Steve Reich

Latest Articles

Philadanco brings the funk

The four pieces on Philadanco's program last weekend at the Institute of Contemporary Art had different accouterments — musical, scenic, philosophical — but they still looked very much alike.
Ferocious euphoria
By MARCIA B.SIEGEL | March 18, 2011

Does jazz have a melody problem?

It seems lately that every other jazz musician I talk to under 40 wants to talk about melody — how it’s the thing they all care about.
Phil Sargent and Daniel Bennett try a new approach
By JON GARELICK | June 04, 2010

Complete control

Let’s put aside for now the philosophical questions about a player/composer’s need for control, and whether there’s any qualitative difference between the music said player/composer writes for himself and what he writes for himself with other people, or
Pat Metheny, live at the Orpheum Theatre, May 20, 2010
By JON GARELICK | May 21, 2010

Second sight

May in Boston has always been Storybook Ballet Month, as Boston Ballet finished off its season with Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty or Don Quixote , something classical and highbrow and reassuring. That, after all, is what Boston audiences want, right?
Boston Ballet reprises Jirí Kylián’s Black & White
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 21, 2010

More than black and white

In “Drawing,” the spare, residential Icon gallery offers the work of 13 Maine artists on intimate display.
‘Drawing’ at Icon explores the power of line
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | May 21, 2010

The future of brutal

“I’d like you to clarify a bit more exactly what you mean by ‘go off the rails.’ ” I’m speaking to Nick McMaster, bassist for Krallice — I hesitate to say “interviewing,” because moments like this, where he’s asking me for clarification, make it hard to
Metal, refined and redefined by Krallice
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | May 21, 2010

Pat Metheny | Orchestrion

The “orchestrion” is a Rube Goldberg-like contraption that empowers Metheny in one-man-band format to trigger a variety of percussion and other instruments as he plays guitar.
Nonesuch (2010)
By JON GARELICK | May 14, 2010

Krallice, Ocean, Ludicra, AoK Suicide Forest

At Geno’s, April 16
Music Seen
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | April 23, 2010

Airs and graces

Somewhere in the middle of Stephen Petronio’s terrific hour-long dance I Drink the Air Before Me last Friday night, the dancers exited and the space went dark.
Stephen Petronio at the ICA, Black Grace at the Paramount
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | March 26, 2010

Blackshaw's good vibrations

Blackshaw's low-key career has evolved as organically as one of his songs: at 28, the Londoner has amassed a body of instrumental guitar music that defies tidy categorization. What he does isn't really folk, jazz, or new age — and it's far too accessible
James Blackshaw keeps his ears (and strings) open
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | January 29, 2010

New stuff

One thing that impressed me was that dance invention seems to be making a comeback as a major challenge for young choreographers after years of being stirred into the multimedia stew.
Pacific Northwest Ballet, Twyla Tharp, and much more in New York
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | January 22, 2010

Anniversary waltz

Caitlin Corbett Dance Company, which was celebrating its 25th anniversary at the Tsai Center last weekend, achieved another of its people-dance successes, a two-part series of one-minute duets featuring 36 big, small, awkward, suave, surprising, funny,
Caitlin Corbett Dance Company at 25
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | December 18, 2009

Concertizing

When I reach John Hollenbeck by phone, he's on a sojourn typical of the modern itinerant composer — a week-long teaching residency.
John Hollenbeck plays New Year's Eve! Plus, the Rempis/Rosaly duo
By JON GARELICK | December 18, 2009

Treat of Versailles

It's been a good year: their relentlessly catchy Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2) — whisked into the public ear this year atop Cadillacs via ad-ready singles like "1901" and "Lisztomania" — is about to cause some year-end listomania of its own. Since its
Phoenix please themselves — and you
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 04, 2009

Sing your life

Charles Spearin's Happiness Project — to be performed this Friday at the Middle East Downstairs as part of a trio of Torontonian acts — was originally just that: a project.
The Happiness Project speaks volumes
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | November 27, 2009

