Tomorrow, as you marinate your hot dogs and chill your beer in preparation for the Fourth of July, you have the opportunity to be entertained by the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra performing classic Americana. Here is the announcement from the SRJO and Jim Wilke: With Bill Ramsay in charge, this medium-sized unit of the SRJO recently came over the mountains and played a concert at The Seasons, three miles from Rifftides world headquarters. It was superb. On the off chance that … [Read more...]

Journalism is an “other matter” (see the subtitle of the blog) that I think about constantly but write about too seldom. The news business has occupied most of my working life. Seeing it change for the worse is more than a matter of professional interest. The freedom and quality of the flow of information to the public through the news has a profound effect on the state of the democracy. It always has had. Thomas Jefferson was under frequent attack by newspapers, but this is what he said … [Read more...]

Lena Horne died a little more than a year ago. Yesterday, she would have been 94. Ms. Horne's varied gifts launched her into a career as a massively successful general entertainer. But her jazz roots went deep, and she never forgot where she came from, as she demonstrated in this performance of her most famous song. The YouTube statistics say that a quarter of a million people have watched this. That's not enough. … [Read more...]