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...]
Archives for August 2006
Elsewhere In The Blogosphere
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...]
Secular Conversion
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...]
Comment: Kuhn Followup
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...]
Other Matters: Give Me A Brake
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...]
Steve Kuhn
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...]
Comment: Ferguson At The Changing Of The Guard
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...]
Michael Cuscuna Responds
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...]
Comment: Ferguson
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...]
Comment: Nonstop Rollins
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...]
Blog Watch
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...]
Maynard Ferguson
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...]
CD
Sonny Rollins, Work Time (Prestige). This was recorded more than fifty years ago. It is forever new. At twenty-six, Rollins was full of energy and bursting with ideas. I have never listened to him soar through "There's No Business Like Show Business" and Billy Strayhorn's "Raincheck" without grinning. Max Roach, high on his partnership with Clifford Brown, was at his apogee of drumming. Ray Bryant's gorgeous piano solo on "There Are Such Things" is his best ballad playing on record. The bassist, … [Read more...]
CD
Brian Lynch, 24/7 (Nagel Heyer). I just caught up with this 2002 album. Lynch teams his trumpet with Miguel Zenon's alto saxophone. The two of them groove with a fine rhythm section of pianist Rick Germanson, bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Neal Smith. Everyone plays well on the originals by band members, but the prize tracks are Jerome Kern's "Nobody Else but Me" Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" and Ellington's barely-known ballad "Azalea." In the Kern, Lynch, using a tight mute, is … [Read more...]
CD
András Schiff, Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Volume II, op. 10 and 13 (ECM). If you are a jazz listener who doesn't cotton to what is often categorized as "classical" music, you have my sympathy because you won't be hearing this brilliant pianist in the second CD of his projected series of the Beethoven sonatas. Consider relenting. Even you can probably relate to the c-minor, the famous "Pathetique," but Schiff's magic with the slow movement of the D-major could just convert you entirely. Lucky you. … [Read more...]
DVD
Jazz Shots From The East Coast, Vols. 1-3, Jazz Shots from the West Coast, Vols. 1-3 (EforFilms). The music on these discs is almost uniformly good. The video ranges from TV quality to grainy film, and no wonder; some of these clips are ancient soundies. There are great rewards here, but be warned: the producers provide no information beyond the names of the leaders and the tunes, unless it was superimposed on the original clip. No dates. No sidemen identification. Who was that marvelous alto … [Read more...]
Book
Vivian Perlis and Libby Van Cleve, Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington (Yale). This is the book that took first place over Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond in the Independent Publishers awards competition. But, no hard feelings, only gratitude for a hefty volume that presents oral history in a readable--and listenable--form. The book includes two CDs with, in many cases, the voices of the composers. Aaron Copland: "Music needn't be so high-falutin' that it becomes … [Read more...]
The New Picks Are Here
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...]
Sudhalter’s Concert
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...]