Every once in a while, a reader asks how to find items in the Rifftides archive. Rummaging through the blog’s seven-year history, you may discover interesting things you missed. Here’s a way to get started. Scroll down to the “Older Posts” function at the bottom of the main page. Click on that command and it will take you to the previous 20 posts. Click on it again, you will see another 20, and so on back through the mists of time to the primitive beginnings of this blog in June of 2005.
There are two other ways to search Rifftides:
1. Scroll down to “Archives” in the right-hand column. Select the month and year you want to see.
2. Enter a name or term in the box under the artsjournalblog logo at the top of the right column and click on “Search.” I tried it with Count Basie and came up with 83 Rifftides items about Basie or mentioning him. Happy exploring.
Here’s a reward for paying attention to our little tutorial. Among web videos featuring two-piano performances by Basie and Oscar Peterson, this one is a rarity. It comes from a 1974 Peterson concert in Prague. The bassist is Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. The drummer is most likely Ed Thigpen. The video is grainy and unclear. The music is not.
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
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