Archives for September 2006

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers called this morning with the news that Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond is the winner of a 2006 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, my second. I am unable to tell you the names of the winners in other categories. ASCAP is waiting to make an announcement until all of them have been notified. I'll give you a report when that happens. What a lovely day. ASCAP called, and we finished painting the shed. The first Deems Taylor, in … [Read more...]

A Rifftides reader wrote to say that he did not understand drummer Nick Martinis's quote in Charlie Shoemake's anecdote about swinging or not swinging. Martinis said to his bandmates....."Well cats, do we swing tonight or do we hide 'one'?" Perhaps there are other readers who don't get it. Here's an oversimplified explanation. "One" is the first beat of the measure. A leader is likely to begin counting off in half time--"One, two," then double the time to the tempo he wants--"One, two, three, … [Read more...]

Posting will be light, if at all, for the next few days. For one thing, the Rifftides staff will be employed in prepping and painting the larger of the two sheds at Rifftides world headquarters. For another, The Seasons Fall Festival is underway, there's a lot of jazz and classical music to be heard, and I've been pressed into service to read a few short Carl Sandburg poems when The Bill Mays Trio and the Finesterra Trio collaborate. Among other joint efforts, they will combine Charlie Parker … [Read more...]

Charlie Shoemake, the vibraharpist, leader and teacher, checks in with a story pertinent to the Rifftides discussion about swing and jazz values. Thought you would get a laugh out of a true anecdote that concerns the current topic in your column. 40 years (or so) ago I was playing a night at Dontes in North Hollywood with the guitarist Ron Anthony. (George Shearing, Frank Sinatra). In the group that night was a drummer named Nick Martinis (member of Pete Jollys' trio for many years among other … [Read more...]

In the right-hand column under Doug's Picks, we have three CDS, a DVD and a book. One of the CDs is old and up to date. The book is old with a message that's never out of date. … [Read more...]

Saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator Bill Kirchner writes from New Jersey: I've read all the comments with interest--fortunately, they all come from thoughtful persons. Otherwise, discussions like this can be insufferable. My favorite rejoinder in such discussions comes, I believe, from drummer Paul Wertico: "It don't mean a thing if all it does is swing." I can think of some truly stupid music I've heard that swings quite well. The moral is that jazz--and all good music--needs to … [Read more...]

We have posted several new comments about Mel Narunsky's communique concerning what is and is not jazz, including a new one from Mr. Narunsky himself. You will find them here, appended to the original message. We also received a mini-essay from the bandleader, arranger, composer, trombonist, vocalist and libationologist Eric Felten, who has given the matter considerable thought. Here is Mr. Felten's meditation on the groove: The question of swinging, and whether it can coexist with a post-modern … [Read more...]

Reaction to Mel Narunsky's forthright declaration that it don't mean a thing if--well, you know--is posted following his manifesto. Frankly, I thought there would be more comment, and I hope that there will be. There is a fortunate byproduct of this discussion. I clicked on the link in the ID at the end of DJA's pithy comment and found that DJA is Darcy James Argue, a young composer, arranger and leader of an eighteen-piece band in New York. Argue is drawing praise from Bob Brookmeyer and … [Read more...]

Quite apart from nailing down a definition of swing, Ornette Coleman agreed to talk with Ben Ratliff of The New York Times about the nature of music itself. To his credit, Ratliff got the perenially unorthodox musician to emerge, even briefly, from the cloud of vagueness in which he has customarily hidden from attempts to get him to be specific about art in general, and his in particular. He mentioned to Ratliff his early saxophone influence, Charlie Parker. With regard to his Parker worship, he … [Read more...]

This is Chico Hamilton's eighty-fifth birthday. I spent some of it listening to his new recordings, admiring his taste and versatility and marveling at the undiminished energy he pours into his drum set, an instrument that challenges the physical resources of players a quarter his age. Like many listeners, I first knew of Hamilton when the Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker, Carson Smith and Hamilton became an overnight phenomenon in late 1952. But his experience goes back to the beginning … [Read more...]

Bennie Maupin was on the New York jazz scene as a saxophonist and bass clarinetist in New York in the 1960s and '70s, most famously as a member of Miles Davis's Bitches Brew cast and of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi group. He worked off and on with Hancock for twenty years. In Penumbra (Cryptogramophone), he nods briefly toward those jazz fusion days, but the loveliest music on the CD is in the Castor and Pollux interrelationship of Maupin on bass clarinet and bassist Darek Oles. The highlight is … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Mel Narunsky writes regarding Recent CDs, Part 4: From a modern moldy fig I know I'm going to get a lot of flak from this, but as an old timer, let me be among the first to acknowledge that, with a few exceptions here and there, I am one of those who do not "accept that jazz values can exist apart from standard song forms and harmony, and without being tied to a steady 4/4 pulse" - the exceptions mainly being some new recordings from the older, familiar musicians - many of … [Read more...]

In its ninth year, the little Cryptogramophone label is attracting increasing attention for recordings on the forward edge of music, with good sound and imaginative packaging. Myra Melford and Nels Cline have new CDs on the label, both likely to attract listeners who accept that jazz values can exist apart from standard song forms and harmony, and without being tied to a steady 4/4 pulse. Myra Melford In The Image of Your Body, Melford continues her fascination with music of India. A fearless … [Read more...]

That may be a conservative estimate of the number of times Dave Brubeck has played "Take Five" since Paul Desmond's infectious tune became a massive hit forty-six years ago. The Brubeck Quartet's 2006 Newport Jazz Festival peformance is not the most recent; wherever Brubeck played last night, he played "Take Five." But in July the cameras were rolling, or whatever digital cameras do (dig?) at Newport and caught a jovial 85-year-old leader and his band in good form and a beautiful setting. Notice … [Read more...]