Around midweek, I accepted a last-minute freelance offer that was too good to refuse. It had an impossibly short deadline, which I am likely to meet. The assignment involved a lot of listening, research, note-taking, phone calls, more listening and more research. It is why Rifftides has been more or less on hold for a few days. The Rifftides staff just wanted you to know that we have not abandoned the readership. The project is expected to appear later this year. Assuming that I am given … [Read more...]

This is how co-host Renee Montagne of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition opened one of the program’s hours this morning. We’re kind of blue. Miles Davis died 25 years ago today. It came as a shock to realize how quickly that sizeable amount of time has passed; and a comfort to know that a major creative musician, recognized in a casual comment, is a part of the fabric of the nation’s, and the world’s, culture. Ms. Montagne’s reference to Davis’s best-known album suggests that listening to … [Read more...]

To comment on a post, open it, then scroll down until you see Leave A Reply. Enter your comment in the box and click on Post Comment. We welcome your comments and observations To communicate with Rifftides about something other than a post, put your cursor on ABOUT in the box above the name Rifftides. From the drop-down menu, choose CONTACT. Let us know what's on your mind. … [Read more...]

There are so many options that it is difficult to know what to bring you today to observe the great saxophonist John Coltrane’s (1926-1967) 90th birthday. Among Coltrane’s hundreds of recordings and videos, no doubt everyone who listens to him has at least one favorite. The Rifftides staff has chosen two. In the spring of 1957 Miles Davis had fired Coltrane from his quintet because his heroin habit was causing problems on and off the bandstand. A month or so later, Coltrane stopped using heroin. … [Read more...]

In the early 70s when I was anchoring at Channel 11 in New York, I took a film crew (remember film?) to Lincoln Center to do a feature about the Giants Of Jazz, the group with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Stitt, Kai Winding, Al McKibbon and Art Blakey. Let’s set the scene with a piece written by Monk and introduced by Gillespie on the band’s 1971 world tour.   Returning to New York during the same period, the Giants were rehearsing in late morning for a concert. We … [Read more...]

The weather continues magnificent in the US Pacific Northwest. Many thanks to a surprisingly high number of Rifftides readers for their good wishes following this week’s self-indulgent health reports. My doctor today put me on a course of antibiotics. I have taken the first installment and persuaded myself that I feel better already. Longtime reader Jim Brown sent a comment that led to the embedding of an encounter between Art Tatum with Ben Webster. It observes our weather theme. To read … [Read more...]

Fair weather continues. So, too, does recuperation, if that's what it can be called. For such details as exist, see yesterday's Rifftides installment. For “Fair Weather” from 1958, click on the arrow below. Benny Golson is the composer. The doctor is going to have a look tomorrow. I’m knocking on a large piece of oak. … [Read more...]

“Under the weather” is not quite the right phrase to describe what the Rifftides senior staff is experiencing this week. Who could ask for a better forecast than this one for the region east of the Cascade mountains? The problem may be a virus inhaled early last month on the flight from the US to Sweden. The Ystad Festival staff doctor made that as a possible diagnosis. “Let your body heal itself,” he said. The body is not rushing to complete the task. I am giving it all the help I can, … [Read more...]

Listeners rarely have the opportunity to witness world-class musicians prepare for a performance. In the autumn of1966, pianist Bill Evans toured Europe with his regular bassist, Eddie Gomez. Danish drummer Alex Riel joined them for a concert in Copenhagen that also included the Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund. New to Evans and his repertoire, Riel met him and Gomez in the studios of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. In our age of quick-hit internet videos, this 45-minute rehearsal may seem … [Read more...]

In the United States this is Labor Day, since 1894 a national holiday that celebrates working peoples’ contributions to the nation. Although the calendar says that summer doesn’t end until September 22 this year, many Americans and our close neighbors in Canada consider that Labor Day, or Labour Day, marks the close of the season. This three-day weekend, they pile into their automobiles. Now that regular gasoline averages around $2.20 per gallon, motor trips are considerably less of a pain in … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Frank Roellinger reports that a YouTube watcher who goes by the handle Swel1954 has identified a quote in Desmond's celebrated solo on "The Way You Look Tonight" from Jazz At Oberlin. Swel1954 may not be the first to think he recognized a bit of "La Cucaracha"* in that masterpiece of joyful improvisation. Still, Mr. Roellinger's message gives us a perfect reason to let you hear the solo. Here is the introduction to it from a May, 2013 Rifftides post. For decades, only … [Read more...]

…just because it has been too long since you’ve heard it, even if you heard it a few minutes ago. It is a B-flat blues called “Honesty,” composed by trombonist Dave Baker and played by a sextet led by George Russell (pictured). We hear seven musicians thoroughly experienced in the post-bop mainstream who were also immersed in the freedom that in 1961 was introducing new colors into jazz. Indeed, Russell had been an encourager and trailblazer of that freedom since he wrote for Dizzy Gillespie in … [Read more...]

Jim Wilke alerts us that his Jazz Northwest  broadcast this weekend features two drummers who at different times drove Woody Herman’s Herd.  Jeff Hamilton and Joe LaBarbera will co-lead an all-star big band that includes another Herman alumnus, baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan. Herman was known as “The Road Father” because he mentored countless young musicians who later became stars in their own right. The concert was recorded at this summer’s Jazz Port Townsend on Washington state’s Olympic … [Read more...]

Rudy Van Gelder, who recorded thousands of albums by musicians including some of the most important in jazz, died today at 91. As a young man, Van Gelder began recording in a room in his parents' house in Hackensack, New Jersey. Among his recordings were early albums by Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. He was a practicing optometrist, but he said in recent years that when he first found himself in a recording studio, he had a feeling that "this is what I should be doing." He went on to acquire … [Read more...]

Steven Lugerner, Jacknife: The Music Of Jackie McLean (Primary Records) After his studies at The New School in New York ended a couple of years ago, alto saxophonist Steven Lugerner returned home to the San Francisco Bay area and took Jackie McLean with him. Not in person, of course; McLean died in 2006, and Lugerner never met him, but the young man became immersed in McLean’s music. The audacity of McLean’s attack is apparent in everything that Lugerner plays. The aggressiveness, rough edges … [Read more...]

Toots Thielemans, the man who made the harmonica a well-known jazz instrument died today in Brussels, Belgium, his hometown. He was 94. Thielemans was recently hospitalized after a fall that resulted in a broken arm, but neither his family nor management representatives specified the cause of his death. On an instrument often dismissed as a novelty, Thielemans’ advanced musicianship and individuality made him a respected colleague of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman and George … [Read more...]

The Rifftides wrapup report on the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival included a brief, enthusiastic comment about a performance by the Kathrine Windfeld Big Band of her piece “Aircraft.” This young Danish composer, arranger and pianist writes for 15 young musicians from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Poland. They negotiate her demanding charts with aplomb, intensity and obvious appreciation for one another’s talents. Following the video, I’m including their names for you to remember because we are … [Read more...]

Bobby Hutcherson, whose vibraphone playing developed deep and complex harmonies, died on Monday at home in Montara, California. He was 75. When Hutcherson came to prominence in the early 1960s, he was in the forefront of young musicians already adept at bebop but seeking greater freedom. He expanded his instrument’s range of tonal colors, with particular attention to dramatic use of resonance, and he was open to ideas pioneered by free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Along with saxophonists … [Read more...]