James Oscar Smith, popularly known as Jimmy Smith, died in 2005 and is buried just outside Philadelphia under a headstone that proclaims him to be the “world’s greatest jazz organist”. Fellow jazz organists like Jimmy McGriff and Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes… Read More
Mouchette (1967), one of French master Robert Bresson’s many essential films, begins and ends with conspicuous absences. The opening credits roll over an image of an empty chair, out of which the title character’s mother (Marie Cardinal) has just risen… Read More
Before 2004, few people would classify Green Day’s music as particularly sophisticated, intellectual, or thematically mature. Sure, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” with its poignancy, fragility, and beautiful orchestration, quickly became the introspective acoustic ballad of a generation, and… Read More
10. “King Harvest (Has Surely Come)” (The Band, 1969) An anthem for the working class, this song tells the woebegone tale of a poor country farmer, desolate over the loss of his crops and seeking refuge from a fast-talking “Union” man,… Read More
German indie rock band the Notwist have not released an album of new material since 2015. Although they have been around for more than 20 years with various members, the central trio of the group, Markus (guitar) and Micha Archer… Read More
Not everyone who works in Hollywood is famous, but some actors who work consistently across the decades achieve a level of face or voice recognition that compels viewers to sometimes shout with joy at the television, “hey, it’s that one… Read More
German indie rock band the Notwist have not released an album of new material since 2015. Although they have been around for more than 20 years with various members, the central trio of the group, Markus (guitar) and Micha Archer… Read More
Douglas is one Amy Douglas White, an American electropop artist raised in Spain who picked up the landscape’s bright vista and infused it into her glittering music. Having performed with artists like M83 and West Indian Girl, Douglas is hardly… Read More
If you only have time to read one contemporary German writer, it ought to be Jenny Erpenbeck. The author of three novels and several short story collections, her last novel Go, Went, Gone was a masterful statement on the immensity… Read More
The latest documentary from filmmaker Mary Wharton (Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound, 2009) is a love letter to the 39th president of the United States. Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President (currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video) tells the… Read More