Rifftides

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...]

Jay Thomas With The Oliver Groenewald Newnet: I Always Knew (Origin) Thomas, a veteran master of brass and reed instruments, teams with Groenewald, the man he describes in his liner notes as “the perfect fit for me as an arranger.” With a band that includes ten of the Pacific Northwest’s major jazz artists, the two explore the possibilities in a dozen ballads from the past nine decades. In the five years or so that the German-born Groenewald has lived near Seattle on an island in Puget Sound, … [Read more...]

Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest this Sunday will highlight musicians recorded decades apart in Seattle engagements. Here is his announcement. This Sunday's Jazz Northwest on 88.5 KNKX celebrates the release of new albums ranging from the Sixties to the 'teens from sessions that took place in Seattle. A new gatefold double-LP set recorded from live radio broadcasts in 1966-1967 features The Cannonball Adderley Quintet at The Penthouse, a jazz club in Pioneer Square during the Sixties. At the other … [Read more...]

Speaking Of Desmond Saxophonist, bandleader, arranger, composer and educator Bill Kirchner (pictured left) sent a message today about making members of a new generation aware of Paul Desmond: This morning in my New School Jazz History class, I was discussing Herbie Hancock. All of the students had heard “Maiden Voyage,” my planned selection. So on a whim, I went to YouTube and got up Desmond’s “Feelin' Groovy” from his Paul Simon album. It has a wonderful Herbie solo and, of course, an equally … [Read more...]

Recent Listening: Harry Vetro’s Northern Ranger A generation of Canadian musicians is coming to prominence in their youth and making substantial impressions. One is drummer Harry Vetro. After he was graduated from the University of Toronto Jazz Program, the 23-year-old spent much of last year exploring his country as it celebrated its 150th year of nationhood. He spent time in what he calls Canada’s six indigenous cultural areas—Arctic, Subarctic, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Plains and Eastern … [Read more...]

Sam Leak, Dan Tepfer, Adrift (Jellymould) Pianists from opposite sides of the Atlantic met in a New York studio to collaborate in an engrossing performance of Sam Leak compositions as a suite called “Adrift.” Leak’s partner in recording the eight sections, or movements, was Dan Tepfer, a pianist whose reputation has grown in great part because of his recordings with alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, and Tepfer's adaptation and variations on J.S. Bach’s "Goldberg Variations." Of the Bach project … [Read more...]

Paul Desmond was born in San Francisco, California, on November 25, 1924. Readers around the world tell me that they remember Paul every time his birthday and his 1977 death date roll around. This is the 13th year that Rifftides has celebrated  his birth. We customarily make Paul's music a part of the birthday remembrance, and all the good things about him come rushing back. If there were other things, I don't remember them. Below is Paul reunited with his longtime partner Dave Brubeck in a 1971 … [Read more...]

Jim Wilke tells us that his Jazz Northwest broadcast on Sunday will present Maria Schneider conducting the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra. The program comes from his recording of the second of Ms. Schneider’s two concerts with the SRJO early this month. Her work has brought her five Grammy Awards, victories in many readers and critics polls and, recently, the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Fellowship, the United States’ highest award for jazz artists. Jim recorded the second of … [Read more...]

This is a national holiday in the United States, important ever since the newly arrived Pilgrims and the native Wampanoag gave thanks in 1621. To Americans observing it, the Rifftides staff sends wishes for a Happy holiday. To readers in the US and around the world: thank you for your interest, readership and comments, which are always welcome. To those who treasure memories of Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts holiday specials from your childhood—or maybe your adulthood—this may be … [Read more...]

Atlantis Quartet, Hello Human (Shifting Paradigm Records) If you visit the Shifting Paradigm Records website in search of Hello Human, you may be startled to see the legend, “Name Your Price,” near a box with a dollar sign and an empty space waiting to be filled. In fairness, the offer has a notation that reads, “USD ($8 or more).” After a dozen years together, more may indeed be welcome to the members of this tightly knit quartet from Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Their intricacy and interwoven … [Read more...]

Eden Bareket, Night (Fresh Sound New Talent) New York City is still the jazz capital of the world. For about a century, young musicians have gone there from nearly every country to be in the midst of the growth and ferment of music that is in a constant state of change and challenge. The baritone saxophonist Eden Bareket is relatively new to the city. Bareket was born in Buenos Aires, grew up in Israel and has been a New Yorker since 2013. The trio featuring him, his bassist brother, Or, and … [Read more...]

