Rifftides

There may be a longshot chance that you are unfamiliar with the mrudangam. It is a South Indian percussion instrument that Rajna Swaminathan has introduced into American music since she became a part of the New York City jazz community in 2011. She is a protégé of the renowned mrudangam maestro, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and tours with him and other Indian musicians. She also collaborates with prominent jazz artists based in New York, including the influential pianist Vijay Iyer, himself of … [Read more...]

Alun Morgan, 1928-2019 The influential and prolific British critic Alun Morgan has died. Morgan’s critiques, reviews and album notes were among the most widely read of those by any contemporary jazz critic.  His longtime admirers included fellow critic Mark Gardner, whose own reputation in British jazz circles and elsewhere grew substantially after he fell under Morgan’s influence and entered the critical field. Gardner wrote an appreciation for the January 14 issue of Jazz Journal. To see … [Read more...]

A welcome surprise: I had no idea that veteran pianist Fred Hersch and the relatively new piano star Sullivan Fortner had worked together. As it turns out, they made a joint appearance at Jazz At Lincoln Center in 2016. Here they are on that occasion in a duet on Ornette Coleman’s 1959 composition “Turnaround,” first heard that year on Coleman’s album Tomorrow Is The Question. In the photos and the video, Hersch is on your left, Fortner on your right                                   … [Read more...]

The extracurricular, non-Rifftides assignment that I mentioned in the February 2nd post is done, barring revisions. As mentioned, it involves notes for a CD box set of everything that trumpeter and singer Chet Baker recorded for Riverside Records in the late 1950s. Baker’s Riverside association was packed with problems for him and for producer Orrin Keepnews, but it brought him together with a dozen or so of the finest jazz musicians of the era. Among them are Bill Evans, Philly Joe Jones, Al … [Read more...]

Blogging has been sporadic (at best) lately because I’m into a non-Rifftides writing project about Chet Baker that is taking even longer than I thought it would. I’ll fill you in on it when I come up for air. In the meantime, let’s remember the February 2nd birthdays of two saxophonists, Stan Getz (b. 1927) and Sonny Stitt (b. 1924). In the pictures, Getz is on the left. In the video below, they are together in Los Angeles in 1956. The front line also includes Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet. The … [Read more...]

Michel Legrand, the pianist, arranger and prolific composer of film scores, died today at his home in France. He was 86. Dozens of Legrand’s melodies became popular hits, among them “The Windmills Of Your Mind,” “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” and “Watch What Happens.” The wide range of performers who collaborated with him includes such diverse stars as Miles Davis, Barbara Streisand and Kiri Te Kanawa. Early on, Legrand was the piano accompanist for Sarah Vaughan and Lena Horne, … [Read more...]

Helen Sung: Sung With Words (Stricker Street Records) In this poetry and jazz collection Helen Sung further validates her position as one of the most accomplished pianists In the New York jazz community, which has an abundance of fine pianists. The quintet supporting Sung thrives on her arrangements and accompaniments as she improvises on themes suggested by seven poems of poet Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and—not so coincidentally—the brother of jazz … [Read more...]

Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren, Mare Nostrum III (ACT) This third outing by Mare Nostrum continues the international trio’s close collaboration in a series of albums that has enjoyed considerable success. With three exceptions, the compositions in this installment are by the members of Mare Nostrum. It opens with one the French accordionist Galliano titled “”Blues sur Seine” for the storied river that flows through Paris. Among the pleasures of the album, which in toto is a … [Read more...]

Way North: Fearless And Kind (M A P L) Way North’s three Canadians and a New Yorker are reminiscent of the kind of ensemble you might find playing on a corner in the French Quarter of New Orleans. For all of their sophisticated musicianship, that’s the kind of jovial feeling the quartet summons in tenor saxophonist Petr Cancura’s “Boll Weevil,” trumpeter Rebecca Hennessy’s “Fearless And Kind” and several other rollicking pieces in this carefree collection. The title track maintains the … [Read more...]

Jim Wilke informs us that his weekend Jazz Northwest presentation will be a program of music that Duke Ellington was inspired more than sixty years ago to begin adding to the world's canon of liturgical music . Here is Jim's announcement, which includes a link to KNKX  and the broadcasts: The 30th annual presentation of the Sacred Music of Duke Ellington took place on December 28, 2018 at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle before a capacity audience.  Featuring vocal soloists Stephen … [Read more...]

  Dave McKenna In Madison (Arbors) From the 1999 edition of Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler’s The Biographical Encyclopedia Of Jazz: "McKenna brings to the piano a prodigious left hand that is a rhythm section unto itself to go along with his dexterous right. Factor in the vast storehouse of songs at his fingertips and you have a most resourceful performer, celebrated for his theme melodies." McKenna (1930-2008) breathes life into that description in this album recorded in the … [Read more...]

