The Christmas season is underway. This makes it official. Happy holidays … [Read more...]

Someone went overboard matching the color scheme of this video to the name of the tune, and the sound is distorted, but here is an exquisite 1962 version of "Blue in Green" by Bill Evans with Chuck Israels and Paul Motian. Be patient while the YouTube poster gets his commercial out of the way. There was a time when the big three television networks had programs that presented music of quality. CBS-TV's Camera 3, the original source of this clip, went out of business in 1980. Thanks to Evans … [Read more...]

Dave Brubeck is getting a lot of attention. With his 90th birthday three days away, he is the subject of performance reviews, articles and editorials in dozens of newspapers from The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and Britain's Guardian. His music is being played over the air to a degree unprecedented since the early 1960s, when "Take Five" was a popular hit. On National Public Radio, Terry Gross replays her 1999 Fresh Air interview with Brubeck. Viewers of … [Read more...]

Randy Weston, The Storyteller (Motéma). This is the latest chapter in the 84-year-old pianist's long-running love story about Africa. Weston's African Rhythms Sextet includes the great trombonist Benny Powell in one of his last recordings, alto saxophonist T.K. Blue, bassist Alex Blake, drummer Lewis Nash and conga specialist Neil Clarke. He made the album almost exactly a year ago in performance at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola in New York. With the rhythm section generating heat near combustion … [Read more...]

With Dave Brubeck's 90th birthday five days away, anticipation of the event is materializing in news stories, interviews, radio airplay, web tributes and accolades from colleagues and admirers. Marc Myers' piece in The Wall Street Journal includes this paragraph: Clean living, a happy marriage and global popularity have made Mr. Brubeck a media darling--and a target of envy. "Even in the '50s I'd hear critics and musicians say, 'Oh, Brubeck, he's different'--meaning separate from the rest," Mr. … [Read more...]

21 days until winter … [Read more...]

Woody Herman First Herd, December 10, 1945 Neil Hefti, arranger Woody Herman, vocal Sonny Berman, trumpet solo Bill Harris, trombone solo … [Read more...]

Brad Goode, Tight Like This (Delmark). During his Chicago days, Goode worked through his influences, notably Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown, into early individuality. He has a Gillespie moment during his muted solo on the exotic 1942 Xavier Cugat song "Nightingale," but it's a rare example of his playing a direct quote. Goode has serious fun exercising his trumpet virtuosity. Creativity and taste balance his technical skill so that his smears, swoops, glissandos, flawless interval leaps and … [Read more...]

An Occasional Series The tenor saxophonist recorded this masterpiece in 1943 with pianist Johnny Guarnieri, bassist Slam Stewart and drummer Sid Catlett. He had rejoined Count Basie in high spirits. They were to be dashed the following year when he was drafted into a depressing Army experience, but this is the buoyant pre-war Lester. Prez's final 12 bars made such an impression on Oscar Peterson that he almost never played "Sometimes I'm Happy" without quoting them at the end. Peterson was far … [Read more...]

Well, the way I play, I try not to be a 'repeater pencil', ya dig? Originality's the thing. You can have tone and technique and a lot of other things but without originality you ain't really nowhere. Gotta be original.—Lester Young When Lester plays, he almost seems to be singing; one can almost hear the words.—Billie Holiday In some ways Lester Young is the most complex rhythmically of any musician. He does some things which are just phenomenal.—Lee Konitz Anyone who doesn't … [Read more...]

It has become a Rifftides tradition to remember Paul Desmond's birthday. The 86th anniversary of his birth coincides with the American celebration of Thanksgiving, as did the 52nd, his last. For the occasion in 1976, Devra Hall cooked a turkey dinner for Desmond and her parents, Jim and Jane. She took the photograph that afternoon. Here's the story of the end of that part of the day, told by Devra in Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. "It was a very quiet dinner. Paul was … [Read more...]

