John Birchard, a firmly committed Washington, DC, jazz listener who moonlights as a Voice of America correspondent, sent this report. The Rifftides staff added links. I attended a jazz concert at the Kennedy Center's "K-C Jazz Club" venue - the Baritone Saxophone Band in a Gerry Mulligan tribute. I had been looking forward to the evening for some time and was not disappointed. On the remote possibility you're not familiar with the group, Ronnie Cuber has rounded up Scott Robinson and Gary … [Read more...]

It seems to me that most people are impressed with just three things: how fast you can play, how high you can play, and how loud you can play. I find this a little exasperating, but I'm a lot more experienced now, and understand that probably less than two percent of the public can really hear. I mean follow a horn player through his ideas, and be able to understand those ideas in relation to the changes. —Chet Baker Whether I get adequate attention or not, people here do know the work I have … [Read more...]

Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond has been awarded second place in the performing arts category for an IPPY, a 2006 Independent Book Publishers Award. Here are the finishers: Winner: Vivian Perlis and Libby Van Cleve, Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington (Yale University Press) Finalists: Doug Ramsey, Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond (Parkside Publications) Weathervane Theatre, Nights of Northern Lights:40 Seasons of the Weathervane Theatre I … [Read more...]