Archives for February 2012

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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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, … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [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 … [Read more...]