This afternoon it was 30 degrees out there, with a piercing breeze. Drivers were unruly, aggressive, rushing. The line at the gas pump was slow. I returned home, shivering, to a greeting from my wife. “It’s a lazy afternoon,” she said. Suddenly, the afternoon became lazy, with a long lunch, a leisurely hour conquering two crossword puzzles and inspiration to look up Shirley Horn. There she was, waiting to reinforce my new mood, which could not be derailed by the irrelevant out-of-focus album … [Read more...]

I don’t often post video of people talking. The best way to understand music is to listen—often—intensively—with concentration—without preconceptions. Today, we have a departure from  the Rifftides policy of letting the music speak for itself. Hal Galper is a pianist known to many of you for his work with Phil Woods, Chet Baker, Donald Byrd, Cannonball Adderley John Scofield. He is the leader of his own trio and has been in the bands of so many other consequential players that it would be … [Read more...]

Jim Wilke sent details about the program he has prepared for his next Jazz Northwest broadcast. The program will be a broadcast of the complete concert "Celebrating George Cables" from McCurdy Pavilion during Centrum's Jazz Port Townsend the last weekend of July. Pianist Cables has been a favorite for many years at the festival and the jazz workshop during the preceding week. Whether in the classroom, on the main stage or in an intimate club, he is a favorite among fans and the other … [Read more...]

Charlie Haden & Brad Mehldau, Long Ago and Far Away (Impulse!) Charlie Haden (1937-2014) combined the solid tonal qualities of his bass playing with an audacious sense of harmonic adventure. Those qualities were ideal for the departures of Ornette Coleman’s quintet in the late 1950s. After his time with Coleman, Haden continued to employ the contrasting aspects of his musicianship throughout his life up to, including and beyond his remarkable Quartet West recordings. After hearing, by … [Read more...]

Thanks to all of the Rifftides readers who sent comments on Roy Hargrove’s passing. In response, here is a video that may provide a bit of consolation. The European production company Zycopolis provides neither a date nor a location of this performance, and no identification of the musicians. The opening title card seems to indicate that the club was the New Morning in Paris. Clearly, the other trumpet player is Art Farmer, who died in 1999, so this was probably slightly more than ten years into … [Read more...]

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove died of a heart attack in New York yesterday at the age of 49. Hargrove was one of a coterie of young musicians who came to prominence following the sudden superstardom of fellow trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in the 1990s. Record companies scrambled to find their own Marsalises. Hargrove became famous not long after he was graduated from the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts in Dallas, Texas. His technical accomplishments, youth, personality and … [Read more...]

Kenny Werner, The Space (Pirouet) Rifftides listeners are not likely to need instruction about how to hear Werner’s music, but it may be helpful to keep in mind the liner-note quote he takes from his 2013 book Effortless Mastery. We do things from our conscious mind or we do them from the space. The conscious mind is small and fearful. From the space, we are in the moment, content with what is. From the space we make decisions without doubt, we celebrate the mistakes. I’m still learning how … [Read more...]

Well, sometimes recordings arrive, sit on the shelves a while and then start calling to the reviewer to pay attention. Randy Waldman, Superheroes (BFM Jazz) Along with his Los Angeles studio work, the veteran arranger and pianist Waldman has for years been Barbara Streisand’s arranger and accompanist. His Superheroes venture emphasizes his arranging skills. It brings together a passel of first-rate jazz soloists and sidemen to play themes from movies and television shows built around … [Read more...]

Every fall season, it’s the same problem; whose version of “Autumn Leaves” to use with this year’s photograph. Perhaps it’s not surprising how often the winner turns out to be Bill Evans with Scott LaFaro, bass, and Paul Motian, drums, in this 1959 recording. That's from the Bill Evans album <em>Portrait In Jazz</em> Top photo: Maples Bottom photo: Dogwoods Have a lovely Fall season. … [Read more...]

Rudy Royston, Flatbed Buggy (Greenleaf Music) Blends of accordion, cello, reeds and bowed bass sometimes swell the music of drummer Royston’s album nearly to orchestral proportions. But the collection also has simple qualities akin to cowboy songs and folk music, except when it’s more or less squarely in the bebop tradition, as in “Bobblehead.” John Ellis’s soprano saxophone solo on that track is pure bop except for certain harmonies in the accompaniment that might have raised Bela Bartok’s … [Read more...]

Recent Listening In Brief Annie Chen Octet, Secret Treetop (Shanghai Audio&Video Ltd) Chen is a singer and composer born in China who lives in New York and has an eclectic musical palette with colors from sources as disparate as Turkey, Taiwan and Mongolia. With a rhythm section augmented by guitar, violin, saxophone and trumpet, she employs her robust voice in nine original compositions. Lyrics are in various languages, most of them having helpful English translations in the … [Read more...]