The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers called this morning with the news that Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond is the winner of a 2006 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, my second. I am unable to tell you the names of the winners in other categories. ASCAP is waiting … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2006
And-A-One
A Rifftides reader wrote to say that he did not understand drummer Nick Martinis's quote in Charlie Shoemake's anecdote about swinging or not swinging. Martinis said to his bandmates....."Well cats, do we swing tonight or do we hide 'one'?" Perhaps there are other readers who don't get it. Here's an … [Read more...]
And-A-Two
Posting will be light, if at all, for the next few days. For one thing, the Rifftides staff will be employed in prepping and painting the larger of the two sheds at Rifftides world headquarters. For another, The Seasons Fall Festival is underway, there's a lot of jazz and classical music to be … [Read more...]
The One
Charlie Shoemake, the vibraharpist, leader and teacher, checks in with a story pertinent to the Rifftides discussion about swing and jazz values. Thought you would get a laugh out of a true anecdote that concerns the current topic in your column. 40 years (or so) ago I was playing a night at Dontes … [Read more...]
New Picks
In the right-hand column under Doug's Picks, we have three CDS, a DVD and a book. One of the CDs is old and up to date. The book is old with a message that's never out of date. … [Read more...]
CD
Diana Krall, From This Moment On (Verve). The pianist and vocalist returns to the mainstream with fine playing and singing on ten standards from the great American songbook and one by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Spare arrangements by Krall on four quartet tracks and John Clayton on seven with the … [Read more...]
CD
Charlie Barnet, Town Hall Concert (HEP). As the swing era wound down, Barnet was one of the leaders hoping to keep big bands alive by pleasing the dancers while accomodating bebop developments. He had the right combination of elements; his adaptation of Elllingtonia, a smattering of bop-oriented … [Read more...]
CD
The Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, In Progress (Pony Boy). Seattle seems to be breeding big bands. Cutler's is one of the best of the current crop. There's not a household name among the twenty-three musicians who appear in this stimulating collection of twelve originals and John Coltrane's "Dear Lord," … [Read more...]
DVD
Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse (RoseKing). This is the story of the club that became headquarters for music that blew a fresh wind through jazz in the 1950s when Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Shelly Manne and Bob Cooper were among the new stars of West Coast Jazz. Much of the story is told through … [Read more...]
Book
Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics). One of the Nobel prize winner's most clumsily written novels, it nonetheless carries a timeless warning about how a leader able to manipulate the citizenry could quickly erode democracy's fragile stability. The totalitarian takeover that Lewis … [Read more...]
Swing, Continued
Saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator Bill Kirchner writes from New Jersey: I've read all the comments with interest--fortunately, they all come from thoughtful persons. Otherwise, discussions like this can be insufferable. My favorite rejoinder in such discussions comes, I believe, from … [Read more...]
On Swing And The Groove
We have posted several new comments about Mel Narunsky's communique concerning what is and is not jazz, including a new one from Mr. Narunsky himself. You will find them here, appended to the original message. We also received a mini-essay from the bandleader, arranger, composer, trombonist, … [Read more...]
Mel And Friends
Reaction to Mel Narunsky's forthright declaration that it don't mean a thing if--well, you know--is posted following his manifesto. Frankly, I thought there would be more comment, and I hope that there will be. There is a fortunate byproduct of this discussion. I clicked on the link in the ID at the … [Read more...]
And Then There’s Ornette
Quite apart from nailing down a definition of swing, Ornette Coleman agreed to talk with Ben Ratliff of The New York Times about the nature of music itself. To his credit, Ratliff got the perenially unorthodox musician to emerge, even briefly, from the cloud of vagueness in which he has customarily … [Read more...]
Chico Hamilton
This is Chico Hamilton's eighty-fifth birthday. I spent some of it listening to his new recordings, admiring his taste and versatility and marveling at the undiminished energy he pours into his drum set, an instrument that challenges the physical resources of players a quarter his age. Like many … [Read more...]
Recent CDs, Part 5: Cryptogramophone
Bennie Maupin was on the New York jazz scene as a saxophonist and bass clarinetist in New York in the 1960s and '70s, most famously as a member of Miles Davis's Bitches Brew cast and of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi group. He worked off and on with Hancock for twenty years. In Penumbra … [Read more...]
Comment: …If It Ain’t Got That Swing
Rifftides reader Mel Narunsky writes regarding Recent CDs, Part 4: From a modern moldy fig I know I'm going to get a lot of flak from this, but as an old timer, let me be among the first to acknowledge that, with a few exceptions here and there, I am one of those who do not "accept that jazz … [Read more...]
Recent CDs, Part 4: Cryptogramophone
In its ninth year, the little Cryptogramophone label is attracting increasing attention for recordings on the forward edge of music, with good sound and imaginative packaging. Myra Melford and Nels Cline have new CDs on the label, both likely to attract listeners who accept that jazz values can … [Read more...]
Take Five Thousand
That may be a conservative estimate of the number of times Dave Brubeck has played "Take Five" since Paul Desmond's infectious tune became a massive hit forty-six years ago. The Brubeck Quartet's 2006 Newport Jazz Festival peformance is not the most recent; wherever Brubeck played last night, he … [Read more...]