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      5 Songs by Rubby Pérez, the Merengue Singer Lost in the Roof Collapse

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      The musician, 69, got his break in the 1980s and continued releasing albums through 2022.Rubby Pérez, the singer who was performing on Tuesday when the ceiling of the Jet Set nightclub collapsed in Santo Domingo, claiming at least 124 lives including his own, spent his long career devoted to merengue, the signature style of the Dominican Republic.Wilfrido Vargas, the band leader who gave Pérez his big break in the early 1980s, called him “the best singer the genre has ever produced” upon learning of his bandmate’s death. At the outset of their collaboration, Vargas dubbed the singer “the loudest voice of merengue,” an appellation the vocalist wore proudly. An enthusiastic performer, Pérez brought high spirits even to ballads, but he specialized in rousing, spirited numbers where his clarion voice commanded attention over a dance band’s bustling rhythms.Music was Pérez’s second choice for a career. As a teenager, he harbored hopes of baseball stardom, dreams that came to an end when his right leg was fractured in an auto accident when he was 15. During his convalescence, he found solace in the guitar, which he called his “new bat.” He started singing in a church choir and, by the end of the 1970s, he dedicated himself to music, studying at Santo Domingo’s National Conservatory of Music.Initially drawn to bolero, he embraced the widespread popularity of merengue in the Dominican Republic (it has also gained a significant foothold in Venezuela). He made his professional debut as part of Los Pitagoras del Ritmo, sang in Los Juveniles de Bani, then replaced Fernando Villalona in Los Hijos del Rey, spending three years with the outfit before joining Vargas’s orchestra in 1980.Vargas provided the launchpad for Pérez’s career, giving him a pair of signature hits in “El Africano” and “Volveré,” which allowed him to embark on a solo career in 1987. His last album, “Hecho Esta,” arrived in 2022, but he made his mark in the 1980s, when both he and merengue broke out of the Dominican Republic. Here are five of his signature songs. (Listen on Spotify or Apple Music.)‘El Africano’ (1983)Pérez made his recording debut as the lead singer in the band led by Vargas, and the single “El Africano” from Vargas’s 1983 album “El Funcionario” was a Latin hit. It’s a brassy merengue, with Pérez’s high vocals punctuated by saxophones and a raucous trombone. The lyrics may strike modern listeners as offensive (“Mommy, what does the Black man want?” Pérez repeatedly sings, from the perspective of “a little Black girl”). The backing vocals answer, between mock-African interjections, “He wants some.” The track was later sampled by Pitbull for his 2007 single “The Anthem.”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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      Conductor John Nelson Dead at 83

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      He revived interest in a “problem child” in the pantheon of high romantic composers, bringing Berlioz overdue recognition as one of France’s greatest composers.John Nelson, a genial American conductor who made France love one of its own underappreciated musical sons, Hector Berlioz, died on March 31 at his home in Chicago. He was 83.His death was confirmed by his daughter, Kari Magdalena Chronopoulos, who did not specify the cause.Mr. Nelson made Berlioz (1803-1869), the wild man of 19th-century French music, his passion, performing and promoting his work ceaselessly during a career that stretched over 50 years on both sides of the Atlantic.As a young conductor, he introduced Berlioz’s epic five-act opera “Les Troyens” (“The Trojans”) to New York in a 1972 Carnegie Hall performance deemed “highly successful” at the time by Raymond Ericson of The New York Times.By the end of his career, Mr. Nelson was so closely identified with Berlioz, one of France’s most extravagant musicians, that the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph wrote, “John Nelson was clearly born with Berlioz in his genes.”That remark came in a 2017 review of Mr. Nelson’s much-praised recording of “Les Troyens” with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and a cast that included the American soprano Joyce DiDonato.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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      Pop Songs, ‘Hamilton’ and Windows 95 Chime Join National Registry

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      The recordings, along with works by Tracy Chapman, Elton John and the rock band Chicago, are among the 25 selected for preservation by the Library of Congress.Hits by Celine Dion and Mary J. Blige. The song “Happy Trails” by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Tracy Chapman’s debut album. The original cast album of the Broadway musical “Hamilton.” The chimes Brian Eno wrote for Microsoft Windows in 1995.These were among the 25 audio works chosen this year to join the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, which preserves works deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” that are at least 10 years old.More than 2,600 nominations were made by the public this year, with “Chicago Transit Authority,” the 1969 album from the rock band Chicago, topping the list, according to a news release from the Library of Congress.The Elton John album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” — which features songs like “Bennie and the Jets” and “Candle in the Wind” — and the R&B album “My Life” by Mary J. Blige were among the top 10 of public nominations.The new class of inductees for the National Recoding Registry brings its total number of titles to 675.Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, said in a statement that the selected works were the sounds of America and that the registry was “our evolving nation’s playlist.”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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      Trumpeters. Friends. Rivals. 60 Years Ago, the Pair Made Jazz History.

