Jazz/Blues
EXCLUSIVE: Classicaite Q&A with Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Keyboard Player Mee Eun Kim on "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24," Holiday Tour Schedules and a Platinum 'Nightcastle'
Cheyenne Jackson and Bettye LaVette to Take the Stage at Café Carlyle This Winter Season
Café Carlyle, based out of the Carlyle Hotel, presents January and February line-ups featuring singer and actor Cheyenne Jackson and songstress Bettye LaVette.Jackson's two-week engagement, "Eyes Wide Open," will be the performer's Café Carlyle debut and open the winter season from Jan. 13 to 24. "Eyes Wide Open" will take a personal and humorous look at loss, love, revelation and recovery with music ranging from Louis Armstrong to Lady Gaga.Cheyenne Jackson’s stage credits include "The Performers," "Damn Yankees" and "Xanadu" with television appearances on "30 Rock," "Glee," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Ugly Betty" and film work including "Love Is Strange," "United 93" and "Lola Versus." How Re-Establishing Diplomatic Ties with Cuba Will Change the Arts
The restoration of diplomatic and commercial ties between the United States and Cuba will not only hit us politically but will also have a profound effect on music and the arts.Though battling bureaucratic laws, the cultural exchange between the U.S. and Cuba has not been lost in recent years. Even before this week’s announcement, musicians have been traveling to perform in the previous out-of-bounds nation. Arturo O’Farrill, a New Yorker, was performing at the Havana International Jazz Festival with his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, while Cuban flutist Maraca was in New York preparing to play this weekend at Jazz at Lincoln Center.President Barack Obama’s “new approach” to Cuban policy will make it easier for American artists to travel to Cuba to perform and vice versa. Cuba could even plausibly become a profitable tourist destination for the first time in five decades. The new policy can end need for time-consuming security checks that often leave Cubans who want to perform in the United States in limbo. Easing commercial restrictions could allow American presenters to begin paying fees to the Cuban artists they bring to the United States, who by law are now allowed only smaller per diem payments and travel reimbursements.
