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      Jack Black Ends Tenacious D Tour After Bandmate Jokes About Trump Shooting

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      At a concert in Australia, Kyle Gass made a comment suggesting that he wished the shooter had not missed former President Trump during an assassination attempt.Tenacious D, the American comedy-rock duo that includes the movie star Jack Black, announced on Tuesday that the remainder of its tour would be canceled and that all future plans were on pause after the band’s other member, Kyle Gass, made an offhand comment onstage about the assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump.A representative for the duo confirmed that Black had brought out a cake at the ICC Sydney Theater in Australia on Sunday to celebrate Gass’s 64th birthday. When Black asked Gass to “make a wish,” Gass responded, “Don’t miss Trump next time.” Videos of the moment were circulated widely online.In a statement posted to social media on Tuesday, Black, known for “School of Rock” and “King Kong,” said he “was blindsided by what was said at the show,” adding, “I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form.”“After much reflection,” he continued, “I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour, and all future creative plans are on hold. I am grateful to the fans for their support and understanding.” In June, Black, 54, attended a star-studded fund-raiser for President Biden, at which he gave a speech in American flag-themed overalls.Gass posted an apology to social media on Tuesday morning, stating that “the line I improvised onstage Sunday night in Sydney was highly inappropriate, dangerous and a terrible mistake.”“I don’t condone violence of any kind, in any form, against anyone,” he wrote. “What happened was a tragedy, and I’m incredibly sorry for my severe lack of judgment. I profoundly apologize to those I’ve let down and truly regret any pain I’ve caused.”Michael Greene said on Tuesday that Greene Talent, Gass’s talent agency, had parted ways with him.Shortly before the announcement that the entire tour was canceled, the band, which has been active since 1994, postponed its Tuesday date in Broadmeadow, Australia.In the wake of Gass’s onstage remarks, Senator Ralph Babet of the center-right United Australia party called for the duo to be deported. In a lengthy statement posted online, he said, “Tenacious D should be immediately removed from the country after wishing for the assassination of Donald Trump at their Sydney concert.”During a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, a man fired shots toward the stage while the former president was speaking. One spectator was killed, and Trump was rushed off, blood visible around his right ear. The shooter was killed by the Secret Service, and his motive remains unclear.It is not the first time a celebrity has faced fallout from a joke about Trump. In May 2017, Kathy Griffin’s career was put on ice after she posed for a photograph holding a severed-head Halloween mask of Trump, who was then the president, doused in blood-like ketchup. More

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      Eric Garner’s Legacy is Honored by an Opera 10 Years After His Death

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      “The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist,” part of Lincoln Center’s summer festival, aims to shine light on police violence in the United States.In the middle of “The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist,” an opera about the police killing of Eric Garner, a singer portraying his daughter reflects on his famous final words: “I can’t breathe.”“I can’t let go,” she sings. “I hear his words again and again. A scream in a dream that escapes as a gasp.”A decade after Garner’s death, “Ritual of Breath,” which comes to Lincoln Center’s summer festival on Friday, aims to shine light on Garner’s legacy and the broader problem of police violence in the United States.The opera, composed by Jonathan Berger to a libretto by the poet Vievee Francis, focuses on Garner’s daughter, Erica, as she grapples with the pain, guilt and anger she feels over her father’s death. But “Ritual of Breath” also spotlights the stories of other Black people killed by the police, and issues a spirited call for empathy and change from performers including a 90-member choir spread across the stage and in the audience.“It’s not enough to say that someone died on the street — to reduce them to a chalk outline,” Francis said. “If we don’t know who that was, if we don’t see them as human, no difference will be made. Art allows us to feel that life.”The creators of “Ritual of Breath,” which premiered in 2022 at Dartmouth College, hope the opera will bring fresh attention to social injustice in American society. Niegel Smith, the show’s director, quoted a line from the opera’s final scene in explaining its message: “When a brother’s breath fails, we pick it up. When a sister’s breath fails, we pick it up.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The ‘Converse Conductor’ Fighting Elitism in Classical Music

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      The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra had just finished performing Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” on a recent evening when the ensemble’s new music director, Jonathon Heyward, returned to the stage at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.Rugs and chairs had been brought out to evoke a living room, for an intimate, late-night conversation with the audience about music and life. Wearing Converse sneakers and sipping from a glass of Scotch, Heyward, 31, discussed Respighi, his first season as music director and becoming a father. (His daughter, Ottilie, was born in May.) It was the kind of casual gathering that Heyward, who takes the helm of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center this month, has championed as he works to expand the audience for classical music.“This art form is for everyone,” he said in an interview later. “We want everyone to feel welcome here.”Heyward’s efforts to break down barriers in the concert hall have earned him a nickname: the Converse conductor. He is part of a generation of young maestros, including Teddy Abrams in Kentucky and Anthony Parnther in California, who are trying to shed classical music’s elitist image. These rising stars are also hoping to help their orchestras get beyond the disruption of the pandemic by embracing a diverse array of artists and genres, and bringing more music into the community.Those ideas were on display on a recent night in Baltimore, when about 3,000 people gathered at Fort McHenry, a national monument, to hear Heyward lead a concert that paid tribute to construction workers killed in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The Baltimore Symphony performed somber works like Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and Florence Price’s “The Deserted Garden,” as well as pieces by local artists, including the hip-hop performer Anthony Parker, who goes by the stage name Wordsmith.Heyward, the son of a Black father and a white mother — and the first person of color to lead the Baltimore Symphony in its 108-year history — says that orchestras have an obligation to reflect their communities.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Luther S. Allison, a Jazz Pianist With Big Hands and Bigger Traditions

