Also this issue:

Land Locked
Warren Rohrer kept his work earthbound.
-Susan Hagen

artquicks
More Stuff Going On This Week...

Karen E. Quinones Miller
-Alex Richmond

Beauty and the Beast
-Debra Auspitz

Summer Invitational
-Lori Hill

Mick Foley
-Maura Johnston

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Walter Isaacson insists Franklin’s prose is the standout among the man’s countless endeavors.
-John Freeman

bookquick
Dispatches from the Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spirit

July 17-23, 2003

artpicks

Latin Jazz: La Combinación Perfecta

Everywhere you look, fusion is big. Fusion restaurants, crossover artists and hybrid cars are sweeping the U.S. Sometimes the mating of two distinct styles can create something special (or something awful, i.e. Britney Spears trying her hand at hip-hop).

The James A. Michener Art Museum is highlighting a successful 60-year old fusion: jazz and the music of the Caribbean. The exhibit, "Latin Jazz: La Combinación Perfecta," examines the people, cultures and traditions that led to this perfect combination. Bongos, congas and horns were joined with American jazz, spurring a revolution in jazz music in the U.S. that everyone from West Coast beat poets to Dizzy Gillespie embraced, while jazz itself made its way to Cuba, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands. Latin rhythms fused with jazz harmonies to create a wholly different musical form.

The Smithsonian Institution exhibit, which is traveling throughout the country, is a hybrid itself. A book and a CD featuring the music of some of the most famous Latin jazz artists, including Tito Puente and Frank "Machito" Grillo, accompany the exhibit. Maps, film and instruments owned by Latin jazz greats illustrate the evolution of the new music. So follow the beat of the bongos and rumba your way over to Michener, and be sure not to miss the special events -- films, lectures and musical performances -- coinciding with the show.

“Latin Jazz: La Combinación Perfecta,” July 19-Oct. 12, $7-$10, James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, 215-340-9800.

—Brian White