Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Archives for 2006

Buck O’Neil

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I've seen men lose 50 years in just a few hours. Baseball is better than sex. It is better than music, although I do believe jazz comes in a close second. It does fill you up. --John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil, Jr. (1911-2006) Mr. O'Neil died last Friday at 94. He was a star of the Kansas City Monarchs … [Read more...]

Mark Your Listening Calendar

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Next weekend, Jim Wilke will broadcast the first half of the Bill Mays concert melding jazz and classical music. Jim recorded the concert at The Seasons for his Jazz Northwest. Part 1 will air exclusively on Tacoma/Seattle's KPLU 88.5 on Sunday, October 15 at 1 pm Pacific Daylight Time. Cellist … [Read more...]

Correspondence: On Junior Mance

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It is hardly a secret that some of the best large jazz aggregations in the world operate under the auspices of the United States military. One index to the excellence of the Air Force's Airmen Of Note and the U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble is the number of major civilian jazz soloists who have … [Read more...]

Gonsalves In Cranston

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Last month's Paul Gonsalves posting continues to stimulate recollections by Rifftides readers who admired the Duke Ellington tenor saxophonist. Here is another reminiscence, from a man who heard the band when neither Ellington nor Gonsalves had long to live. I appreciate your piece on Paul … [Read more...]

Compatible Quotes

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What is music to you? What would you be without music? Music is everything. Nature is music (cicadas in the tropical night). The sea is music, the wind is music. The rain drumming on the roof and the storm raging in the sky are music. Music is the oldest entity. The scope of music is immense and … [Read more...]

Shout

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The Fall Festival at The Seasons ended on Saturday night with a shout. In the second of two concerts by the Bill Mays Trio, the focus was primarily on themes from classical music. The string section of the Finisterra Trio integrated with the Mays group on several pieces. Following two days of … [Read more...]

YouTube Examined

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Many Rifftides readers check in regularly with Terry Teachout's indispensable artsjournal.com blog About Last Night. You may also read him in The Wall Street Journal, where Terry's Sightings column over the weekend concerned the economic, ethical, commercial and cultural facets of a phenomenon … [Read more...]

Deems Taylor 2

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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 … [Read more...]

And-A-One

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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 … [Read more...]

And-A-Two

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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 … [Read more...]

The One

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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 … [Read more...]

New Picks

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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...]

CD

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Diana Krall, From This Moment On (Verve). The pianist and vocalist returns to the mainstream with fine playing and singing on ten standards from the great American songbook and one by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Spare arrangements by Krall on four quartet tracks and John Clayton on seven with the … [Read more...]

CD

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Charlie Barnet, Town Hall Concert (HEP). As the swing era wound down, Barnet was one of the leaders hoping to keep big bands alive by pleasing the dancers while accomodating bebop developments. He had the right combination of elements; his adaptation of Elllingtonia, a smattering of bop-oriented … [Read more...]

CD

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The Jim Cutler Jazz Orchestra, In Progress (Pony Boy). Seattle seems to be breeding big bands. Cutler's is one of the best of the current crop. There's not a household name among the twenty-three musicians who appear in this stimulating collection of twelve originals and John Coltrane's "Dear Lord," … [Read more...]

DVD

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Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse (RoseKing). This is the story of the club that became headquarters for music that blew a fresh wind through jazz in the 1950s when Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Shelly Manne and Bob Cooper were among the new stars of West Coast Jazz. Much of the story is told through … [Read more...]

Book

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Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics). One of the Nobel prize winner's most clumsily written novels, it nonetheless carries a timeless warning about how a leader able to manipulate the citizenry could quickly erode democracy's fragile stability. The totalitarian takeover that Lewis … [Read more...]

Swing, Continued

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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 … [Read more...]

On Swing And The Groove

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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, … [Read more...]