put on the red light

First, a late addition to the concert calendar; Abdullah Ibrahim, the great South African pianist, performs a two-night run at the Real Deal in Cambridge. If past performances and recordings are any indicator, it should be mesmerizing. (D-Out on Abrahim here)

Mwanji dug the (in)famous Bob Moses rant from 2001 out of the archives this week. Taylor Ho Bynum, himself a (unfair) target of the rant, responds here. I remember I was living in New York at the time this was published, and my then-producer called me: "Dude, you're not going to believe this S&%#!" I didn't, but then when I got to know "rakalam" and James (who actually got a lot of milage out of this exchange), I did. Looking back at it from a distance, the whole thing just seems dumb.

Happier matters- this is a good weekend for cultural ingestion in Boston in general, if you can stand the heat. Tonight, I'll be at the Boston Common for the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's seventh annual free production of Shakespeare in the park. Tomorrow at Tanglewood the fellows' orchestra presents a concert performance of Verdi's Don Carlo. I won't be there in person, but I'll watch it on the radio.

And, the biggie of the weekend is, of course, the Police at Fenway Park. Since I couldn't drop $200 for a ticket, I will probably skulk the grounds Sunday night. (If you're within a half-mile of the park, you should get a good earful)