Vibraharpist, composer, teacher and entrepeneur Charlie Shoemake writes from Cambria, California: Regarding a recent column of yours about the shrinking audience for jazz, I'm happy to report that our concert series here in Cambria is now in its sixteenth year and though we broke an attendance record last year, this year is even stronger with sold-out crowds for almost every event. (Still about thirty Sundays a year). Of course the first four years were in the red and I'm sure that there are no … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2007
CD: Cannonball Adderley
The Cannonball Adderley Quintet In San Francisco (Riverside). This is the 1959 recording that made Adderley and his band famous and the Riverside label a stable enterprise. It is one of five albums inititating a new series of recordings overseen by Orrin Keepnews, now well into his second half-century as a leading jazz producer. It includes previously unissued takes of "You Got It!" and of "This Here," the hit indelibly associated with Adderley. If you have never discovered the excitement and … [Read more...]
New Picks
In the adjoining column, you will find five new Doug's Picks; three CDs, a DVD and a book. A long time ago, we eliminated the food category. No one noticed, and it's not coming back. As for the promise of more reviews today, well, the Picks are reviews. First thing in the morning, I'm hopping with both feet into a deadline assignment. See you on the other side. … [Read more...]
CD: Jack Reilly
Jack Reilly, Pure Passion (Unichrom). In his mid-seventies, Reilly continues on his independent way as a pianist inspired by many predecessors but shaped by his own expansive harmonic vision. In several of his CDs, I have heard no more ravishing expression of that vision than in his radical, utterly gorgeous, reharmonization of the famous Dizzy Gillespie coda to Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight." His "Das Fryderyk" reinforces my conviction that if Chopin had been born fifty years later, he … [Read more...]
CD: John Stowell
John Stowell, Swan Tones, Volume 1 (Soloway). One of the pleasures of the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival last month was hearing the guitarist John Stowell in several contexts including concerts, workshops and jam sessions. A free spirit, Stowell lives in Portland, Oregon, but mostly makes his living on the road. The road takes him to Europe, Asia and all parts of the United States. He paused long enough in Portland to record this solo album on a new guitar called, because of its long … [Read more...]
DVD: Bill Mays
Bill Mays Trio Live At WVIA (Bill Mays Music). In their years as one of the few firmly established working trios in the upper ranks of jazz, pianist Mays, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson have developed uncanny empathy. Here, Mays largely concentrates on his compositions. He makes an exception with an adventurous version of "Darn That Dream." From time to time, he goes outside by going inside the piano, using the strings as a harp. Wilson's ingenuity with rhythm and unusual percussion … [Read more...]
Book: Willis Conover
Terence M. Ripmaster, Willis Conover: Broadcasting Jazz To The World (iUniverse). Rifftides readers may remember a series of postings about Conover that began with this one. Through his Voice Of America broadcasts, Conover practiced cultural diplomacy that made friends for the United States during one of the most perilous periods of its existence, the Cold War. He accomplished his mission without politics, with dignity, with understatement and taste. His country rewarded him with ingratitude … [Read more...]
A Slight Pause
I'll be back tomorrow, probably, with more reviews. Something came up. In the meantime, please browse the Rifftides archive, conveniently linked in the right-hand column. The Doug's Picks recommendations have an archive all of their own. Simply click on the world "More" at the end of the current picks. … [Read more...]
Compatible Quotes
ACCORDION, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin. --Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary A gentleman is one who knows how to play the accordion but refrains from doing so. --attributed to Mark Twain (and many others) I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion. --Nicholas Cage … [Read more...]
Recent CDs: Delfeayo Marsalis
Delfeayo Marsalis and his quintet are kicking off a national tour this weekend with a concert at The Seasons. Realizing that I was going to hear Marsalis brother number three in person for the first time, I listened to his new CD, Minions Dominion, which has come in for considerable attention. From the relatively little I had heard of him, I was predisposed to the warmth and humor of his trombone playing, as I made plain in a 2003 Jazz Times review of a CD he made with his father Ellis and … [Read more...]
Recent CDs: Oatts And Perry (And Danko)
I told you more than a year ago about Hinesight, pianist Harold Danko's terrific trio tribute to Earl Hines. It's high time that I mentioned Danko's quite different quintet CD called Oatts and Perry. That is the title because of Danko's admiration for alto saxophonist Dick Oatts and tenor saxophonist Rich Perry, his colleagues since their days together in the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Quiet as it is bafflingly kept, Oatts and Perry are two of the most resourceful, inventive and … [Read more...]
