Email Author Paul J. MacArthur

2000 Stories by Paul J. MacArthur

• Various Artists

  published December 28, 2000

  Forget what the pop music writers tell you -- the first concept album of the long-play era was not Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper or... More >>

• Playbill

  published December 28, 2000

  A Hollywood screenwriter could have penned Wesley Curely Clark's life. Or at least a Behind the Music scribe could. Act I: The early... More >>

• Donny Rules!

  published December 21, 2000

  How cool is Donny Osmond? After joking about Rosie O'Donnell's weight on her show, Osmond not only apologized for the gaffe, he sang "Puppy... More >>

• Playbill

  published December 14, 2000

  Mark Towns could barely contain his excitement on October 20. The guitarist's debut CD, Flamenco Jazz Latino, featuring Kirk Whalum and... More >>

• Pops Goes the Grinch

  published December 7, 2000

  Sure, we have Jim Carrey's broad new interpretation as well as the classic cartoon version featuring the voice of Boris Karloff, but there are... More >>

• Music Lessons

  published November 30, 2000

  A couple of years ago jazz singer Kurt Elling asked, "How many choir boys go out and start shooting people up? If [a choir boy] does it, it's a... More >>

• The Improviser

  published November 30, 2000

  When Paul English helped establish Cezanne more than a decade ago, he probably had no idea the small club would become Houston's longest-running... More >>

• Playbill

  published November 23, 2000

  Ask any jazz musician to name the finest guitarists in Houston, and Mike Wheeler's name is likely to be on the list. A Bayou City native who... More >>

• Chucho Valdés

  published November 16, 2000

  Jesus "Chucho" Valdés doesn't just play the piano, he overpowers it. Standing six feet five inches, Valdés's mammoth frame towers... More >>

• Fire Breather with a Sax

  published November 9, 2000

  There's a new monster in town. His name is Carlos Garnett, and he's one of the most intense saxophonists on the jazz scene. Garnett, whose lofty... More >>

• John McLaughlin / Remember Shakti

  published November 9, 2000

  John McLaughlin is a restless musician. He changes musical surroundings frequently, always seeking a new challenge. Few musicians have attempted,... More >>

• Jazz with Attitude

  published November 2, 2000

  Anyone in Houston who is thinking about producing and releasing his own CD probably could take a lesson or two from Mark Towns, who has avoided... More >>

• Against the Tide

  published October 19, 2000

  When Jason Moran attended Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead workshop a few years ago, the young pianist was required to write and perform an original... More >>

• The Artist Formerly Known as Nigel

  published October 12, 2000

  In the often stuffy world of classical music, a violinist who calls himself Kennedy, and who's known as much for his attitude and... More >>

• Picture Perfect

  published October 12, 2000

  One of two things usually happens when jazz musicians gather together and play only for themselves: They either spiral into an extended jam... More >>

• Michael Wolff & Impure Thoughts

  published October 12, 2000

  Keyboardist and composer Michael Wolff's most recent project is the soundtrack for the independent film The Tic Code. Loosely based on... More >>

• Hi, Bob!

  published October 5, 2000

  In February 1960, an accountant-turned-comic named Bob Newhart walked into the Tidelands Club in Houston to record his first comedy album... More >>

• Rollin' on the River

  published October 5, 2000

  Despite the fact that jazz is one of America's few original art forms, the music and its practitioners are generally neglected. Jazz players are... More >>

• Swing Time

  published September 28, 2000

  In 1939, when a teenage Oscar Peterson was starting to get a bit of an ego about his piano playing, his father sat him down and introduced him to... More >>

• Channeling Music

  published September 28, 2000

  Tom Harrell has said he's not so much a creator of music as a channel for it. At 54, Harrell is an exceptional composer and one of the premier... More >>

• Best Chanteuse

  published September 21, 2000

  Linda Eder may be able to sing the roof off a concert hall, but she's anything but a diva. "I really want to be happy," says Eder, the kind... More >>

• Bebopping Along

  published September 21, 2000

  When Ed Gerlach led one of Houston's most popular dance bands in the mid-1970s, he often employed a teenage guitarist named Scott Hardy who had... More >>

• The Imposters

  published September 7, 2000

  Seeing a classic pop band in concert can be, among other things, perplexing. Diana Ross performed at Compaq Center in June in what was billed as a... More >>

• Tom Lehrer

  published September 7, 2000

  When NYPD Blue supercop actor Dennis Franz appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and "performed" a song called "The Vatican... More >>

• Forgotten Lines

  published August 24, 2000

  Imagine walking into a studio and finding an unreleased recording of a Jimi Hendrix concert, a missing Beatles tape or the Beach Boys Smile... More >>