Orrin Evans, Eric Revis, Nasheet Waits & Guests, Tarbaby: The End of Fear (Posi-tone). Pianist Evans, bassist Revis and drummer Waits comprise a leaderless or cooperative trio who live up to the album's subtitle. They are not afraid to go wacky, nearly unhinged, in two free pieces, "Heads"—featuring trumpeter Nicholas Payton at his most liberated and chancy—and "Tails," with the avant garde alto saxophonist Oliver Lake sitting in. Payton and Lake rein in their wildness for the … [Read more...]

Dave Brubeck's new pacemaker seems to be working. Here's a headline from this morning's Worcester (MA) Telegram-Gazette: Brubeck makes up-tempo return Ticker repaired, pianist keeps beat To read a review of Friday night's concert in Worcester, go here. We have found no explanation of why Chris Smith and Cody Cox were substituting for Michael Moore and Randy Jones, Brubeck's regular bassist and drummer. … [Read more...]

Pianist Jack Reilly's recital at the Johns Hopkins Medicine Center in Baltimore on November 9 paid musical tribute to the memory of the doctor who saved his life. The concert of Reilly's original work was recorded. To see and hear it, click here. Thanks to the folks at Johns Hopkins for providing the printed program. DESCRIPTION: " THE SILENCE of the HEART" 24 MINIATURES FOR PIANO Dedicated to the late Dr. Martin Abeloff BOOK ONE 1) C Major 7) E flat Major 2) … [Read more...]

Dave Brubeck's 90th birthday is on December 6. Observances are beginning. This weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra under music director William Schrickel will play a celebratory concert with three pieces by Brubeck. They include one of his first extended orchestral works, Elementals, and the U.S. premiere of an adaptation for solo violin and strings of "Sleep, Holy Infant" from La Fiesta de la Posada. Three others pieces on the program are by George Gershwin, … [Read more...]

Correspondence from Bill Kirchner, saxophonist, composer, arranger, teacher, author, broadcaster (does this guy sleep?): Recently, I taped my next one-hour show for the "Jazz From The Archives" series. Presented by the Institute of Jazz Studies, the series runs every Sunday on WBGO-FM (88.3). After graduating from North Texas State University and playing with the Stan Kenton and Woody Herman orchestras, trumpeter Marvin Stamm (b. 1939) settled in New York City in 1966. For more than two … [Read more...]

It happens now and then: I am tied up on deadline for an article that demands extensive research. The Rifftides staff reports that there is no stash of shelf material, a serious breach of preparedness. They will be reprimanded. In a life misspent in journalism I have been conditioned to find dead air and blank space unacceptable. That translates to discomfort when the blog goes unrefreshed. Fortunately, a solution arrived in the form of a fine video to which a friend alerted me. This is a … [Read more...]

This is neither the anniversary of Danny Barker's birth (January 13, 1909) nor of his death (March 13, 1994). I need no special occasion to write about Danny. He was born in New Orleans, where I served with him on the board of the original New Orleans JazzFest and was lucky enough to become his friend. No one has ever had a warmer, more genuine companion. Danny Barker with drummer Al Harewood at a New York memorial concert for Louis Armstrong in 1972 Largely because he reverted to banjo after he … [Read more...]

A couple of days ago, I called a company for technical support. A well-spoken young woman answered. She did not put me on hold, dump me into voice-mail hell, pass me along to a robot or connect me with someone in Bangladesh. In about three minutes, she analyzed the problem and provided a solution. At the end, she did not try to sign me up for an extended warranty, sell me more stuff or ask me to complete a survey. I know—you've called tech support. You find this hard to believe. It's … [Read more...]

I should have long since added Chris Albertson's Stomp Off blog to the Personal Jazz Sites roll under Other Places at the of the middle column. It is hereby added. For your first Albertson fix, I recommend that you take in his latest entry. It has to do with a jam session he recorded in Copenhagen in 1953 that included Art Farmer, Clifford Brown, Gigi Gryce, Jimmy Cleveland and others who were touring with Lionel Hampton's band, as well as several Danish musicians. Albertson (pictured) … [Read more...]