Sonny Rollins is seventy-seven years and three days old. I thought of acknowledging his birthday on Friday, but Rifftides traffic is down on weekends and I wanted to point more of you to his web site for previously unissued recordings of Rollins's work from 1956 with the Max Roach-Clifford Brown … [Read more...]
Archives for September 10, 2007
Ride, Red, Ride
Stumbling around the internet, I was pleased to find that Henry "Red" Allen's World On A String is still available on CD, as well it should be. A few years after the 1957 album appeared, the young trumpeter Don Ellis called Allen, "the most avant garde trumpet player in New York." Allen's slurs, … [Read more...]
Viewing Tip: “Hot Diggety Dam!”
That's the name of a piece Italian trumpeter and fluegelhornist Franco Ambrosetti's quartet played on a Swiss television program in 1977. With him were pianist Hal Galper (USA), bassist Dave Holland (UK) and drummer Daniel Humair (France). Galper accurately describes the performance as "burnin'." To … [Read more...]
Best Seller
It is a pleasure to announce that Libros Libertad has added a banner headline to the Poodie James page at the publisher's web site: Poodie James By Doug Ramsey LIBROS LIBERTAD'S BEST-SELLING BOOK! Thanks to all who made that possible. … [Read more...]
JazzWax
Marc Myers is doing good things on his new blog JazzWax. His most recent posting is about a listening session with fellow blogger Terry Teachout. Before that, he and Danny Bank tell the sad story of Billie Holiday's last recording session. To read both pieces, go here. … [Read more...]