Bearing Her Soul
Some bands evoke the past—others live it. Funk/soul musicians Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings certainly fall into the latter category. The band’s most recent album, 2010’s I Learned the Hard Way, inspired Rolling Stone to write: “On the fourth album by Brooklyn’s leading soul revivalists, the details are period-perfect: Every guitar scratch and brass blast sounds like it was teleported straight from 1965 or 1972.” Experience the old-school vibes when Sharon Jones brings the Dap-Kings to the Tarrytown Music Hall on December 8.
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Photo by Tom Caravaglia |
Taylor Made
Like Cinderella’s pumpkin at midnight, once the clock strikes 12 on December 1, all of the dance performances in the county magically turn into The Nutcracker. It’s a fine ballet and a seasonal classic, to be sure, but what if you’re in the mood for something else this winter? This month, the Emelin Theatre offers something for those looking for a respite. On December 3, it’ll host Taylor 2, a company that performs the choreography of modern dance legend Paul Taylor. There’s plenty of impressive technical dance skill, but there will be nary a sugar plum fairy dancing in your head.
Crossing the Border
You may curse the traffic and the crowds of New York City. You may love its bustle and excitement. You may feel superior, inferior, or ambivalent to its residents. But, in some form or another, you have a relationship with the Big Apple. So do the panelists at the final CrossTalk of the season, co-hosted by the Katonah Village Library and the Katonah Museum of Art, which may give you a different perspective on the metropolis to the south. The event brings together Kenneth T. Jackson, a New York City historian, and Barry Blitt, a cartoonist for the New Yorker. Surely, they’ll have something to say about the museum’s two exhibitions: New York, New York! The 20th Century and Storied City: New York in Picture Book Art. But, since much of the event is a Q&A, you get to ask them about whatever aspect of the City that enchants or enrages you the most. CrossTalk takes place on December 15 at the Katonah Museum of Art.
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Photo by Jowan Gauthier - Partner Content -
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Pushing Up Daisy
“Rock violinist” isn’t a phrase you hear too often, but it’s the only way to describe Daisy Jopling, a colorful performer equally at home playing classical, jazz, and pop music. (Google her version of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”—we’ll bet you haven’t heard it treated in quite such a manner before.) Jopling started her career early—she played at the Royal Albert Hall in London as a soloist when she was just 14—so it’s only fitting that she likes to share the spotlight with other young musicians. When Jopling heads to the Paramount Center for the Arts in her adopted city of Peekskill, she’ll bring singers, dancers, and musicians from the local high schools with her. The performance, part of the “Daisy Jopling World on a String Tour,” takes place on December 10.
The Cats Came Back
Some Andrew Lloyd Webber shows park themselves on Broadway and never leave—The Phantom of the Opera, which is closing in on 10,000 performances, comes to mind—so we get to take them for granted. Cats, however, closed in 2000 and hasn’t been back to Broadway since. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be gone forever: the White Plains Performing Arts Center presents its production of Cats from December 9 to 18 and December 28 to 30. Based on the poems of T.S. Eliot and featuring a loose, uncomplicated plot, the Tony-Award-winning musical is fine for any feline-friendly family.
