The Rifftides staff could think of no more appropriate way to observe the holiday than with Earl "Fathah" Hines (1903-1983). Here he is at the Berlin Piano Jazz Workshop in 1965 with Niels Henning Ørsted-Pedersen on bass and an unidentified drummer who looks like Alan Dawson. The piece is Eubie Blake's "Memories of You," one of Hines' favorites for decades. At the Berlin workshop, Hines was the leadoff man in a blues-in-C relay, followed by Teddy Wilson, John Lewis, Lennie Tristano, Bill Evans … [Read more...]

The Rifftides blogroll, known as Other Places, has been a hodge-podge. The staff finally slumped into action and arranged it into categories. We added a few entries and deleted some that died or became inactive. It's a work in progress, but at least it's easier to navigate now. Oh, you want to know where it is. It's at the end of the middle column. … [Read more...]