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...]

Visits to New York won’t be the same now that the Algonquin Hotel has closed the Oak Room. Since Ben Bodne sold the hotel in 1987, it has changed hands several times and is now operated by the Marriott chain as one of its high-end properties. With each change, another layer of the Algonquin’s mystique seems to evaporate. The Oak Room existed as an elegant dining and listening post for only 32 years of the hotel’s 110-year history, but from its opening night it was one of the most important … [Read more...]

As nearly everyone in the United States knows, the New York Giants just beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. The score was 21 to 17. Rifftides readers elsewhere may not understand why that is significant. The Super Bowl is the culmination of the professional football season. American football is not to be confused with what most of the world calls football, which is soccer or rugby. Here in the US, a great deal is made of this ultimate contest in the sport. This was the 46th such … [Read more...]

Toward the end of last summer, vibraphonist Ed Saindon sent a message alerting me to video of a duo concert he and fellow vibist Joe Locke had just played at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Saindon has been a professor at Berklee since 1975. I made a mental note to post one of their collaborations. As mental notes have a way of doing, it sank into the murky depths, where it lurked until it found its way to the surface this morning. So, belatedly, here are Saindon and Locke. They play … [Read more...]

There is good news today for a premier west coast jazz listening establishment. Architect Frank Gehry, creator of some of the most dramatic buildings in the world, is donating his services to the Jazz Bakery. The Los Angeles performance hall lost its lease in 2009 and has functioned in an assortment of rented or donated spaces while it looked for a new site. Now, it has found one on a sliver of land not far from its former Culver City home. Gehry designed the home of the Los Angeles … [Read more...]