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      “There was a bar right there,” a Crown Heights, Brooklyn, resident named James said in early March, pointing to the deli at 835 Nostrand Avenue, at the intersection with President Street. “Long time ago, though.”Sixty years ago, the Black social club that once occupied that corner hosted a jazz concert that is so storied, it has a title: the Night of the Cookers. Of the dozens of performances that the trumpet star Freddie Hubbard led in the mid-1960s, his two nights at La Marchal on April 9 and 10 featuring his friend and chief rival, Lee Morgan, are heralded as arguably the most celebrated jazz gig in the borough’s history.“That was one of the records that made me say, ‘You gotta go find your own thing,’” the trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard said in a phone interview, referring to the recordings from the gig that were first released on LP in 1966. “They both had great sounds on their instruments, but they were very different.”The Night of the Cookers was a night of tension. Hubbard and Morgan, both born in 1938, were the hottest trumpet players in the business as they turned 27, though each was at his own crossroads. Hubbard, always ambitious, was securing his future as a bandleader; Morgan was struggling with addiction while watching the improbable rise of his hit record, “The Sidewinder,” on the pop charts.An engineer named Orville O’Brien was rolling tape as the bandstand filled with heavyweights including James Spaulding on alto saxophone and flute, the pianist Harold Mabern Jr., the bassist Larry Ridley, the drummer Pete LaRoca and another special guest, Big Black, on congas. Well-dressed Brooklynites, including musicians like the trumpeter Kenny Dorham, filled the spot to capacity. A crowd of standees hovered near the bar.“When anybody mentions Night of the Cookers, I can see it as if I was there again,” said the trumpeter Eddie Henderson, who sat in the front row both nights. “I was at their feet, looking up at Freddie and Lee, and I was screaming and yelling. When I hear that record, I can hear my voice.”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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      Getting Loud With Sleigh Bells and Beyond

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      Hear songs from the duo’s latest album, “Bunky Becky Birthday Boy,” plus predecessors and protégés.Sleigh Bells onstage in 2012.Phil Sears for The New York TimesDear listeners,Jon Pareles here, sitting in while Lindsay is on book leave. This week cranks The Amplifier all the way up — and then further into overload.Sleigh Bells, the duo of Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, have just released their sixth album, “Bunky Becky Birthday Boy.” Like the rest of their catalog, the new album is a recombinant bash, slamming together selected elements of loud and louder styles — punk, metal, grunge, hip-hop, electro, glam, garage-rock — with the suddenness of digital edits. Along with their sonic impact, Sleigh Bells songs also deal in emotional extremes, jumping between jubilation and sorrow, exhilaration and despair, deep loneliness and shout-along community.With their first singles in 2009, Sleigh Bells presaged the studio-tweaked, genre-hopping, whiz-bang mash-ups of hyperpop — ideas and strategies that, more than a decade later, are often taken for granted. The juxtapositions are startling; they also hold decades of allusions. This playlist mingles Sleigh Bells songs with what might be the band’s influences and protégés — some roots and offshoots, and all pure guesswork.Feel like dynamite,JonListen along while you read.1. Sleigh Bells: “Infinity Guitars”“Infinity Guitars,” from Sleigh Bells’ 2010 debut album, “Treats,” sets out the band’s sound in the rawest lo-fi. Krauss might be singing about toxic masculinity in the terse lyrics she shouts: “Street wars, straight men / Cowboys, Indians.” Everything is pushed into distortion: guitars, vocals, percussion, stereo handclaps. But with some wordless ahs, Krauss also offers just enough melody to hint at playfulness.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTubeWe 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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      Madonna and Elton John End Their Decades-Old Feud

