Archives for August 2006

George Ziskind writes from New York: Good to have Kuhn in the air of late. And it reminds me of this: Steve has always been an adventurous player. Yet nothing I had previously heard him do prepared me for the time, around seven or eight years ago, when I was listening to his Dedication CD (Reservoir). I was in the first chorus of Like Someone in Love, specifically at bar 7, and no matter how many times I replayed that bar I got the same result: damn if the tempo wasn't slowing down there, almost … [Read more...]

Many Rifftides readers are themselves bloggers. Richard Carlson, the proprietor of JazzoLOG, called my attention to a fine piece about his memories of Maynard Ferguson. Here's a taste of it. Maynard stood out in front of that band like a cheerleader/drill sergeant somehow combined. He was constantly on the move to the rhythm. He must have been in a marching band around his home of Montreal when he was a kid, because he liked to tuck his horn under his arm and just march up there while the … [Read more...]

What do the Angel Orensanz Center on New York's Lower East Side; The Old Church in Portland, Oregon; the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven and The Seasons in Yakima, Washington, have in common? They are former places of worship born again as performance halls. My story in the Leisure & Arts pages of today's Wall Street Journal tells about a few of the dozens of such places. The acoustical properties and central locations of old sanctuaries often make them ideal concert halls, but converted … [Read more...]

Regarding the Steve Kuhn CD that will be issued next year on the Blue Note label, the Rifftides reader who calls himself drjazzphd writes: This is only supposed to be a one-off deal for the live date but I'm very pleased to see Blue Note taking an interest in such a fine pianist, who has lurked in the shadows for many years now. Also Blue Note will be releasing an album recorded two weeks ago at Iridium of the Charles Tolliver Big Band on the heels of the article in DownBeat a couple months … [Read more...]

It was my intention to spend most of yesterday auditioning a few of the CDs that lately have been pouring in here like Lake Pontchartrain emptying into New Orleans. But first, I thought, how about a nice morning mountain bike ride in Cowiche Canyon. At the bottom of that canyon northwest of Yakima is a three-mile trail on the bed of a railroad that was abandoned in 1984. It's a great place to see wildflowers and an assortment of birds and small animals, mostly cottontails and an occasional … [Read more...]

I just discovered by way of Nick Catalano that Steve Kuhn has signed a contract with Blue Note Records, putting him once again with a major jazz label, where he has always belonged. Among important pianists, Kuhn has received nowhere near the share of recognition he has earned. Catalano writes. To celebrate the event Kuhn was reunited with bandmates Ron Carter and Al Foster at Birdland earlier this month. The Steve Kuhn trio carved out an important slice of immortality when it was first formed … [Read more...]

Thanks for your wonderful appreciation of Maynard Ferguson. In many ways, Ferguson transcended jazz and big bands. His high-octane enthusiasm and optimism captured the spirit of an entire generation of post-war Americans who believed anything and everything was possible and that the only way to go was flat out. Despite Maynard's massive musical ego, he never made anyone feel badly and encouraged everyone he encountered to be better--as a person and as a musician. One of my favorite Maynard … [Read more...]

The obvious answer. I had a few out on Roulette Jazz through EMI Blue Note and they didn't sell and got deleted. That's what drove me to do the Mosaic set. Oddly enough, before this week's shocking news I was thinking about trying the Ferguson and Basie Birdland albums at some point next year. MC Mr. Cuscuna is the head of Mosaic Records. He also employs his reissue expertise at Blue Note. … [Read more...]

Nice piece Doug. I've linked it on The MF Trbute Page Forum, which is getting ten thousand times its usual traffic. I've been listening to MF since I was 15 (I'm only 47 now) and this is a big loss. What a complete musician, and what a gentleman. John Salmon … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Chris Harriott writes concerning the Sonny Rollins CD in the new set of Doug's Picks (right-hand column): Coincidentally, I've had Work Time in non stop rotation on my IPOD for the last 2 weeks or so. Can't get enough. … [Read more...]

A blog by the anonymous Dr. Jazz Ph.D. is worth perusing, if only for a couple of Michael Brecker video clips. One, from 1983, has the tenor saxophonist and a rhythm section that includes Niels Henning Orsted-Pedersen playing the fastest "Oleo" you're likely to hear this side of Johnny Griffin. The other was made at an outdoor festival in Switzerland in 1998 with his Brecker's own quartet, Joey Calderazzo on piano, James Genus on bass, and drummer Ralph Peterson. In it, Brecker manages to … [Read more...]

