Will Friedwald
By Will Friedwald
-
Culture Another Velvet Fog Summer
Mel Tormé (1925–1999) was the Art Tatum of singers: a daredevil improviser with equally flawless chops and remarkable harmonic smarts, he would take a tune and break it down into 1,000 glistening arpeggios, then put it back together in a way that often improved on the original. Like Tatum, he could do all this without…
-
Culture Anything You Can Do
In jazz terminology, it’s known as “call and response”: The trumpet section plays a few notes, which are answered immediately by the saxophones. Or, a soloist will give out with a four-bar phrase and then hear it echoed back at him by the full ensemble. Call and response is as essential to big band swing…
-
News On the Fourth Night, Tunes, Jokes and Shoe-Throwing
How better to celebrate the fourth night of Hanukkah than by throwing a shoe at Bernard Madoff? On December 24, nightlife impresario Michael Dorf, who gave the world the Knitting Factory, opened his new space, City Winery, with a variety show that served as the fourth evening of New York’s fourth annual Sephardic Music Festival….
Most Popular
- 1
Culture In season 4 of ‘Fauda,’ Israeli tactics come under fire — and so do the show’s heroes
- 2
Fast Forward ‘Saturday Night Live’ mocks George Santos’ Jewish claims
- 3
Culture Why Bob Dylan’s haunting comeback album sounds just as Jewish as it ever did
- 4
Culture What David Crosby taught me when he kicked me out of his hotel room
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion When all you can do about Israeli and Palestinian violence is scream ‘Enough!’ in any language
-
Opinion The East Jerusalem synagogue attack broke my heart. Now, Israelis must remember our diversity is our strength
-
Opinion We called Zionists ‘snowflakes.’ You gave us your thoughts.
-
Fast Forward Republicans reportedly vote to condemn West, Fuentes, Yiannopoulos, Omar, Tlaib at winter meeting