Rifftides

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]