Archives for January 2007

The lead story on the ArtsJournal.com main page concerns jazz education's role in music and culture at large. Here's the AJ tease, quoted from NewMusicBox.com: "How is it that jazz has become the vehicle for the resurgence of robust music programs in the schools while classical music, and its … [Read more...]

Jazz gets relatively little attention on commercial television, but one of the newscasts on WBBM-TV, the CBS-TV affiliate in Chicago, made an exception recently. It profiled Bob Koester and his Delmark Records label. The story focuses more on Chicago blues than on Delmark's jazz artists, but … [Read more...]

On Saturday, Michael Brecker succumbed to leukemia brought on by MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome), the bone marrow disorder that put him on the sidelines of music until recently. He was fifty-seven years old. The most admired of the legion of saxophonists that arose in the wake of John Coltrane, … [Read more...]

That is the headline on a newspaper article about arts web logs. Rifftides is the focus of the piece by Kim Nowacki, arts editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic. She also interviews Brooke Cresswell, conductor of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra; Dan Peters, proprietor of the Blue Begonia poetry blog; … [Read more...]

More than a year ago, we reported on the alliance between Václav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic and the pianist Emil Viklický. Klaus established a series of jazz concerts at Prague Castle, the Czech equivalent of the White House, and chose Viklický to launch it. To read about that … [Read more...]

The interaction between or among jazz soloists has often been described as like a conversation. A brilliant young man about whom I am trying to learn more -- his name, for instance -- has taken that simile literally, given it substance and put it on YouTube. Watch this, and smile your way into the … [Read more...]

You may remember the tenor saxophonist Jim Pepper for "Witchi-Tai-To," an American Indian peyote chant he learned from his Kaw grandfather. Pepper set it to music and it became a crossover hit. The song persists as a staple in the repertoires of pop and so-called world music groups on several … [Read more...]

In The New York Times, Ben Ratliff reports on Sunday night's memorial service for tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, at which a number of Redman's colleagues performed. The pianist Ethan Iverson and the bassist Reid Anderson, both of the trio the Bad Plus, with (Matt) Wilson on drums, got off a version … [Read more...]

In her blog, DevraDoWrite picks up the Erroll Garner thread, posting reminiscences of her husband, the ageless 94-year-old John Levy, who played bass on a Garner recording date in 1945. There were no parts to read on this session because Erroll, like many of the great musicians, didn't read or … [Read more...]

The Erroll Garner item on Rifftides the other day touched something in the readership. Comments are still rolling in. You'll find them by clicking on "Comments," at the end of the original post. This one from Hans C. Doerrscheidt in Germany included links: Thanks for the YouTube link of the great … [Read more...]

This is short notice, but Rifftides just received notification that there will be a memorial service this evening for the late tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman. Readers in or near New York City may wish to know. The service will be at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Peter's Church, Lexington Avenue and 54th … [Read more...]

Erroll Garner died thirty years ago, almost to the day. I don't know whether the National Public Radio station I listen to was aware of that, but the past few days during morning news programming, the producers cued up a few seconds of Garner's piano as transitions between local and national … [Read more...]

Trumpeter Marvin Stamm has put up a video page on his web site. It has clips from a concert by his quartet with pianist Bill Mays, bassist Rufus Reid (see the current DVD in Doug's Picks in the right column) and drummer Ed Soph. Guitarist John Abercrombie is guest soloist on one of the seven pieces … [Read more...]

There were good days with Charles, but there were some stormy days. His temper is well known. I used to make him cry simply by telling him how nasty he was. It's amazing how he could change, storming one minute like he was going to kill someone and blubbering with remorse the next. But he had … [Read more...]

This is some of what I wrote in a lengthy Jazz Times review more than three years ago when The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration was released as a CD. Together, the elder brothers are astonishing in their trumpet-soprano counterpoint flurries on "Nostaligic Impressions." Following Wynton's wry … [Read more...]

At the end of her slightly dyspeptic little essay on the exhorbitant cost of eating out, DevraDoWrite adds this reminder, which I heartily endorse. I should have posted it myself. ...if you are a jazz lover in New York with $5 and a free lunch hour on Wednesday, January 3rd - 1-2 PM, make your way … [Read more...]

Godoggone writes: Not sure "Zog" was the best possible caveman name for this particular topic. Google that and see what you get... That name I made up had a naggingly familiar ring to it. My apologies to King Zog's descendants and to Albanians everywhere. Strictly unintentional. … [Read more...]

From the Rifftides staff to all: Best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year (that is a link). … [Read more...]