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      They made peace backstage at “Saturday Night Live.” You’d be forgiven for forgetting that their decades-old dispute had remained unresolved.Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Taylor Swift and Kanye West. Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis.Elton John and Madonna?In the annals of celebrity feuds, the one between these two music industry titans does not rank particularly high. In fact, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that they had a dispute decades ago that remained unresolved.Until this weekend, that is, when they made up backstage at “Saturday Night Live.” The two effusively announced the reconciliation on social media.“We Finally Buried the Hatchet!!!” Madonna wrote on Monday in a long Instagram post that was accompanied by a photograph of the two musicians with their arms around each other.She described the moment of forgiveness, writing that she had found out that John was scheduled to be the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” alongside Brandi Carlile, and decided to confront him backstage.“When I met him, the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Forgive Me’ and the wall between us fell down,” she wrote. Within minutes, she added, they were hugging.“Thank you for forgiving me and my big mouth,” John wrote in the replies of her post, adding, “I’m not proud of what I said.”He posted the same photo on his Instagram story, with the caption “a healing moment.”The tender moment warmed fans’ hearts — and left some saying, “Remind me what this was about again?”The two were vague on the details of their dispute. Madonna said only, “Over the decades it hurt me to know that someone I admired so much shared his dislike of me publicly as an artist.”The acrimony started in the early 2000s, when John made a series of critical comments about Madonna. In 2002, he called “Die Another Day,” her theme song for the James Bond film of the same name, the “worst Bond tune ever.”At the Q Awards, the now defunct British music awards, in 2004, while accepting the classic songwriter award, he questioned Madonna’s nomination for best live act, saying, “Since when has lip-syncing been live?” Madonna’s representative said at the time that she did not lip-sync.In 2012, when the two were competing for best original song at the Golden Globes, John said that Madonna didn’t stand a chance of beating him. After she won, she said she hoped that he would continue speaking to her for the next couple of years.That year, John told an Australian reporter that Madonna’s career was over and called her a “nightmare.”It’s unclear what changed between then and this weekend. But in her post on Monday, Madonna suggested that a musical partnership might be in the works.John told her that he had written a song for her and wanted to collaborate, she said. More

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      Pierre Boulez at 100: What Is His Legacy Today?

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      Few musicians could be the focus of an architectural tour. Pierre Boulez is one of them.In the Fourth Arrondissement of Paris, next to the Centre Pompidou, you’ll find IRCAM, the sound research center that Boulez founded in the 1970s. Not far away, on Place de la Bastille, is an opera house where he suffered one of the few failures of his long career. And on the outskirts of the city, at Parc de la Villette, his Cité de la Musique complex produces concerts, exhibitions and classes, a factory of culture where industrial slaughterhouses once sprawled.The most recent addition to the Cité de la Musique is the Philharmonie de Paris, a concert hall whose main auditorium is named after Boulez. It was completed in 2015, a year before his death, at 90, but he never got to see it. Still, it stands today as a kind of monument to this titan of the past century’s music, a composer, conductor, theorist and a canny political force.Michael Haefliger, a friend and colleague from the Lucerne Festival, called Boulez “the Einstein of music.” The conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, an inheritor of Boulez’s ethos, described him as “one of the most influential people in music, period.”What exactly, though, is Boulez’s influence?A hundred years after his birth, and nearly a decade since his death, his legacy isn’t necessarily as a composer. Celebrating his centennial at the Philharmonie in March, two performances of his “Rituel in Memoriam Bruno Maderna” were notable mostly for their rarity. His music, like that of his peers from the post-World War II generation of high modernists, like Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luigi Nono, is brilliant but out of fashion, and difficult to program.Benjamin Millepied created a dance for Boulez’s “Rituel in Memoriam Bruno Maderna.”Benjamin Malapris for The New York TimesBenjamin Malapris for The New York TimesTo get a sense of Boulez’s true legacy, look at how “Rituel” was presented. With an accompanying dance by Benjamin Millepied, the evening embraced experimentation, a hallmark of Boulez, a musician who tried to dissolve the boundaries between performers and audience members in the 1970s.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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      Clem Burke, Versatile, Hard-Driving Drummer for Blondie, Dies at 70

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      He provided both the explosive percussion on hits like “Call Me” and the laid-back rhythm on the reggae-influenced “The Tide Is High.”Clem Burke, whose energetic, versatile drumming provided the beat for the band Blondie as it churned out post-punk, disco and rock hits in the late 1970s and early ’80s — and then again after the band re-formed in 1997 — died on Sunday. He was 70.In a statement, the band said the cause was cancer. It did not say where he died.Though Blondie is best remembered for its charismatic lead singer, Debbie Harry, Mr. Burke’s relentless percussion was just as important to its success as one of the most popular American rock groups of its era.He can be heard tumbling forth with a rapid disco beat in the intro to “Call Me” (1980), only to switch to a tropical lilt on the reggae-inflected “The Tide Is High” (1980).Like other post-punk bands that slid into the New Wave movement — the Cars, Devo — Blondie was known as much for its image as for its substance. The band’s album covers and press photos often featured Ms. Harry, with her angular face and wispy blonde hair, framed by her four male bandmates, usually in black suits and skinny ties.Mr. Burke stood out with his boyish cheeks and vertiginous mop of hair. But he and the band were about more than their sharp looks: In one survey, Rolling Stone ranked him the 61st greatest drummer of all time.Mr. Burke, second from left, on the cover of Blondie’s debut studio album, released in December 1976.Private Stock RecordsWe 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