The Arts Fuse Newsletter, January 15
The 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll! Jazz Notables We Lost in 2024, Jazz Composers’ Omnibus 2024, Take 2. Also, Candy Darling and reviews of "The Brutalist" and "Crumbs from the Table of Joy"
From The Editor's Desk:
For the third year, the magazine is honored to host the Francis Davis Jazz Poll. As the poll’s organizer extraordinaire Tom Hull writes in his introduction to the 19th edition of the roundup, the initial version of the poll was published in 2006 at the Village Voice. It surveyed the picks of thirty New York writers. But the poll quickly went nationwide and international, ultimately moving about until it ended up at National Public Radio. Why did NPR kick the poll to the curb? Indifference to jazz? The set-up was not diverse enough? (Around 280 distinguished jazz journalists and broadcasters took part in this year’s tabulations.) Who knows and who cares? Corporate media’s loss is The Arts Fuse’s gain, which is good news for the world’s jazz lovers. There is an enormous amount of marvelous music to explore — and I guarantee discoveries for any taste.
Among its many virtues, the Francis Davis Jazz Poll is a testament to the value of critics. We need informed sensibilities eager to leapfrog over the white noise of PR and Spotify promotion, that look beyond big spenders bankrolling ease of access. Hull puts it this way in his piece The Nuts and Bolts: “….that a sufficient number of critics can overcome such obstacles, and find a few records that don’t have the advantages of the usual rich and famous, and lift them from obscurity to compete — not on an equal playing field, but on any one at all — suggests to me that we aren’t doing such a bad job.”
We need more arts critics, not less, which brings me to the latest local case of cultural coverage downsizing. Here is what Nina McLaughlin recently posted on Instagram:
“I’m sad to report that the Boston Globe is cutting a page of its books coverage. I found out late last week that the column I’d filed a few days before would be my last.
It’s been an honor and a joy writing about New England Literary News every week these last 8+ years. I’ve felt so lucky to be able to shine some light on the books and bookstores, the writers, the poets, the translators, the publishers, the libraries, the journals, the events that make this region so active, exciting, and rich. When I started writing it, I never could’ve anticipated how many amazing encounters it would bring, how many new friendships, how my own life would be so deeply enriched by it.”
Another castoff from the Boston Globe’s ever-shrinking arts section. As with previous whittlings, I emailed the powers-of-excision at the newspaper for an explanation. There is only silence.
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Archive: From the Editor's Desk
The 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll: The Shape of Jazz That Keeps Us Going
Compiled by Tom Hull
The creative force behind jazz is so strong and so universal that the music will continue to sustain us through whatever perils and calamities the upper echelons of business and politics land us in.
Jazz Album Reviews and Commentary: Jazz Composers’ Omnibus 2024, Take 2
By Steve Elman
In four (more) projects from 2024, jazz-oriented composers supply some of the decade’s best music so far.
Arts Commentary: Candy Rappers of 2024 — Remembering Candy Darling
By Trevor Fairbrother
It is clear to Candy Darling’s biographer that the present moment contains alarming reminders of the political scapegoating generated by the culture wars of the ’90s. She leaves no doubt that her subject’s difficult, complicated life embodies a cautionary tale.
Theater Review: “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” — Lost in the Past
By Robert Israel
At its best, this script offers an opportunity for audiences to cast a backward glance at the first stirrings of dramatist Lynn Nottage’s prolific canon.
Film Review: Deconstructing “The Brutalist”
By Peter Keough
Like all accomplished directors – and architects – Brady Corbet has orchestrated a team of outstanding collaborators into shaping his vision.
Arts Remembrance: Jazz Notables We Lost in 2024
Compiled by Tom Hull
For many years now, we’ve collected brief lists of important jazz figures who passed in the previous year.
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Questions, comments, concerns?
Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com
