Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology

An overhauled primer on the history of jazz in an expansive six-disc compilation

Seven years in the making, Smithsonian Folkways‘ new edition, Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology represents the new standard, a long-overdue update to Martin Williams’ out-of-print compilation The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. While some of the 111 selections on the six-disc set remain the same as the original, Jazz broadens its scope to include Latin jazz and fusion, as well as South African and Vietnamese musicians. …

Rashid Rana

Things are not as they appear in this Pakistani artist's pixelated works

Working across mediums—sculpture, video installation and large-scale photography among them—Pakistani artist Rashid Rana explores the singular issue of South Asia’s struggle between tradition and modernity. Typically he uses a pixelated aesthetic to express how globalization and the media impact the region’s identity. This approach separates out and reassigns associations between the part and whole as a way of challenging stereotypes. His work—on view at London’s …

Cool Hunting Capsule Video: Zoomorphic Collection

Our video on London's most extensive and unusual collection of taxidermic antiquities

by Emma Hawkins, co-curator of the 2010 Hawkins Zoomorphic Collection exhibit in London. Put together in association with her father J.B. Hawkins, a 40-year-veteran of the antique industry, the collection contains over 200 animal objects, from hummingbird jewelry to a bull head snuff box. Here Emma shows off some prime examples of functional and entertaining taxidermy that has lasted into the 21st century.