Tag Archives: jazz

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Freddie Mercury’s Silver Sequined Catsuit

Leave a comment

freddie mercury silver catsuit photo by gail worley
Photos By Gail Except Where Noted

There’s a saying that being older (i.e. Baby Boomer generation) carries perks such as living at a time that allowed you to see all of the really cool bands in concert. I’ll own it. I have many priceless concert memories from the 1970s — like seeing The Who when the ticket price was $12! For me though, the real coupe was seeing Queen live in concert on each of the Night at The Opera, Day at The Races, and News of The World tours, and twice when they toured in support of their 1978 release, Jazz.  For this then-teenage Queen fan, my fervent ardor for Freddie Mercury and company moved beyond ‘favorite band’ status to being more like a religion, or a way of life. I wouldn’t trade that time in my life of anything.

Continue reading Eye On Design: Freddie Mercury’s Silver Sequined Catsuit →

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Bob Thompson, Triumph of Bacchus

Leave a comment

bob thompson triumph of bacchus photo by gail worley
Photo By Gail

In Triumph of Bacchus (1964), Bob Thompson borrowed compositional elements from Renaissance depictions of the Roman god of wine. He rejected descriptive clarity, however, substituting vividly-hued arrangement in which the figures’ identities are left open-ended. In reimagining these historical sources, Thompson painted in a manner akin to jazz musicians’ innovations, where improvisation was based on a thorough understanding of preexisting styles. Saxophonist Steve Lacy, a friend of Thompson’s, referred to the artist as “jazz himself,” explaining that “the way he painted was like jazz — taking liberties with colors.”

Photographed in The Whitney Museum in Manhattan.

Music, Pop Culture

How New York Is Still Influencing The Music Scene In 2021

Leave a comment

nyc music crowd
This Image By Chris Lavado, All Other Images By Gail

New York is an influential state and city, with millions of tourists flocking there year after year so that they can experience the Big Apple. This is because New York is known for and famous for a variety of things such as its iconic Statue of Liberty, exciting Broadway performances, and exclusive shops. The state and city have captivated people all over the globe, and it’s showing no signs of lessening its grip and influence on the rest of the world.

What about New York and the music scene, however? New York and music go hand-in-hand, with some of the biggest bands and musical performances coming from this high-rise city.  In 2021, New York is still influencing the music scene.

Continue reading How New York Is Still Influencing The Music Scene In 2021 →

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Stuart Davis, The Mellow Pad

Leave a comment

The Mellow Pad
Photo By Gail

The starting point for this lively patterned abstraction was an earlier canvas by Stuart Davis (1892 – 1964) entitled House and Street (1931). Treating each subsequent version as a  riff on a jazz theme, Davis moved further and further away from his original composition to establish independent, rhythmic color patterns that retained only a few direct visual cues to the initial design. The Mellow Pad (1945 – 51) refers to the phrase “the mellow pad” — jazz lingo for the “cool” place to be. The pulsating colors and meandering forms seen here effectively mimic the dynamic rhythms of jazz. Davis developed his own style of Synthetic Cubism in which he dissolved figure and ground and referenced popular culture, adding a distinctly American sensibility to his abstractions

Photographed in the Brooklyn Museum.

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Norman Lewis, Phantasy II

Leave a comment

Phantasy II
Photo By Gail

Norman Lewis (1909 – 1979), began his art career as a figurative painter, focusing on life in Harlem. In 1946, he announced that he wanted to create art that broke away from what he called “its stagnation in too much tradition.” Inspired by the writings and art of the Russian painter Vasily Kandinsky, one of the first artists to create abstract paintings, Lewis abandoned representation in favor of the “conceptual expression” of ideas. Like other Abstract Expressionists working in New York, Lewis was deeply interested in music, and especially jazz, which influenced the painting of  Phantasy II (1946). In an automatic process, he made a linear composition with boldly colored lines and forms akin to the improvisational structure of jazz.

Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.