a  recent Preview survey, has said: going to see music is one of the top entertainment activities in the region.
    • Many of the people who go to see musical acts are also involved in their own musical act.
    • New technologies have made it easier than ever for people to create, record and distribute music, and this region is a vibrant place for that creation.
    • Despite all of this vibrancy, the music doesn’t have much of a reach, in that it doesn’t rate highly on the popularity index. That could mean that not enough people are hearing the music being created in this area, because the new tools for recording and distribution aren’t enough to make it big in the music world, if Albany has to compete with Nashville and LA, for example. Then again, it could also mean that the music isn’t all that good.
    • It also means that, with so many musical acts, that you, dear reader, likely know at least one person who plays music in a band, if not several,

    What’s your take on this data?

  • Photos: Carrie Underwood over the years

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    Carrie Underwood returns to the Capital Region on Tuesday, Dec. 4. It is hard to believe that it has been more than seven years since she became part of the pop culture firmament with her winning turn on the fourth season of American Idol. To celebrate her return, which will feature her American Music Award best Country album: “Blown Away,” check out these photos to relive the past seven years of her rise from AI contestant to superstar. You can read the review of her 2010 concert at Times Union Center here.

    At a glance
    Carrie Underwood

    • When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4
    • Where: Times Union Center, 51 S. Pearl St., Albany
    • Tickets: $40.50-$60.50
    • Info: 800-745-3000; http://timesunion.com

  • Boston Symphony Orchestra announces 2013 Tanglewood season

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    2013 Tanglewood Season

    By Joseph Dalton

    The Academy Award-winning film version of “West Side Story” will be screened with live orchestral accompaniment in The Shed at Tanglewood as part of the 2013 summer season, just announced by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In an unusual feat of technology, the original vocal soundtrack — both singing and dialogue — will play as David Newman conducts.

    Other highlights of the season, which runs July 5 through September 1, are concert performances of two recent full-length operas, John Harbison’s “The Great Gatsby” and George Benjamin’s “Written on Skin.” Major concert works will include the Verdi Requiem, Mahler’s First, Third and Fourth symphonies and the third act of Wagner’s “Die Walkure.” Yo-Yo Ma’s best-selling recording “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” will be reprised with bassist Edgar Meyer and madolinist Chris Thile, who recently received a MacArthur “genius” award. Also, Mark Morris will stage a double bill of Purcell’ “Dido and Aeneas” and Britten’s “Curlew River” with members of his dance company and musicians of the Tanglewood Music Center.

    Because the BSO continues to perform without a music director after the departure of James Levine there will be a large roster of guest conductors. Among them, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos leads four concerts, while Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, and Christoph von Dohnányi will conduct two to three performances each. Returning soloists include violinist Joshua Bell, and pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Emanuel Ax, and Peter Serkin. Appearing in recital at Ozawa Hall will be baritone Bryn Terfel, and pianist Garrick Ohlsson, among others.

    Other annual events include a live broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” (June 29), Tanglewood On Parade (August 6), and John Williams conducting film night (August 24).

    A variety of discount ticket programs continue, including half price lawn seats for those under 17. In a new promotion, adults under age 40 can purchase tickets for just $20 to all BSO and Boston Pops concerts in The Shed. Tickets go on sale January 27 and are available by calling 888-266-1200 or by visiting http://www.tanglewood.org

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  • Review: 60 Minutes on New York City Ballet

    Meh.

    I often enjoy 60 Minutes for its hard-hitting and enlightening news segments, and I was especially looking forward this segment on New York City Ballet, which has had its summer home at Saratoga Performing Arts Center since it was founded, but will only be in residence for one week in 2013.

    Lesley Stahl provided a good overview of NYCB for a general audience, but the segment lacked specifics. Yes, the dancers are as fit as athletes. Yes, Balanchine is one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Yes, the audience for ballet is graying. Yes, NYCB has financial troubles, though we don’t get any financial details.

    What we learn is that ballet master Peter Martins — a former NYCB dancer under Balanchine who didn’t really like to perform — is trying to continue the legacy of Balanchine and to build new audiences by such critically panned shows such as Paul McCartney’s “Ocean Kingdom” and by highlighting the male dancers, such as Robert Fairchild.

    Though Stahl does ask the good, hard question of Martins about his reaction to the critically drubbing his choreography has gotten, especially with “Ocean Kingdom,” she let’s Martins get away with saying, basically, that the critics don’t know what they’re talking about and that he had sold-out houses for the McCartney-related shows. What the critically response means, though, is that once the thrill of having a Beatle do ballet fades away, City Ballet is left with a dance that may not last in its repertoire. In other words, that it doesn’t have a future.

    That’s something that the piece doesn’t delve into enough: the future. How successful has Martins been in highlighting male dancers? The piece doesn’t say, though perhaps the 60 Minutes segment’s few minutes spent with Fairchild could create some more excitement for NYCB.