Archives for April 2006

While I was away in the tulip fields, On An Overgrown Path posted a piece on the late Michel Petrucciani. It includes a link to a thirty-eight-minute video about the pianist. In it, Petrucciani talks about his aversion to applause, his fear of death, his love of the piano. It's an important film. … [Read more...]

The most recent concert at The Seasons was by a Russian group I went to hear out of curiosity. I knew that the members of Trio Voronezh were classically trained at the conservatory in Voronezh, a city near the Don river 250 miles south of Moscow. I knew that they played instruments I had never … [Read more...]

The new Doug's Picks in the right column include CDs by Roland Kirk and Herb Geller. Kirk's is a live recording made in Hamburg in 1972. Geller lived in Hamburg then, as he does now. In a coincidence that I don't possess enough imagination to have made up, Geller attended Kirk's concert. He read … [Read more...]

No blogging for a couple of days. I'm off the see the tulips. You are invited to browse the Rifftides archive. You'll find the archive gateway in the right-hand column. Just click and you can travel back in time...but only as far as June 15, 2005, our launch date. … [Read more...]

Observe, please, that in the right column we have brand new Doug's Picks. They are three CDs by saxophonists who could hardly be less alike, a DVD to replicate a great night out, and a book that may make you wish you could drop back into a special time in San Francisco. Of course, it could be argued … [Read more...]

The brilliant pianist Kenny Drew, Jr., has reached the boiling point over the condition of black popular music in the United States. Here are two excerpts from his current essay on the All About Jazz website: ...when I first started studying music I was told that music had to consist of three … [Read more...]

The great football player, singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson was born on this day in 1898. Like legions of other Americans, he made the mistake in the 1930s of thinking that Communism had the solution to problems of inequality in the United States. He went to the Soviet Union to investigate … [Read more...]

In my report on the Johnny Mandel concert at the Jazz West Coast 3 festival last fall, I remarked on the exquisite performance by Pinky Winters of one of Mandel’s songs. Ms. Winters sang Dave Frishberg’s lyrics to Mandel’s “You Are There,” accompanied by only the composer at the piano. … [Read more...]

Paul Conley of KXJZ in Sacramento, California, writes: Hi Doug, If you're looking for some audio to add to your reflections on Jackie Mac, you might consider this short piece I did for the station. It draws from an interview originally recorded in 2001 and a feature produced in 2002. To hear it, … [Read more...]

You never know where, or in what language, Paul Desmond will turn up next. Here is a sample from a collection of Desmond’s most quoted bon mots, now translated into Spanish. Probé a practica unas pocas semanas y acabé tocando demasiado rápido. (I tried practicing for a couple of weeks and ended … [Read more...]

Among the many news columns about Jackie McLean the past few days, Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press hit a number of right notes in his appreciation. There was nothing in jazz like the sugar-free sound of alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, who died last week at his home in Hartford, Conn., at age … [Read more...]

There are no wrong notes on the piano, just better choices.—Thelonious Monk I played the wrong, wrong notes.—Thelonious Monk … [Read more...]

Doug, Jackie was raw but, man, he adored melody. He was lyrical yet never sold out (imagine a Jackie McLean and Strings LP!). How could he with that frantic, sharp, pants-on-fire sound? But he was no pocket Sonny Rollins. For my money, the best example of Jackie's work and energy level is Music From … [Read more...]

Doug, I was really saddened to hear about his passing. Huge inspiration to me as a young player. I'd toss the following into your list (see below). I've always had a preference for the records that were a little more angular and less Blue Note-boogalocentric. Bluesnik (includes great playing by … [Read more...]

Jackie McLean Jackie McLean died in Hartford, Connecticut on the last day of March. He was 74. When he was a teenager, McLean’s goal in life was to sound just like Charlie Parker on the alto saxophone. Despite his determination to be a Bird clone, he became one of the most recognizable of the … [Read more...]