Peabody Essex Museum presents “Ethiopia: At the Crossroads”
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by Bruce Sylvester
Located on the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia has been a crossroad for European, African, and Arab traders and travelers of Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and less-known regional faiths. Seventy-one ethnicities are within its borders.
Through July 7 up in Salem, the Peabody Essex Museum presents “Ethiopia: At the Crossroads” with about 200 items – religious texts, jewelry, icons, woven baskets, and more – going back to the 14th century. Contemporary works are sometimes placed beside ancient ones to create a sort of conversation between them.
Many items are religious: processional crosses, incense burners, colorfully illustrated texts in a variety of scripts – some on scrolls. Within Islam, calligraphy is held to be one of highest forms of art so you can imagine the beauty in some Qarans here. Texts from the Ethiopian Orthodox church are in Ethiopian script. We hear contemporary Ethiopian Orthodox religious music.
Among Africa’s nations, Ethiopia has spent very little time as a colony of any larger, more developed nation. There’s a photograph of captured soldiers from one attempt as well as a posed photograph of their last emperor, Haile Selassie, a hero to Rastafarians. Next to it hangs the elegant black velvet cloak he’s wearing in the portrait.
For interactivity, scratch-and-sniff cards offer the scents of native spices. Near the exhibit’s end, you can step into an interactive video.
“Ethiopia: At the Crossroads” is at the Peabody Essex Museum through July 7. It’s a thirty-minute commuter rail ride from North Station with a ten-minute walk from Salem station to the museum.
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Categories: review
Coming Up on The New Edge
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by Ken Field / The New Edge
The New Edge features a cross-genre mix of creative instrumental music that does not always fit neatly into genre boxes.
For Show #905, airing on April 30th, 2024, we will hear work from the Jazz Defenders, a group led by UK pianist George Cooper. Their most recent release on the ITI Records label is “Memory in Motion.” We’ll listen to a great groove track called “Take a Minute” to kick off the show. From there, several pieces from the great woodwind player Shabaka Hutchings, here mostly on flute, but also on saxophone and clarinet. The release is “Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace.” The album features an amazing cast of musicians, including Jason Moran, Nasheet Waits, Brandee Younger, and harpist Charles Overton, who is based in the Boston area.
An early June release is scheduled for saxophonist Oded Tzur’s latest on ECM, “My Prophet,” with a great group of Nitai Hershkivits, Petros Klampanis, and Cyrano Almeida. We’ll listen to three tracks from this stunning album. After that it’s another saxophonist, Nicole Glover, whose album on Savant Records is called “Nicole Glover Plays.” And indeed she does, with proficiency and passion. I’ve included a somewhat more sedate piece for this show: “The A-Side.”
We’ll move on from there to some exquisite work from pianist Noah Haidu in a trio setting with Buster WIlliams and Billy Hart. From the Sunnyside release “Standards II” we’l hear a beautiful interpretation of “Over the Rainbow,” followed by the lovely standard “Someone to Watch Over Me.” Canadian bassist Mike Downes closes this third set of the program with two tracks from his self-released album, “The Way In.”
Closing the program in our fourth set, we’ll hear from the Italian guitar/bass duo of Michele Fattori and Marcello Sebastiani, with the title track from their Edizioni Notami release “Gavagai,” followed by sound artist Kory Reeder’s “Duo” from his Full Spectrum album ”If the Thought Evaporates.” We’ll close with Chicago-based drummer Kabir Dalawari and his ensemble performing ”Turbulence,” from ”Last Call” on the Shifting Paradigm label. It’s my guess that this piece was very possibly inspired by an unnervingly bumpy flight!
The program will be archived for two weeks after the April 30 broadcast date on the WMBR website.
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Categories: Featured Shows
Contemporary Korean art and fashion stand out in a new Museum of Fine Arts show
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by Bruce Sylvester / Troubadour
A few years ago in the wake of the Korean War, South Korea was known as a land of rubble and poverty. But not any more as it’s emerged as an epicenter of pop culture – music, dance, film, fashion. The Museum of Fine Arts is hosting Hallyu! The Korean Wave, whose 250 or so items show the nation’s move to flashy, fun modernity – often reflecting consumer culture’s globalization, but occasionally showing Korea’s forward-looking art incorporating elements of its cultural tradition, like an elaborate recently created suit of armor whose inspiration from bygone centuries may have been meant for show rather than function.
Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is the first American stop for this show curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. We see photos, videos, fashion items, costumes, and even the recreation of a room in Oscar-winning Korean film Parasite, which, frankly, could have been set in this country just as well as in Korea. It’s a global world now, with K-pop music and dance cresting a wave of popularity. We see the pink suit jacket PSY wore in the video of his hit “Gangnam Style,” the first YouTube video ever to get a billion views.
For interactivity, we can learn K-pop dance steps.
Some of the photography deals with the Korean immigrant experience in America. Another shot features a huge array of pink consumer items. South Korea reportedly leads the world in cosmetics exports.
Maybe it’s realistic for one large exhibit to resemble a very high-end clothing store for well-heeled, adventuresome young people.
Sure, the show’s fun, and, in some ways, it’s social commentary. But mostly it’s fun. HALLYU! THE KOREAN WAVE is at the Museum of Fine Arts through July 28.
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Categories: review
Remembering Mateo Williams
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It is with a heavy heart we inform you that we lost a beloved member of the WMBR family. Mateo Williams passed away on June 19, 2021 due to complications from a rare form of throat cancer. He was 28 years old.
This week, WMBR DJ’s will be airing programs in memory of, and in tribute to Mateo. Please see our Special Events Calendar for the dates and times of these shows honoring Mateo.
Mateo was a DJ on the Late Risers Club from 2012-2016 (and the Cosmic Hearse, the Rude Show, and Better Off Dead). Mateo graduated from MIT in 2015 and was presently completing his PhD at Columbia University, studying Chemical Engineering. Mateo was applying physics, electrochemistry, and materials science to research concerning renewable energy production, storage, and sustainable development. He leaves behind his mother Penelope and his brothers Lucas and Marcos.
Mateo’s unreal amounts of passion and energy ran through everything he touched. He was a scholar, a punk, a musician, an activist, a devoted friend, and loving family member. He excelled in everything he touched, yet would never say no to a good party or a chance to be up to no good. We will miss him greatly.
A Gofundme has been set up to help his family with funeral expenses.
Categories: DJ's