A Reunion of Aging Gringos who worked on the Brazil Herald newspaper in Rio de Janeiro: the Brazil Chronicles
Through the magic of internet´s “Meet,” this former cultural reporter, columnist, food, music and theater critic for the now extinct English newspaper in Rio de Janeiro the Brazil Herald, attended Sunday afternoon a reunion fifty years later of our former reporters and editors. The occasion was to herald(!) in a new book of over 496 […]
Singer Carole Saboya, pianist -composer Antonio Adolfo (and jazz pianist Adaury Mothe) at the Blue Note
Coincidence or destiny? As we took a taxi here in Copacabana en route to the local oasis of good pop and jazz music, the Blue Note, I didn´t have to ask our driver to lower the sound on the usual awful rap or repetitive drum loop called “music “these days we hear in most taxis. […]
Duo Gilson Peranzetta, piano and Marcel Powell, guitar at the Blue Note
Trying to catch up with the Brazilian jazz and popular music world after decades of being submerged in the so-called “erudite” music world of Brazil, this observer was a bit embarrassed to sit almost onstage at the Blue Note nightspot or directly in front of pianist Gilson Peranzzetta and Marcel Powell, guitarist, as they performed […]
Tom Jobim, the Musical
I couldn’t help thinking as I enjoyed last Sunday (8 December) every minute of” Tom Jobim, the Musical” at Rio de Janeiro´s Teatro Grande —thirty years after Jobim died in a New York City hospital–the apropos words of a local acquaintance: “Due to internet there is no longer any third world culture.” Agreed, at least […]
Singer, composer and guitarist Zelia Duncan at the Blue Note in Rio and Sao Paulo presents “Lado Z”
From the enthusiasm and applause of the packed house at the “Blue Note” nightspot here in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, MPB (reads “Brazilian Popular Music”) singer, guitarist and composer Zelia Duncan,60, is quite popular and well known.(But not to this hibernated oboist-composer, immersed in the so-called erudite music world!)For the audience was young, old, heterosexual, […]
Opening Night at Copacabana´s Roxy Dinner Show
My conclusion about life at this late age is that things go in cycles only with variations or “there is nothing new under the sun.” And that´s what I thought on Thursday evening when I attended opening night at what once was my and others (who reside in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro) beloved Cinema Roxy […]
“ Diving in the Dark”: A Documentary Honoring a Great Brazilian Pianist: Joao Assis Brasil
Documentaries participating in the current international film festival display that Rio de Janeiro may not be Vienna— where such geniuses of so-called classical music as Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven thrived– but in its own way so-called Marvelous City has been and continues to be an international capital of music. The documentaries include this portrait […]
Pianisimo:16-year-old Turkish piano prodigy at the Copacabana Palace Theater
One week before the Material Gal, Madonna and her estimated 1.5 million fans are about to invade the beaches of Copacabana, the theater of Rio de Janeiro´s iconic Hotel Copacabana Palace is hosting a series of young virtuoso pianists. Friday evening (26 April) Turkish wiz, Can Sarac, 16, astonished local audiences with an impeccable technique […]
A Falecida (The Deceased), still a modern tragedy by Brazil´s Euripedes, Nelson Rodrigues at the Copacabana Palace Theater
Today with artificial intelligence taking over many aspects of life, this theatre-lover would like to suggest to the able producers and directors of an outstanding production of Nelson Rodrigues “The Deceased” that they find a means via headphones to translate simultaneously in various languages for tourists this “Carioca tragedy” by a Brazilian theatrical genius. For […]
“Witness for the Prosecution”: My nomination for a retroactive Oscar (or Harold?) award
As the 96th edition of the Academy Awards ceremony approaches this Sunday, 10 April 2024, I –always a perennial latecomer—saw a film at the only surviving cinema here in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro called Joia (Jewel), which I would award even today all the TOP Academy awards. How strange that although nominated for Oscars in […]