Who is your favorite singer from the Canadian province of Newfoundland? Don't have one? If you listen to Heather Bambrick, that could change. Ms. Bambrick is a nominee for the Juno Awards, Canada's equivalent of the Grammys. She is known in her country for singing with sensitivity about things that matter to her. Among them are racism, homophobia and other contemporary expressions of interpersonal aggression. She sets the tone of her new album Fine State, with "You've Got To Be Taught," Rodgers' … [Read more...]

One of the highlights of the 2019 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival was a concert by Hannah Svensson. Now, Ms. Svensson's new album, Places And Dreams, presents her along with the colleagues who backed her at Ystad. They include her guitarist father Ewan Svensson and her good friend pianist Jan Lundgren, artistic director of the festival. From Lundgren's trio are Matz Nilsson, playing electric bass, and drummer Zoltan Csörcz. The album contains seven new songs written by Ms. Svensson, as well as a … [Read more...]

The recent Rifftides review of the Richard Boukas-Louis Arques album of music by Brazilian composers drew this comment from guitarist and composer Boukas: The video you embedded is from our newest suite, A Dozen Choro Tributes. The suite will be premiered on November 8 in New York City as part of the NYC Classical Guitar Salon Series. Although our original repertoire is contemporary Brazilian chamber music, it uses popular Brazilian genres as its foundation and has some jazz influences as … [Read more...]

It is always sad to report the end of a major spot for jazz listening. In this case, the word is that Seattle's venerable Tula's is closing. The club has been a jazz fixture in the US Pacific Northwest for more than two decades. In this weekend's edition of his Jazz Northwest, Jim Wilke will concentrate on Tula's and what the club has meant to jazz in the US Pacific Northwest for more than two decades. Below is Mr. Wilke's summary of the program, illustrated with one of Jim Levitt's always fine … [Read more...]

Noah Preminger Group: Zigsaw: Music Of Steve Lampert  In his newest foray, to be released in early October, the adventurous tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger recruits Steve Lampert, a gifted composer who is one of Preminger's longtime New York collaborators. Ever on the frontier of experimentation, Preminger is aided by the complexity of Lampert's composition. The piece is a fifty-minute continuum interrupted only by periodic side trips into a post-modern romanticism enhanced by electronic … [Read more...]

Kerry Politzer, Diagonal: A Tribute To Durval Ferreira The pianist recruits several of her talented Pacific Northwest colleagues for this album of pieces by a Brazilian composer whose works were central to the rise of the music that became known as bossa nova. Ferreira's "O Gato," "E Nada Mais" and other compositions not only entered the mainstream in his country but were also embraced by American performers, among them Cannonball Adderley, Sarah Vaughan, Herbie Mann and Stan Getz. Politzer's … [Read more...]

  Dave Douglas is a trumpeter whose adherence to basic jazz values fully justifies the title of the new album he shares with pianist Uri Caine and drummer Andrew Cyrille in their unusual trio. Unusual? Yes. For one thing, there is no bass player to help with harmonic and rhythmic responsibilities. At the piano, Caine takes care of business in both departments, abetted by Cyrille, a drummer whose strength and drive have seemed to intensify as he built on the qualities that first brought … [Read more...]

Really brief, indeed, because during and since the Rifftides staff's return from the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival, albums hoping to be reviewed have arrived by the dozens (not an exaggeration). Here, we begin to consider a few of them. Rondi Marsh The Pink Room The Pacific Northwest singer addresses eleven songs mostly from the 1950s. Among her eclectic choices are Lieber-Stoller's "Black Denim Trousers (And Motorcycle Boots)," Erroll Garner's "Misty" and Henry Mancini's "Slow Hot Wind." She … [Read more...]

The word "all-star" does not appear in Jim Wilke's description of this weekend's Jazz Northwest program, but the band supporting singer Michael Mayo fits the all-star category. Here is Jim's preview paragraph: "Vocalist Michael Mayo won many new fans with his performance at the 2019 Jazz Port Townsend. His wide-ranging flexible voice was surprisingly supple and expresive in a program mostly given to the popular standards songbook with the exception of the opening original song in which he … [Read more...]

Earlier this week at The Seasons, an acoustically blessed performance hall in Yakima, Washington, alto saxophonist Logan Strosahl and pianist Nick Sanders demonstrated the like-mindedness that makes them one of the most riveting duos in jazz. Sanders (on the left here) traveled to the Pacific Northwest from New York, his headquarters for a decade. Strosahl was visiting from Berlin, Germany, where he has been expanding his musical trilogy based on the King Arthur legend. The album cover below … [Read more...]

In the 1980s the singer Lisa Rich seemed on her way to a long and successful career. She was featured with symphony orchestras and her recordings received enthusiastic reviews from critics including Leonard Feather in The Los Angeles Times.  She was on the Jazz Times national airplay chart for fifteen weeks.  In 1985, she became one of the rare American jazz artists to perform in China and India.  She recorded the successful album Touch Of The Rare with Clare Fischer, the pianist and arranger … [Read more...]

In the wake of the Ystad Jazz Festival in Sweden, the distinguished Swedish jazz journalist Jan Olsson sent a  photograph of the late saxophonist and clarinetist Bob Wilber and his wife, British singer Pug Horton, at the Stockamöllan Swing Fesival in June 2013. Wilber (1928-2019) died earlier this month. Jan took the photo at an earler Swedish jazz festival. Jan writes, "The photo of Mr and Mrs Wilber was taken at the Stockamöllan Swing Fesival in June, 2013. Stockamöllan is a small … [Read more...]

Looking ahead to your radio listening this weekend, Jim Wilke alerts us to a special edition of his Jazz Northwest. He traveled to the Port Townsend Jazz Festival to capture this concert. Jim Levitt's photo captures (left to right) George Cables, Chuck Deardorf, Terell Stafford, Matt Wilson and Marquis Hill. Here's Mr. Wilke's announcement. Two great trumpet players were featured together at Jazz Port Townsend this Summer.  Terell Stafford and Marquis Hill traded brilliant solos during a … [Read more...]

  We have learned that the superlative clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Bob Wilber died at his home in England earlier this month. He was 91. Wilber studied with the New Orleans reed pioneer Sidney Bechet and spent decades extending the Bechet legacy. Unusual among those who specialize in traditional music, Wilber also became adept in the bebop idiom and worked with, among others, trumpeter Clark Terry. In the Washington Post, arts writer Matt Schudel profiled Wilber in an extensive … [Read more...]

The 2019 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival encompassed far more concerts than it would have been possible for anyone to attend. Here are impressions of some of that I managed to hear. And, just to remind us of Ystad's physical attractiveness, here's a photo taken from a window of my hotel room, complete with the Swedish flag, and St. Mary's church in the distance. The festival opener, as usual, was a jazz parade through the streets of this medieval village, whose charm and warmth are central … [Read more...]