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      The musician, 28, has won a Grammy for his work with Samara Joy and earned the respect of the elders who mentored him. His debut album is due Friday.On a beautiful day in Harlem a few months before the release of his debut album, Luther S. Allison stood chatting a few yards away from Duke Ellington’s white baby grand. Allison, a wiry 6’4” with huge hands and a contagious enthusiasm, was surrounded by history at the National Jazz Museum — Eddie Lockjaw Davis’s tenor saxophone, the famous Great Day in Harlem photo of 57 musicians taken on a stoop on 126th Street. It was a fitting scene for the pianist, a 28-year-old up-and-comer who’s drawn comparisons to Mulgrew Miller and learned to use the past as fuel for his own future.Over the last whirlwind year, Allison won his first Grammy (for his work with the jazz vocalist Samara Joy), acted in and played music for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s movie “The Bride,” toured nationally with the singer Ekep Nkwelle, performed at the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival with the bassist Endea Owens and landed a fellowship at the Jazz Museum’s Jazz Is: Now! program, which involves playing and curating a series of events. It’s all happened so quickly, he hasn’t even had time to hire a manager.On Friday, Allison will release his first LP, “I Owe It All to You,” on Posi-Tone, and then he’ll soon hit the road again. Jazz at Lincoln Center has chosen him as a featured artist for a 40-city bandleading tour across the country, arranging, playing and directing the music of New Orleans; he’ll also tour Mexico with his own band in October.“I’ve had unique opportunities to play with my elders,” Allison said in his Southern lilt. “That gave me a lot more visibility than if I was only playing with people my age range.” While an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee, his mentor was Donald Brown, the Jazz Messengers pianist who schooled him on Memphis greats like Miller, Harold Mabern and James Williams.“I Owe It All to You,” Allison’s debut, includes four original compositions.Amir Hamja for The New York Times“Donald would tell stories about them,” Allison said, smiling at the memory. “It felt like we could have been just in his living room. He was just playing us music and expressing himself freely and it was so soulful.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Judge in Young Thug Trial Is Ordered Off the Case

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      Judge Ural Glanville, who had overseen the case for more than two years, must step aside for meeting with prosecutors and a key witness without the defense.The unpredictable, much-delayed criminal trial of Young Thug, the Atlanta rap star, has been thrown for another loop: The judge overseeing the case for two years has been ordered to step aside.Following weeks of upheaval in the courtroom over an uncooperative witness, a judge in Fulton County, Ga., ruled on Monday that Judge Ural Glanville, who has already presided over 10 months of jury selection and eight months of arguments, must recuse himself in order to preserve “the public’s confidence in the judicial system.”The trial has been paused for two weeks and will resume once a new judge is assigned to the case.The move to have Judge Glanville removed stemmed from motions by lawyers for Young Thug, born Jeffery Williams, and another of the rapper’s five co-defendants in the sprawling gang conspiracy case after the judge met secretly with prosecutors and a key witness who refused to testify last month. The defense lawyers said they should have been present for, or at least informed of, the meeting, calling it “improper and coercive.”The ruling by one of Judge Glanville’s judicial colleagues disagreed. “While the meeting could have — and perhaps should have — taken place in open court, nothing about the fact of the meeting or the substance discussed was inherently improper,” Judge Rachel Krause wrote in her decision.But the fact that Judge Glanville defended his actions regarding the meeting in court and ruled on related motions instead of immediately referring those decisions to another judge meant that he should step aside to assure fairness, Judge Krause wrote.“This court has no doubt that Judge Glanville can and would continue presiding fairly over this matter if the recusal motions were denied,” the decision said, “but the ‘necessity of preserving the public’s confidence in the judicial system’ weighs in favor of excusing Judge Glanville from further handling of this case.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Taylor Swift Breaks Her Own Record With a 12th Week at No. 1

