Under Doug's Picks in the right column, and for a time in the main column, you will find the Rifftides staff's newest recommendations for listening, viewing and reading. This time around: a big box of mainstream classics, two fine and rather different pianists, Monk alone, and the charm and humor of … [Read more...]
Archives for May 11, 2012
CD: Felsted Mainstream
The Complete Stanley Dance Felsted “Mainstream Jazz†Recordings 1958-1959 (Fresh Sound) This nine-CD treasure chest contains dozens of the finest mainstream artists from a golden era. Stanley Dance, who applied the term mainstream to jazz, supervised the sessions for the British Felsted … [Read more...]
CD: Brad Mehldau Trio
Brad Mehldau Trio, Ode (Nonesuch) Mehldau has recorded lately as solo pianist, in duets with classical mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie Van Otter and with a large orchestra. Bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard join him in a stimulating return to trio playing. They are attuned to the pianist … [Read more...]
CD: Mike Longo
Mike Longo, To My Surprise: Trio + 2 (CAP The trio is pianist Longo, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Lewis Nash— a formidable New York rhythm section. With the addition on half the tracks of trumpeter Jimmy Owens and tenor saxophonist Lance Bryant, Longo takes the quintet through classic … [Read more...]
DVD: Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk Live in France 1969 (Jazz Icons) The video of Monk alone at the piano in a Paris studio is the jewel of the fifth Jazz Icons box set that many feared would not come. Taped with visual simplicity and excellent sound, he plays 12 pieces, all of them his compositions but “Don’t … [Read more...]
Book: Timme Rosenkrantz
Timme Rosenkrantz, Fradley Hamilton Garner, Harlem Jazz Adventures: A European Baron’s Memoir, 1934-1969 Timme Rosenkrantz (1911–1969) had royal Danish blood, but no royal pretensions, and when he came to the US in 1934, his garrulous charm made him fit right in. What attracted him here was … [Read more...]