Will Friedwald
By Will Friedwald
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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…
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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…
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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….
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Culture Uh, was Taylor Swift wearing tefillin at the VMAs?
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Opinion Trump and Harris are both vague on Israel-Gaza, but in starkly different ways
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Opinion Are Jewish Republicans willing to put up with Holocaust denial?
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Opinion Campuses are banning discrimination against Zionists. That’s good news for the pro-Palestinian camp
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward How Laura Loomer uses her Jewishness to promote her far-right views and Trump
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Fast Forward Kyiv funeral for rabbi’s son killed in battle showcases Jewish contributions to Ukraine war effort
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Fast Forward Universities are trying a new strategy on Israel and Gaza: Say nothing
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