Screaming from the gallery

Last Friday night, Dan Deacon dug frantically through tangles of cables for one that might get a live signal out of the duct-taped pile of equipment in front of him. A fire truck and an ambulance, pulling up outside the windows behind him, filled the ro
Dan Deacon, live at the ICA, June 12, 2009
By MATT PARISH | June 19, 2009

Revival of the fittest

While we all snoozed on eggnog during the 2007 holidays, Jeff Prystowsky and the rest of the Low Anthem were shacked up in a rickety old house on Block Island, a deserted little hamlet full of empty summer cottages off the coast of Rhode Island.
The deep, dark Americana of the Low Anthem
By MATT PARISH | June 12, 2009

Accidental purist

In one of Karlheinz Stockhausen's weirdest creations, the ensemble is instructed to "play a sound with the certainty that you have an infinite amount of time and space." Stephen Drury doesn't mind that so much. But fasting for four days? "No."
Stephen Drury takes on Stockhausen
By MATT PARISH | February 18, 2009

Dance noir

Looking for a spooky Valentine? Try Jirí Kylián's Black and White .
The Czech choreographer/Nederlands Dans Theater director made an evening out of five pieces — No More Play, Petite Mort, Sarabande, Falling Angels, and Sechs Tänze — he'd created between 1986 and 1991.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | February 13, 2009

Dynamos

The four pieces on the program that Philadanco brought for its Boston debut last weekend at the Institute for Contemporary Art were all-dance numbers showcasing a troupe of highly polished, supercharged dancers.
Philadanco at the ICA
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | November 18, 2008

Noise patrol

Wednesday, the mighty Heathen Shame, one of Boston’s most ferocious bands, unleash their high-decibel mayhem at the Piano Factory in the South End.
Heathen Shame’s unrelenting onslaught
By SUSANNA BOLLE | March 10, 2008

Finding a voice

Closer inspection, however, shows a choreographer making a series of perplexing musical choices that don’t always serve him well.
Battleworks at the ICA
By DEBRA CASH | February 29, 2008

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin

Swiss pianist Bärtsch calls the music of his quintet variously “zen funk” or “ritual groove music.”
Holon | ECM
By JON GARELICK | February 20, 2008

Group dynamics

Boston has its own homegrown Balinese-style gamelan orchestra.
The gamelan gathering of Galak Tika and I Made Bandem
By SUSANNA BOLLE | December 05, 2007

Silver lining

“It’s truly a celebration of IMC — the feats and defeats that they’ve gone through,” Bolger reiterated.
Island Moving Co. celebraates its 25th year
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | July 10, 2007

L’Allegro, fuss and feathers, and the ICA blues

This year we were looking forward to dance performances at the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater in the new ICA.
A year in dance
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 20, 2006

The more things change

As excellent as the show back in January was, I didn't think I would've wanted to pay to see the same thing twice. Slideshow: Matmos and So Percussion at Remis Auditorium at the MFA, October 12, 2006
Matmos and So Percussion, Remis Auditorium, October 12, 2006
By WILL SPITZ | December 18, 2006

Surviving and thriving

“Approximately 40 miles outside San Diego the tour bus with Mr. Lif, the Coup, DJ Big Wiz, Metro, and other friends of theirs flipped over and burst into flames,” wrote Def Jux capitán El-P via e-mail. Our heart skipped a beat. Mr. Lif, "The Fries (Ab
Mr. Lif’s brush with disaster + Keith Kenniff’s classical fix
By DAVID DAY | December 12, 2006

Lines and phases

Lots of people have choreographed Steve Reich’s music.
Steve Reich’s 70th at BAM
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | October 10, 2006

Heavy-metal chill out

Drone metal. Cats love it, and probably unborn children, too, hearing it buzzed through the womb wall. Boris, "Farewell" (mp3) Sunn O))), "It Took The Night To Believe" (mp3) Growing, "Green Pasture"
Growing and SunnO))) crawl to the drone
By JAMES PARKER | June 15, 2006

Friends' Activity

Popular