billbeuttler.com

Paying tribute to a city and a songwriter
Dr. John brings the flavor of New Orleans to Tanglewood

Guitarist Lage's virtuosity takes center stage
Julian Lage celebrates the release of Gladwell at Club Passim

Strokes of luck key his success
Pianist Fred Hersch succeeds by improvising onstage and off

Glasper crafts a sound all his own
Pianist Robert Glasper and his trio perform at Scullers

The melody maker
Pianist Robert Glasper may be known for his hip-hop stylings, but he's jazzed about his new CD

Bassist Spalding knows how to sing and swing
Esperanza Spalding leads a quarter at her Scullers debut

Ace of Bass
For Esperanza Spalding, practice makes perfect

For pianist Jason Moran, playing music is all relative
On his album Same Mother and the family ties shared by jazz and the blues

Tyner's distinctive playing shines on
Pianist McCoy Tyner as jazz's answer to Bob Dylan

Sticking to his beloved bass, Carter keeps jazz scene fresh
A profile of the great jazz bassist Ron Carter

Parsing Paradise
David Brooks skewers and subdivides American suburbia, only occasionally amusingly

Comic set pieces from a clash of personality, the unknown
Book Review: Waugh Abroad, by Evelyn Waugh

No matter the genre, Brown's voice carries
A profile of rhythm & blues great Ruth Brown

Hitting a High Note
Jazzman Joe Lovano is at the top of his game, juggling a teaching gig at the Berklee College of Music with a full-throttle performing and recording career.

Ahmad Jamal and band find momentum swinging their way
A profile of the jazz piano titan Ahmad Jamal

Forty years and still tuned in
A profile of the wittily nostalgic (and very funny) jazz singer-songwriter-pianist Dave Frishberg.

The Bad Plus is worth all the fuss
Review of the avant-garde jazz trio The Bad Plus, Regattabar, January 10, 2004

Branford Marsalis keeps things current
Branford Marsalis Quartet, Regattabar, December 26, 2003

For Branford Marsalis, art changed his tune
A profile of the jazz saxophonist and composer Branford Marsalis and his CD Romare Bearden Revealed.

Life or Death Decision
In his latest book, Scott Turow talks about how he came to believe that the country's experiment with capital punishment has "failed miserably."

Augie's March
Fifty years ago, Saul Bellow's third novel — a rollicking picaresque with a bold young Chicago hero — propelled him into the front ranks of American writers. Since then, critics have come to admire the book even more, with some calling it the greatest American novel since World War II.

Just me, my wife, and Wyeth: savoring Maine's appetizers
An overnight trip to Rockland, Maine, for the paintings of Andrew Wyeth and the exquisite food at Primo.

It's a lot nearer than Napa
In New York, the Hudson Valley is a hot spot for wine enthusiasts

Fussell's take on the dress code isn't 'Uniform'
Book Review: Uniforms: Why We Are What We Wear, by Paul Fussell

Bright Lights, Big Egos
Book Review: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, by Toby Young

The Provocateur
Robert Woodruff has put nudity in The Duchess of Malfi, fellatio in Phaedra, and Richard II in a dress. What's the new artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre got up his black sleeve next?

Black, White, and Crimson
Why Harvard's new president and Cornel West couldn't just get along.

Mourning in America
Out of the glare of the television lights, how one Massachusetts family bade a son good-bye.

We Work Too Hard
But you already knew that, didn't you? Hard work ceases being a good thing when it takes over everything else in our lives. Here are some reasons that's been happening. And a few thoughts on what we can do about it.

Chicago in Their Sights
Half a century ago, two of the most enduring books about Chicago appeared within a year of each other—-to the dismay and bewilderment of many proper-thinking residents. A.J. Liebling's The Second City mercilessly lampooned the city, while Nelson Algren's City on the Make took a clear-eyed look at its hustlers and bums. After all these years, how do their profiles stand up?

Casanova Rules
Tips from the master's own 12 volumes of memoirs for aspiring 21st-century Casanovas.

Learning Lebanese
A little of this, a little of that, some dancing, some music — in Lebanon, that’s the recipe for healthy meals and lasting friendships.

The Great Cigar Debate
A journey to the Dominican Republic and Cuba in search of the world's best cigars.

ESPN — The Magazine
ESPN took TV sports to all new heights. Now it hopes to do the same as it enters the playing field long dominated by Sports Illustrated.

Books in Brief
Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz, by Donald L. Maggin

Saxophone Colossus
Unpublished Sonny Rollins profile

Swain's Way
His good manners aside, Cliff Swain seldom spares his opponents.

Coach Newton's Law
It's a given that each fall in Elmhurst, Ill., Joe Newton can turn high school freshmen into first-class runners.

O, Albany
After just one night with native son and Ironweed author William Kennedy, you come to realize how he could put this city on the literary map.

Tough Guy, Mad Poet
One glance at Jim Harrison tells you he's not the sort of fellow you'd want to mess around with. But one look at his writing tells you he's one of this country's foremost poets and novelists.

When Harry Met Stardom
Harry Connick Jr. is searching for security in his sudden success: His fans love him, but he complains he's not getting respect from jazz purists.

Appetite for the Absurd
Author Mordecai Richler fixes his absurdist squint on a moveable feast of a city, Montreal.

Dance Your Breath Away
The mix of jazz, ballet, and modern styles at Chicago's Hubbard Street Dance Company incorporates the work of Willie Nelson and D.H. Lawrence, and audiences are raving over the results.

Spreading the "Gospel"
After 20 years of tilting at windmills, Charlie Peters is still fine-tuning liberalism in his Washington Monthly.

A Paler Shade of Yellow
Will Hearst takes his grandpa’s San Francisco Examiner into the ’90s, from the best seat in the place.

Hanging on in the Windy City
America's favorite oral historian, and Chicago's laureate mouth, talks (and talks and talks) about his hometown.

Legends of a Hairy Man
Outside publisher Larry Burke founded a magazine that embodies the spirit of his exploits.

The Charlie Watts Interview
The Rolling Stones' drummer hits the road with a jazz big band.

Meeting Citizen Wenner
Questioning Rolling Stone editor and publisher Jann Wenner -- and Hunter S. Thompson -- about his role in the demise of the New Journalism.

Whatever Happened to the New Journalism?
Columbia Journalism School master's thesis featuring fall 1983 interviews with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Gay Talese, Harold Hayes, Clay Felker, Jann Wenner, and other leading writers and editors.