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      Facing a tight battle with Zach Bryan, the pop superstar benefited from the release of three new versions of “The Tortured Poets Department” and shipments of CDs.This week Taylor Swift sets a personal chart record with her album “The Tortured Poets Department” after fending off the latest challenger: the singer-songwriter Zach Bryan.With 12 weeks at No. 1, “Tortured Poets” is now the longest-running chart-topper of Swift’s career, exceeding the 11-week totals she had for “Fearless” (2008) and “1989” (2014). It is the first album to rack up a dozen consecutive times at the top since Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” which did so last year, and Swift joins rare company in the 68-year history of the Billboard 200 chart.In the elite group of albums that not only had long consecutive runs at No. 1, but did so from the very first week they came out, “Tortured Poets” now surpasses Whitney Houston’s 1987 LP “Whitney” — featuring enduring hits like “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and “So Emotional” — which spent its first 11 weeks at No. 1, and is just shy of Stevie Wonder’s 13 for “Songs in the Key of Life” in 1976 and 1977.In its most recent week out, “Tortured Poets” had the equivalent of 163,000 sales in the United States, including 95 million streams and 90,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to the tracking service Luminate. Since its release in April, the full 31-track album has logged three billion streams and had the equivalent of just under five million sales in the United States.“The Great American Bar Scene,” the new album by Bryan, whose style has been described as Americana, folk, rock and country, was Swift’s latest competitor for the top spot. And the race seemed close, with both artists unleashing some chart-goosing weapons in the closing hours of the tracking period last week. Bryan offered his album at a discounted price, while Swift released another three variants of “Tortured Poets” as digital downloads.But Swift triumphed, while “The Great American Bar Scene” lands at No. 2 with the equivalent of 137,000 sales.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Should Slim Shady Be Canceled? Eminem’s Young Fans Say No.

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      The rapper unleashes more provocative lyrics on his 12th album, and new generations are defending him — rather than rushing to criticize him — online.Twenty-two years separated “Without Me,” Eminem’s cocky, impish and defiantly tasteless 2002 smash, from “Houdini,” the lead single from the rapper’s latest studio album, “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce).” But the new track, with its sneering tone and catalog of quips that make punchlines out of both Megan Thee Stallion’s 2020 shooting and contemporary identity politics, transmits a resounding message: In the world of Eminem, nothing much has changed.Since the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017, reckonings around sexual harassment, toxic workplaces, body positivity and gender identity have changed cultural expectations for language and behavior. Young people, surprised at what the generations that preceded them endured and accepted, have largely led the charge, helping “cancel” offending figures in campaigns that ignite on social media.Yet Eminem — an artist who has made a career of thumbing his nose at social mores, rapping lyrics that can be seen as glorifying violence against women, mocking the infirm and normalizing homophobic slurs — has persisted. All nine of his albums released this century so far, including three since 2017, have debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. “Houdini,” which came out in June, opened at No. 2 on the Hot 100 singles chart, his best solo showing since 2010.Eminem accepting a Grammy in 2003. His 12th album arrived on Friday.Vincent Laforet/The New York Times“The Death of Slim Shady,” Eminem’s 12th album, arrived on Friday, and what’s striking is how wide his support base remains — and specifically how much loyalty he has engendered among younger listeners who might be expected to find his wordplay offensive, if not abhorrent.For several years, a handful of online voices, amplified by the media, have helped stoke the notion that members of Gen Z would like to see Eminem retroactively canceled. (Eminem plays with the idea himself on the new album’s “Antichrist.”) Upon the release of “Houdini,” one TikTok user called out a lyric about a Siamese “transgender cat” that “identifies as Black” that seemed designed for maximum antagonism. In a widely viewed video, the poster scoffed at listeners who still engage with Eminem, 51, a figure he referred to as a “grandpa.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Are Games Like the Euro 2024 Final the Riskiest Gig in Music?

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      Performing before a major match like the Euro 2024 final offers priceless visibility, and the nonzero chance that you’ll be booed.Even to some of the most glittering names in music, the pitch is compelling.There is a gig. It is a very short gig: a tight six minutes or so. It is also unpaid. In exchange, though, the offer promises exposure that borders on priceless: a live crowd numbering somewhere around 70,000, and a captive television audience in the hundreds of millions.The appeal of serving as the pregame entertainment at one of European soccer’s twin showpieces — the finals of the Champions League and the European Championship — is so obvious, and the benefits of that brief performance so extravagant, that the likes of Camila Cabello, Alicia Keys and the Black Eyed Peas (albeit without Fergie) have signed up to do it.There is, however, a catch. For most, what is likely to be one of the most high-profile gigs of their career might also be the riskiest booking in music, one that comes with a nonzero chance of being loudly, unapologetically, unremittingly booed.Regret is not a guarantee, of course. There are acts that look back on their brush with soccer fondly, artists who serve as beacons of hope for the (somewhat unwieldy) trio that is scheduled to play just before the final of Euro 2024 on Sunday in Berlin. That lineup — the Italian dance act Meduza, the German singer Leony and the American rock band OneRepublic — have presumably chosen to focus on the more positive precedents.Dua Lipa was such a hit at the 2018 Champions League final that she has subsequently suggested she now considers herself an honorary Liverpool fan. Oceana, a German singer who performed at the final of the 2012 European Championship, remembers it as one of the highlights of her career. “The whole stadium was singing,” she said in an interview last week.Dua Lipa’s performance at the 2018 Champions League final forged a lasting connection with Liverpool and its fans. Kai Pfaffenbach/ReutersWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More