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Soundtrack to the Struggle 6 “Black, Brown and Beige”
January 23, 1943. Carnegie Hall. Duke Ellington and His Orchestra make their debut at the legendary venue. On the program is the premiere of Ellington’s new magnum opus – his three movement jazz symphony, “Black, Brown & Beige.” It is Ellington’s longest and most ambitious composition to date. Admittedly, the piece as a whole is …
Culture Crawl 687 “All Voices Deserve to be Heard”
The Iowa City Community Theatre returns to live, in-person performance with “The Triangle Factory Fire Project,” opening Feb. 11. Director Michelle Payne-Hinz says the play is drawn from the actual news stories and court testimony after the devastating 1911 fire in a New York City clothing factory, which resulted in increased safety standards for workers, …
Culture Crawl 691 “Presentation In My Basement”
Ernie Schiller’s Rebuild Nepal Foundation makes its first trip in years to bring money and school supplies to children in Nepal at the end of April. Nepal has never fully recovered from a devastating 2015 earthquake, and the pandemic pushed recovery efforts back even further. Joining Ernie on the trip are several students and families …
Culture Crawl 685 “Cool Kids of Iowa City”
Adam Knight and Mat Smart have been friends and collaborators since college, and now they’re working together on simultaneous world premieres: the first performance of Mat’s new play, “Eden Prairie, 1971” and the debut of Riverside Theatre’s brand new performance space, in the Crescent building on the Iowa City Ped Mall. “Eden Prairie, 1971” runs …
Soundtrack to the Struggle 5: Miles “You’re Under Arrest”
It’s 1984, and Miles Davis is changing his musical course yet again. He’d exhausted his exploration of jazz fusion and now looked for a fresh perspective. The result was “You’re Under Arrest.” This album was intentionally controversial – from its garish cover art, to its confounding mix of in-your-face statements and sugary pop ballads. It …
Soundtrack to the Struggle 4: Ella and Marilyn
Very early in her career, Marilyn Monroe’s vocal coach insisted that she study Ella Fitzgerald’s singing. Rumor has it that the coach ordered Monroe to buy all of Fitzgerald’s records, and listen to them 100 times in a row. This made Monroe not only a pretty solid singer, but it was the beginning of a …
Culture Crawl 684 “It’s The Chad Show!”
Zoom somehow pinned only Chad Sonka’s video and kept it up for this entire interview, so you get to see him listening thoughtfully to Dennis’s questions, instead of the picture switching between them, but Goldie B. Locks sounds like so much fun we’re not going to let that keep us from sharing the video. Goldie …