5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Chicago Jazz

Jazz has experienced a meaningful resurgence in popularity over the past 15 years or so, especially among younger listeners. What’s driving that? You could make the case that there is a particular hunger, now that so much of life is lived in the digital cloud, for the messy and untamed energy of jazz, and for … Read more

How Music Took Over This Year’s Oscars

Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube In seemingly every crevice of the 97th Academy Awards, there was music, or a reminder of it. It was a song from a nominated film being performed, like Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande delivering one of their “Wicked” duets; or it was the best … Read more

‘Dabba Cartel’ Is a Go-Go-Go Drama With Depth

The Indian drama “Dabba Cartel,” on Netflix (in Hindi, with subtitles, or dubbed), is a lively spin on the “regular people do crimes … and like it?” genre. It incorporates sudsy twists, vicious domestic subplots, corporate malfeasance and social critiques, and its foot stays on the gas. In the course of its seven episodes, characters … Read more

My Favorite Concerts I Saw This Winter

1. Father John Misty: “She Cleans Up” Last Wednesday, the singer-songwriter Father John Misty played Manhattan’s storied Beacon Theater for the first time. Toward the end of the sold-out show, he told the crowd he wanted to commemorate the occasion with a tribute: “Here’s five minutes from Jerry Seinfeld’s set from his Beacon run last … Read more

Review: A ‘Moby-Dick’ Opera at the Met Cuts the Blubber

The opening line of Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” is one of the most famous in literature. But Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, whose moody, monochromatic 2010 adaptation arrived at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday, conspicuously avoid placing those classic three words at the start. It’s an early declaration of independence, the kind that artists have always … Read more