Yesterday, Rifftides was one year old. Thanks to all of you for keeping me interested. It has been a rewarding and broadening experience. DR … [Read more...]

When I wrote about Django Reinhardt on his birthday, I didn't know about a classic piece of film showing him and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Earl Minor sent this from Portland, Oregon: This one literally made me cry tears of joy. I hope you enjoy it. It's amazing how wonderfully he played with two fingers burnt off his left hand. The human spirit knows no bounds when put to good use. Here is the link to the video, thanks to Mr. Minor. … [Read more...]

Peter Levin writes from New York: While (unlike, it appears, Jimmy Knepper) I love Monk's music, Knepper was right about the childlike quality of a lot of Monk tunes. When one of our sons was three, Monk was his favorite composer. When we asked him why, he said it was because Monk's music sounded like "our city" (which is New York, where we live a few blocks away from West 63rd Street, Monk's home for many years). He could hear car horns and exhaust as well as playground chants in those … [Read more...]

The Commission Project's Swing 'n Jazz event in Rochester, New York, raises money to commission compositions, produce workshops and fund composer-in-residence programs in public schools across the United States. The four days of TCP's ninth edition of Swing 'n Jazz overflowed with music, most of which I heard. Here is a compact account. Thursday, June 1: Intermittent rain nearly washed out the Community Drum Circle concert in a small public square across from the Eastman School of Music. Few … [Read more...]

While I was in Rochester, New York, I kept busy in The Commission Project's official Swing 'n Jazz schedule of concerts and workshops, and the unofficial one of eating and drinking well and hanging out. Still, I managed to absorb a bit of the atmosphere of a city with remarkable historical and cultural depth. Some of the culture is the kind promoted by arts and historical preservation organizations. Some is simply in the fabric of daily life. Kodak declined as the result of its failure to … [Read more...]

Eric Felten writes from Washington, DC: I enjoyed the Monk posts, and it reminded me of a gig I did years ago with Jimmy Knepper. He was an incredibly distinctive musician, and as quirky, interesting, and difficult as a person as was his trombone playing. Before this particular gig with Jimmy I suggested we play some Monk tune (I don't remember which), and Jimmy just put that puzzled (and slightly dismayed) look on his face before pronouncing: "You know, nobody's willing to say it, but lot's of … [Read more...]

When Paul Desmond made his observation that jazz can be learned but not taught, he had in mind the core jazz skill of improvisation, rather than the ability of musicians to be effective in large aggregations. Marvin Stamm, the musical director of this year's Swing 'n Jazz, recalled that he taught himself improvisation by playing along with his brother's collection of jazz records, memorizing solos and eventually absorbing the basics of chord changes and rhythmic competence. That happened after … [Read more...]

This is my first visit to Rochester, New York, in more than twenty years. I thought in the 1980s that it was an agreeable place, slightly down at the heels in some districts but riding in comfort on the economic updraft of its biggest corporate anchors, Eastman Kodak, Xerox and Bausch & Lomb. Kodak and Xerox have cut local employment sharply in the past few years. At $28,000, the median annual income in this city of 215,000 is about $14,000 below the national average. In compensation, real … [Read more...]

He has to be, to withstand the abuse he's taking. From the right, a pianist identified as Hans Groiner--who may actually be someone named Hans Groiner--castrates Monk, with results that make John Tesh sound like Arnold Schoenberg. Groiner, or the Groiner simulacrum, writes on the Myspace website, "I am from the Austrian village of Braunau, (also the birthplace of Hitler, but please don't hold that against me!" Then he tells of hearing Monk for the first time. Although his music fascinated me, I … [Read more...]