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...]
Archives for September 21, 2006
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...]