If you are yearning for Christmas music, it isn’t hard to find. Walk into a supermarket, park at a service station pump or step into an elevator. Whether the stuff piped into commercial establishments suits your taste is beside the point; they give you no choice. This weekend, Jim Wilke won’t give you a choice, either, but considering the proclivities of Rifftides readers, his selections are more likely to meet your criteria than those of the lowest-common-denominator marketers who program … [Read more...]

The vacation is over. I’m getting back into some kind of routine, if not yet what could be called a groove. Before that happens, I’m hitting the road again to spend a bit of time with my brother, who is less than well. In the meantime, here’s a followup to a post that attracted considerable comment. The item about Paul Desmond’s 88th birthday included a link to a track called “Pilgrim’s Progress” from a 1956 Dave Brubeck Quartet concert recording. The piece is a close relative … [Read more...]