MARSALIS AND CALDERAZZO Parts of Brandford Marsalis’s and Joey Calderazzo’s Sunday concert of saxophone-piano duets suggested the atmosphere of a 19th century recital somewhere in middle Europe. The beauty of Calderazzo’s “La Valse Kendall,” Marsalis’s “The Bard Lachrymose” and the short “Die Trauernde” of Brahms encouraged quiet reflection. These are jazz musicians, however—two of the most adventuresome—and a complete afternoon of stately salon music wasn’t in … [Read more...]

TIRTHA In music, as in much else, Portland welcomes the eclectic and the exotic. Saturday, the ninth day of the Portland Jazz Festival gave listeners much to welcome at the Crystal ballroom. In that bastion of eclecticism on the edge of the Pearl District, Vijay Iyer, an American pianist of Indian heritage, joined with Prasanna, a South Indian guitarist, and Nitin Mitta, a tabla player whose background is in classical music of North India. They call their group Tirtha, which translates as … [Read more...]

Events are packed tightly, often simultaneously, in the schedule of the Portland Jazz Festival. If a listener selects one performance, others—sometimes several—must go by the wayside. Missing Roy Haynes did not seem an option. Three weeks short of his 87th birthday, on Friday evening the drummer played, danced, kibitzed and kidded with his Fountain Of Youth band. Even friskier and fuller of wry fun than usual, Haynes played the leader as MC. At the Newmark Theater, he engaged the … [Read more...]

More than two decades ago in Paris, Dee Dee Bridgewater began to make Billie Holiday’s music and mystique a part of herself. In the years since, she has expanded, refined and intensified her Holiday role while firmly establishing her own persona. Bridgewater’s tribute to Lady Day filled the Newmark Theater in downtown Portland last night. She demonstrated to the Portland Jazz Fesival audience that she is capable of an uncanny Holiday impression. She briefly employed it to comic effect as a … [Read more...]

(Portland, Oregon) The Portland Jazz Festival’s two-week extravaganza has been filling this Columbia River city with music since February 17. For the duration, concert halls, restaurants, hotel lounges and Portland’s flourishing year-‘round jazz clubs ring with music. Concerts, seminars, workshops and jam sessions run from shortly after dawn until the wee hours. To see the schedule, go here. Dedicated festival pass holders who have attended nearly everything tell me that highlights in the … [Read more...]

Tomorrow, the Rifftides staff is headed south, then west through the magnificent Columbia River Gorge to Portland, Oregon, one of my favorite former hometowns. The occasion is the Portland Jazz Festival. As usual, PDX Jazz is packed with far more music than anyone can take in. I will try to choose carefully and carve out enough time to blog about some of what I hear. My preliminary list includes Roy Haynes, Bill Frisell, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Chuck Israels and Vijay Iyer, among others. It appears … [Read more...]

This wraps up discussion of the albums I voted for in the 2011 Rhapsody critics poll. The Complete 1932-40 Brunswick, Columbia and Master Recordings of Duke Ellington And His Famous Orchestra (Mosaic) This magnificently produced and remastered set of 11 CDs covers the Ellington era from roughly the end of his Cotton Club years to the beginning of what has come to be called the Blanton-Webster band. As Steven Lasker notes at the end of his invaluable essay for this set, Duke … [Read more...]

Today is Presidents Day in the United States. It falls between the birthdays of two of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and George Washington (February 22). Many years ago, there was a movement in the Congress to consolidate the two observances into one holiday that would honor all US presidents. The effort never resulted in an official national holiday, but department stores and automobile dealerships liked the idea so much that they declared it a holiday and celebrate it … [Read more...]

Toward evening yesterday, we heard a raucous disturbance among the flock of blue jays occupying a blue spruce at the edge of the yard. We looked out to find the jays dive bombing a row of arbor vitae. About halfway up one of the shrubs was what we later concluded was a western screech owl. It wasn’t screeching, just peering out of its refuge looking unconcerned and, of course, wise. Owls are so infrequent in our neighborhood that I took a picture through the window with an inadequate … [Read more...]

Correspondence Rifftides reader George McCord writes: ..I was wondering..I read that Brubeck put in a contract that whilst Desmond was playing with the group he could not record with another piano player...I find that hard to believe.. Brubeck and Desmond had no written contract. They had a handshake agreement throughout the life of the quartet. As a practical matter, they concluded that if Desmond recorded with another pianist, it would confuse matters. After the quartet disbanded, Desmond … [Read more...]

Researching Thelonious Monk’s inspirations and examples, the Canadian composer and musicologist Andrew Homzy has turned up a connection that may seem unlikely—until you hear the evidence. “It has been well documented,” Homzy wrote a group of fellow jazz researchers yesterday, “that Monk was inspired by Mary Lou William's ‘Walkin' And Swingin'’ (‘Rhythm-a-ning’) and John Kirby's ‘Pastel Blue’ (‘Blue Monk’). 

This morning, I discovered that Bob Zurke's … [Read more...]

In the right column under Doug's Picks, (and, for a time, directly below) please find recommendations of CDs by a trumpeter-arranger, an uncategorizable singer and a drummer who composes and plays piano. We also call your attention to a DVD meant to instruct—it certainly does that—and ends up entertaining. A new book pick will be along soon. … [Read more...]

Psst, hey Bud, c'mere a minute. Wanna play like Tom Harrell? (that’s my Sheldon Leonard impression). All you gotta do is practice, then you’ll be able to play the blues in all 12 keys without missing a beat. (It helps to have a pianist who can play the blues in all 12 keys.) Then you’ll sound like this: Well, maybe not exactly like that. Harrell was assisted by Jamie Aebersold, who in his mercantile life runs a play-along empire. Thanks to Angela Harrell for letting us know … [Read more...]

In 1981, Art Pepper sat in with Jimmy Witherspoon at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California. Their acquaintance went back to the early 1950s when the Central Avenue jazz scene in Los Angeles was thriving. Pepper died the following year at the age of 56, Witherspoon in 1997 at 77. … [Read more...]

This nearly completes reviews of albums I voted for in the Rhapsody jazz critics poll as 2011’s best. The Tierney Sutton Band, American Road (BFM) Sutton and her band apply their musicianship, intensity and camaraderie to a dozen American songs. The pieces range across traditional music (“Oh Shenandoah/The Water is Wide,” “Wayfaring Stranger,” “Amazing Grace”); pop (“On Broadway,” “Tenderly”); songs from the theater (four by Bernstein, three by Gershwin, one by … [Read more...]

I voted for these albums in the recent Rhapsody jazz critics poll and wrote a feature story about one of them, but have not previously reviewed them. Jan Lundgren, Chuck Berghofer, Joe La Barbera: Together Again…At The Jazz Bakery (Fresh Sound) In a recent Wall Street Journal article, I concentrated on the surprise discovery and audio rescue of the recording that resulted in this CD by pianist Lundgren, bassist Berghofer and drummer La Barbara. Toward the end of the piece, I wrote, … [Read more...]