Overrated/Underrated: Catch the Angel City Jazz Festival, and Louis C.K.’s comeback will only get worse
UNDERRATED
Gabriel Byrne: The Dublin-born character actor has been enjoying a welcome resurgence of late, lending his occasionally grave presence to a “Succession”-esque patriarch in Netflix’s twisty new series “Maniac” and a beleaguered husband in recent Halloween essential “Hereditary.” He’ll next be appearing in the European crime drama “ZeroZeroZero,” an eight-episode series from the same team behind the grim mob stories of “Gomorrah.” And while Byrne has kept busy for a career that broke out with the Coen Brothers’ quiet masterpiece “Miller’s Crossing,” it remains a pleasure to see him among the usual suspects for strong performances.
For the record:
11:35 a.m. Oct. 4, 2018For the record: Due to a publishing error, an earlier version of this post reflected the Angel City Jazz Festival’s line up as of Sunday, Oct. 7, when this story will be published in print.
Angel City Jazz Festival: L.A.’s annual fall classic for improvised, adventurously expressive music, this year’s installment is in full swing with the internationally renowned pianist Satoko Fujii at the World Stage Thursday, Azar Lawrence at LACMA Friday, and the electric singer-songwriter Xenia Rubinos at the Ford Theatres Saturday. Further along, there’s more music still to come in a trio of Ches Smith, Mat Maneri and Craig Taborn at bluewhale (Oct. 7), Myra Melford’s Tiger Trio at REDCAT (Oct. 12) and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s timely orchestral piece dedicated to Rosa Parks at the same venue (Oct. 14) for a festival that packs a season’s worth of music in a few short weeks.
OVERRATED
Louis C.K.’s comeback trail: The disgraced comic appeared at the Comedy Cellar again last week, fresh from a recent drop-in appearance that outraged many in the stand-up community and elsewhere. This after sexual misconduct reports that led to C.K. saying he would take time to listen, which actually just amounted to his taking time off. And this is only the beginning of the clubs out there that will surely welcome him and his (mostly male) crowds back home. Maybe this comeback would feel different if such a supposed voice of “raw comic honesty” had yet displayed a shred of the same about his behavior, but it seems we’ll never know.
The provocations of Kanye West: He’s Yeezus. He’s running for president. But, actually, he’s pretty good with the one we have. He’s a sparkling water bottle on “Saturday Night Live.” He’s Ye. He’s opposed to the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. He’s fashion designer for a dystopian future. He’s trolling. He’s ill. He’s exhausting. And, above all, he’s a master marketer releasing a new album that will surely capture the zeitgeist in the same way nova-sized combinations of ego, greed and outrageousness always do in our fame-addled pop culture. Where will it all lead? Wherever he wants, until his listeners say “enough.”
Follow me over here @chrisbarton.
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