Posts tagged ‘Michael Barthel (as Jean Valjean)’

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• Susan Asher

  

  A former dance student and actor who trained in New York with Maggie Flanigan, Susan is a PR professional who writes about the arts. She has studied jazz with pianist Connie Crothers, and guitar and natural-foods cooking with Berklee graduate and James Beard award-winning chef Peter Berley.

  Susan reviews the performing and culinary arts as a hobby and often receives free tickets to shows or free food from the venues she writes about. She reviews everything on merit alone and receives no money for any of her reviews. While she loves to attend theater and eat out, freebies will not sway her from stating her honest opinion.

• My Favorite Band in the World!

  The Microscopic Septet is the greatest band I've ever heard in my life. I first heard them when I was living in New York working in a club called The Dive in 1981. I wrote home to my friends working at my old college radio station, WUOG in Athens, Ga., about this incredible house band called the Microscopic Septet. These guys blew me away! I wrote: it's like Duke Ellington, meets the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the World Saxophone Quartet, and Spike Jones.

  Whenever one of the band's four sax players was out, a former band member, who I thought was one of the greatest sax players of all time, sat in. John Zorn was like a bubbly sprite who spilled joy everywhere and added sounds reminiscent of Ornette Coleman and Anthony Braxton.

  To this day, when I listen to the Micros I dance and laugh. Watch the video above, and see if you don't do the same. I know it's not the best picture quality, but listen to the music and let me know your thoughts. If you know of another band whose greatness comes close to the Micros, please contact me. Because no matter how well-known or unknown they are, I'd love to hear them. Click on the video above to see the Microscopic Septet perform "Lobster in the Limelight." You can see the full-size screen of it on YouTube.

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