Clips & Articles: Music
I review the Seattle and Portland operas, and smaller opera companies, for Portland-based Oregon ArtsWatch and Artslandia, and for Classical Voice North America, the official web site of the Music Critics Association of North America, of which I am a member. I write about classical, chamber and jazz music for Oregon ArtsWatch, Classical Voice North America, and previously, for Oregon Music News, concertonet.com and Northwest Reverb. For more stories and music reviews, check the archives at www.columbian.com between 1995-2006. My 2005 National Endowment for the Arts and Columbia Journalism grant helped immensely in music coverage.

A Day In the Nightlife: Tony Starlight’s Supper Club
Oregon Music News Review of Tony Starlight's Supper Club
Originally published on Oregon Music News August 10, 2010
Tony Starlight’s Supperclub & Lounge, 3728 N.E. Sandy Blvd., hunkers down in a fitting location — Hollywood. The one in Portland, not the place with the big sign on the hill near LA.
Nee and aka Brett Kucera, Tony Starlight opened his namesake place in January 2007, determined to bring Portland a nostalgic entertainment venue it didn’t have. Not a jazz club, a New York City-style piano bar, high-end resto, nor a concert hall, his room would be a supper club with a variety show, starring himself as Dino, Tom Jones, Frankie, Neil Diamond and made-up characters. He’d make people laugh, connect with the audience, get to know the community — at least the ones who showed up at his nightclub.
What’s odd is that by now the club has become all of those things. Read More
Review of Seattle Opera’s “Amelia”
Seattle's world premiere "Amelia" takes off with grace
Originally published on Concertonet.com, May 31, 2010
Seattle Opera lacked a crucial element since lauded general director Speight Jenkins has run the show for 27 years. Until now, he has never commissioned an opera.
With Amelia, which made its elaborate two-hour world premiere in May, operagoers should have even firmer confidence in Jenkins' vision. Beginning in 2002, when he sorted through contemporary composers' works with director Stephen Wadsworth, settling on Daron Aric Hagen's music, he never looked back from his original intention to make an American opera with American themes. Read More
Beach sings in sweet Portuguese
Oregon Music News CD review of "Brasil Beat"
Originally published on Oregon Music News, May 31, 2010
Lucky for us, Bill Beach rose from the dead Benson Hotel's basement and went to Brazil.
This spring the pianist released his energetic Brasil Beat (yes, Brazilians spell it that way) on his label, Axial Records. Six of the 12 tracks feature Beach's breathy baritone-bass shaping original Portuguese lyrics. Cross-checked with Portuguese linguists, the lyrics are precisely articulated and beautifully phrased. Beach is a stickler for details and authenticity, as relaxed as his vocals sound. Read More
Portland’s Darwish is pushing music forward
Oregon Music News Review of Silverton Wine & Jazz Fest musicians
Originally published on Oregon Music News, May 9, 2010
Portlander Ben Darwish and his quartet stepped it up a notch at the caramel-corn-scented Palace Theater as part of the Silverton Wine & Jazz Festival. If you missed this gig, you lost out on the most innovative of the day, though certainly the sexy mid-century couple of bass genius Glen Moore and the inimitable crooner/scatter/partner Nancy King, accompanied by pianist Dan Gaynor, attracted a way bigger crowd later in the evening. Read More

Omar Sosa review
Sosa's Afreecanos energize Jimmy Mak's
Originally published on Oregon Music News, April 18, 2010
OK. Dr. Lonnie Smith and Gil Scott-Heron, even Nicholas Payton, reaped the lion's share of publicity for the Soul'd Out Music Festival continuing through this week in Portland. Read More
Portland Opera review: Cosi
`Cosi' delivers flawless chemistry
Originally published in Concertonet.com, Feb. 7, 2010
Mozart's music, as singers say, is medicine for the voice. Light, lyric, and a century ahead of its time with its compositional cohesiveness, the maestro's melodies shaped a full-throttle comedic "Cosi" in Portland. Read More
Portland Jazz Festival review: Souza
Souza: far more than a singer
Originally published on Oregon Music News, Feb. 25 2010
If you were hoping for a red-hot Latina performance at the Portland Jazz Festival's opener Thursday, you didn't get it. Read More
Oregon Symphony review: Max Raabe
Max Raabe: sauve, sophisticated, hard to pin down
Originally published on Northwest Reverb, Feb. 25, 2010
In patent-leather shoes and tails, every hair slicked into place, Max Raabe led two hours of wit, elegance and impeccably presented music from the '20s and '30s at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Read More
Portland Jazz Festival and Oregon Symphony review: Dianne Reeves
Reeves’ Vaughan-like performance seals her reputation
Originally published on Northwest Reverb (northwestreverb.blogspot.com), Feb. 16, 2009
Just when you think a Valentine’s date with the Oregon Symphony and glamorous jazz singer Dianne Reeves is shaping up to be utterly predictable and sentimental, the night throws in a few surprises. Read More
Terence Blanchard review
Terence Blanchard and the Portland Jazz Orchestra team up for fabulous concert
Originally published on Northwest Reverb (NorthwestReverb.blogspot.com), Feb. 14, 2009
When Terence Blanchard, trumpet in hand, asked the Arlene Schnitzer audience to chime in on a chorus of “A Tale of God’s Will,” bassist Derrick Hodge smiled sweetly.There was little chance that the audience, as ardent as it was, could capture the deep emotion that New Orleans’ Blanchard did when he composed this music based on his hometown’s tragedy. Bets are, “A Tale of God’s Will” will stick around in the archives for years. Portlanders were truly lucky to hear it. Read More