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...]
Archives for September 25, 2006
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 The book is old with a message that's never out of date.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...]