Tony Malaby: Solo Saxophone
But surely there are other reasons musicians go solo, especially avant-garde jazz saxophonists.
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“The Trip to Italy”: A Sequel
* Eric McDowell *
But this isn’t to say that The Trip to Italy is unaware of its own dubious status as “sequel.”
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Themes from a Summer
* Eric McDowell *
This summer I read two books about music, equally fascinating on their own and even more so in combination.
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First Films: Haifaa Al-Mansour’s “Wadjda”
* Eric McDowell *
More so than any of the other films I have considered over the course of this series, Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda (2012) is a film of firsts: not only is it Al-Mansour’s feature debut, but it’s also the first feature to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, the first feature directed by a female Saudi filmmaker, and Saudi Arabia’s first submission to the Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film category.
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First Films: Steve McQueen’s “Hunger”
* Eric McDowell *
So how to account for a first film like British director Steve McQueen’s Hunger (2008), arriving fully formed, with both mastery and risk?
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First Films: Jane Campion’s “Sweetie”
* Eric McDowell *
Sweetie is a film about sisters and—like just about all, I think, of Campion’s films—it easily passes the Bechdel Test. But it’s also a film about romance and heterosexual love—a woman’s fated relationship with an “important” man.
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First Films: P.T. Anderson’s “Hard Eight”
* Eric McDowell *
In fact it makes more sense I think to speak of P.T. Anderson’s worlds, in the plural—a variety not only of specific places and times but also of narrative, formal, and stylistic choices and strategies.
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First Films: Wes Anderson’s “Bottle Rocket”
* Eric McDowell *
In that same spirit, I would like to put The Grand Budapest Hotel aside and travel back to 1996, the year of Anderson’s feature film debut, Bottle Rocket.
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A Separation from “The Past”
* Eric McDowell *
Should we be surprised if a film called The Past spends a lot of time and narrative energy circling around backstory? No. But that doesn’t mean we have to excuse the film for undermining our desire to invest in its characters and their actions.
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Ain’t Misbehavin’: Notes On A Master Class With Han Bennink
* Eric McDowell *
The stage became a little society: instead of talking to one another, the participants expressed themselves through their jazz instruments.
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