CBS Radio News called this morning and asked me to talk about Maynard Ferguson. That's how I learned that Ferguson died last night in Ventura, California, just down the road from his home in Ojai. He was seventy-eight. He had an abdominal infection that shut down his liver and kidneys. The phenomonal trumpeter had been performing on tour with his band, Big Bop Nouveau, when he became ill and went to the hospital. Before him lay a full schedule of performances--an indicator of the almost … [Read more...]

Choosing a new group of Doug's Picks is always a challenge and a pleasant chore. You will find the latest recommendations in the right-hand column. As always, your comments are welcome and encouraged. The e-mail address is also to your right. … [Read more...]

The program is mostly set for the concert Dan Levinson and Randy Sandke are organizing to benefit the author and cornetist Dick Sudhalter. For details about Dick's medical predicament, the effort by many of his friends to help him, how you can get tickets and how you can lighten his overwhelming burden of medical costs, go here. The quality and range of musicians who have volunteered their services constitute a testimonial to the respect and affection Richard M. Sudhalter has earned in the jazz … [Read more...]

The other day, I sent DevraDoWrite a note about one of her postings. She used my message--that's how things work in the blogosphere--and wrote: In response to my mention of the Army's PsyOps division having used music as a weapon, Mr.Rifftides sent this message: I remember that a few years ago there was quite a ruckus about the high school principal who punished his misbehaving inner-city students by making them listen to Frank Sinatra recordings. It may have been Chicago. If I turn up details, … [Read more...]

The preceding item about using good music as punishment has an unintended connection to a piece in one of Gene Lees' latest JazzLetters. With Gene's permission, here it is. TORTURE Kenny Drew's angst over the state of popular music put me in mind of a news story that came out about a year ago. The Associated Press carried a report on a U.S. military prison near Kabul in Afghanistan that specialized in torturing prisoners. The Human Rights Watch group, based in New York City, after interviews … [Read more...]

To provide harmonic guidance, bands in early jazz, swing and bebop included banjos, guitars or pianos. There were exceptions, notably some of the New Orleans bands that rode in the beds of trucks or marched for funerals and parades, That practice continues with outfits as traditional as the Onward and Olympia brass bands and as up to date as the Dirty Dozen. In general, though, after 1930, as jazz became more and more a soloist's art, players depended on pianists or guitarists to supply the … [Read more...]

In the notes for Bill Evans: The Secret Sessions, I observed of certain Free Jazz or New Thing players, The movement did attract a fair number of poseurs enchanted by the idea of playing music without having to know anything about it. Today, most of them are otherwise employed. At least, they had instruments. The blogger known as Shrinkucci, who is a drummer and a psychologist, posts an interesting story about a young man who, because he wants to be, believes himself to be a great drummer. To … [Read more...]

When you begin to teach jazz, the most dangerous thing is that you tend to teach style...I had eleven piano students, and I would say eight of them didn't even want to know about chords or anything - they didn't even want to do anything that anybody had ever done, because they didn't want to be imitators. Well, of course, this is pretty naive...but nevertheless it does bring to light the fact that if you're going to try to teach jazz...you must abstract the principles of music which have nothing … [Read more...]

A nice appreciation of Evans. Is Monk really sui generis? I think there is a second piano tradition born of the Harlem pianists like James P. Johnson, and it runs to Duke and then to Monk, and appears in amalgamated form with the other tradition in folks like Elmo Hope and Barry Harris. And there may be one exception to your observation about styles not set before 1960 developing in the shadow of Kind of Blue. I think Jackie McLean had a distinct style before and after Kind of Blue. Frankly, I … [Read more...]

I rarely pass along promotional announcements, but this one is too intriguing not to deserve an exception. STANLEY CROUCH, GEORGE AVAKIAN AND MICHAEL JAMES WITH CHRISTOPHER LYDON TONIGHT AT 7 PM (EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME) TO DISCUSS DUKE ELLINGTON, NEWPORT JAZZ AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY On Open Source On WGBH 89.7 Open Source airs Monday through Thursday from 7pm-8 pm on WGBH 89.7 and streams at wgbh.org/listen On July 7, 1956, Duke Ellington played the Newport Jazz Festival. Paul Gonsalves soloed … [Read more...]