  We learned today that trombonist Urbie Green died last Monday, December 31, in the Poconos mountain region that he called home for many years. He was 92. A musician idolized by his contemporaries—and particularly by fellow players of the trombone—Green’s earliest big band years included stretches with Frankie Carle and Gene Krupa. His work with Woody Herman in the early 1950s brought him widespread attention and frequent mention in jazz polls and surveys. Green was a member of the … [Read more...]

Bassist Bill Crow writes "The Band Room" column in Allegro, the monthly journal of the New York chapter of the American Federation of Musicians. Now and then, Bill allows Rifftides to borrow one of his anecdotes. This one is too good not to share: Richard Chamberlain posted the following story on Facebook. In the 1970s the fascist Franco government was still in power in Spain. A pro-democracy movement in Barcelona was gaining strength, and they invited Pete Seeger, America's best known … [Read more...]

It is not news that Canadian musicians continue to emerge into jazz prominence. Canada has long enriched this music with important players, composers and arrangers. A complete list of them would fill this page and several more. To mention a few, think of the contributions of Gil Evans, Kenny Wheeler, Oscar Peterson, Maynard Ferguson, Rob McConnell, Don Thompson, Guido Basso, Ed Bickert, Renee Rosnes, Lennie Breau and Peter Appleyard. Then there are pop figures, including Joni Mitchell and … [Read more...]

  Quotes To Inspire A Lovely 2019 New Year’s Day – Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. — Mark  Twain The only way to spend New Year’s Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears. — W.H. Auden Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God … [Read more...]

Plans have changed for a service in memory of trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who died on November 3.  Frank Stewart of Jazz at Lincoln Center sent the announcement: The life and work of Roy Hargrove will be honored at a musical celebration on Tuesday, January 8  at Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall on Broadway at 60thStreet, New York, New York. Doors will open at 6:30 pm and the event will begin promptly at 7pm. Originally scheduled to take place at the Cathedral of St. John the … [Read more...]

Rifftides readers have asked the staff to again present Jack Brownlow's Christmas recital.  It first appeared here in December of 2015. We are delighted to do so. To see the post and hear his music, just click here and enjoy it. Merry Christmas 2018. … [Read more...]

It can be discouraging, but we are resigned to keeping you up to date on the deaths of prominent musicians. The latest bad news is about the pianist John Williams, who died On December 14 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Williams achieved substantial renown in the 1950s for his work with several prominent leaders and for leading his own trio. Inevitably, he was occasionally misidentified as another John Williams who was once a jazz pianist but became known primarily as a composer for movies and a … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader and occasional commentator Svetlana Ilicheva of Moscow (not the one in Idaho) now and then calls things to our collective attention. Her latest alert has to do with Catherine Russell (pictured), a singer to whom I must confess not having paid sufficient attention. She is the daughter of Luis Russell, whose big band was home base to Louis Armstrong, Red Allen, J.C. Higginbotham and other star soloists at various times in the 1920s and ‘30s. Ms. Ilicheva was attracted by … [Read more...]

Sorry to hear of the passing of Nancy Wilson. She was 81 and died yesterday at her home north of Los Angeles in the California desert community of Pioneertown. The singer achieved fame in the 1960s after Cannonball Adderley heard her in a Columbus, Ohio, club and recommended her to Capitol Records. An album she made with Adderley and his quintet became one of her most popular and has remained so for decades. Nearly as successful was her album with the George Shearing Quintet. For a summary of … [Read more...]

Laura Dickinson 17: Auld Lang Syne (Music & Mirror Records) Auld Lang Syne finds the veteran Los Angeles studio singer leading a big band and applying her power to seasonal songs. The fullness and accuracy of her high range is impressive throughout the album, nowhere more than in the beloved Robert Burns title song. On that track and elsewhere she harmonizes to great effect with a second female voice, presumably her own. Trumpeter Kye Palmer, pianist Alan Steinberger and guitarist Andrew … [Read more...]

Kristin Korb, That Time Of Year (Storyville) Winter holiday albums began showing up in the <Rifftides mailbox well before Thanksgiving. They’re still coming. It’s time to call some of them to your attention. From her assertive opening bass statement, Kristin Korb, her trio and an intriguing guest soloist set a high standard for 2018 holiday jazz. Their album is more than an hour of classic songs balanced with less familiar ones. As ever in her bass playing, Ms. Korb’s Ray Brown lineage … [Read more...]

Tony Fruscella & Brew Moore Quintet (Fresh Sound) Trumpeter Tony Fruscella and tenor saxophonist Brew Moore were admired members of the generation that succeeded the pioneers of bebop. Lester Young was a direct influence on Moore's tenor saxophone style. Fruscella was less identifiable in terms of models, although it was clear that early Miles Davis had an effect on him as, indeed, Davis had on Chet Baker and many other trumpet contemporaries. Fruscella was one of the young lions of … [Read more...]