DBQ, These Foolish Things
In their seventeen years in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and when they occasionally got together in the decade before Paul Desmond's death, the pianist and the alto saxophonist loved to play "These Foolish Things." The song presented lyrical and harmonic possibilities that Brubeck and Desmond never tired of exploring. It was part of their standard fare in quartet concerts, and they included it in their superb but strangely little-noticed Duets album. A "new" version of "These Foolish Things" more … [Read more...]
Deval Patrick And His Father Pat
As far as I know, only one governor of a state was fathered by a professional jazz musician. Today's Boston Globe has a long story by Sally Jacobs about Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and his father Pat, the late saxophone and flute star of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Jacobs explores the effect on the young man of his father's abandonment of the family and of the eventual wary reconciliation between father and son. The on-line version of the article contains a built-in video clip and links to … [Read more...]
Martin-Lundgren, Kinch and Johnson
Moving right along, then, we discuss three more recent CDs. Andy Martin-Jan Lundgren, How About You? (Fresh Sound). When virtuosos meet, they sometimes shed more competitive heat than creative light. Trombonist Andy Martin and pianist Jan Lundgren listen to one another, interact and produce thoughtful music even when, like their version of "Yesterdays," it is at a tempo few metronomes can track. The results were gratifying on their previous encounter, It's Fine...It's Andy!. They are even more … [Read more...]
New Wilson, Coleman, Sims and Byard CDs
We continue our doomed effort to catch up with even a small percentage of the CDs washing over the market in a volume that makes the Missoula floods seem puny. Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts, Scenic Route (Palmetto). Despite, or because of, the side trips, the peripatetic drummer and his quartet cover a lot of territory...and time. The title tune might be a John Kirby or Raymond Scott transcription from 1939, "25 Years of Rootabagas" a gospel hymn and "Feel The Sway" a stop at a 1970s ashram. Along … [Read more...]
Good Friday Blues
Rifftides reader Mel Narunsky wrote concerning the posting about the Paul Desmond-Jim Hall Irish album that didn't get made: Here's one wonderful "holiday" record that did get made: Good Friday Blues by the Modest Jazz Trio (Jim Hall, Red Mitchell and Red Kelly) back in 1960. If anyone finds a copy of this, pounce on it. I wish I still had mine. Mr. Narunsky's message prompted a quest by the Rifftides research staff. They discovered, to their surprise and delight, that the classic album by two … [Read more...]
Embarassment of Riches?
Jazz record sales continue to limp along at the infamous three percent (+-) of the market, but the output of jazz CDs seems to accelerate day by day. That is a contradiction worthy of serious study. I hope that some brave scholar or resourceful reporter takes it on. Part of the explanation, of course, is the impact of technology. In the days of the LP, the costly business of making records was dominated by big companies. Each major label and independent company released, at most, a few jazz … [Read more...]
A Guy You Should Hear
The post-it note stuck to the jewel box of the young tenor saxophonist's CD read, "Here's a guy you should hear." There must be a young tenor saxophonist factory somewhere, turning them out at an astonishing rate; cloning them. Otherwise, why would there be so many of them, sounding alike, replicating John Coltrane and Michael Brecker? I was a little tired of the clones, tired of cutting edge clichés. But the note was from Marc Edelman, the proprietor of Sharp Nine Records. He's never steered me … [Read more...]
Good Old Louis
The Louis Armstrong recordings from 1928 that get the most attention are "West End Blues," "Muggles," "Weather Bird," "Squeeze Me" and "Tight Like This," but there is a gem of an Armstrong solo, and another by Earl Hines, on the piece called "Knee Drops," which is less often played or discussed. Click here to hear the piece in its entirety, not in the greatest possible fidelity, but perfectly listenable. In better sound, it is also on this CD, part of Columbia's invaluable Armstrong series. … [Read more...]
St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick's Day never arrives without reminding me of a record that did not get made. In the 1960s Paul Desmond and guitarist Jim Hall, frequent collaborators in those days, came up with an idea for an album of Irish music. In their planning session, they decided on some of the tunes they would record, "The Tralee Song," "Lovely Hoolihan" and "Fitzhugh or No One" among them. That, unfortunately, is as far as the project went. Happy St. Patrick's day. … [Read more...]
NDR, Hamburg
I have been roundly corrected by alert Rifftides readers who point out that the German broadcasting entity NDR has always been in Hamburg. For their interesting comments, additional information and a bit of speculation about the Phil Woods video discussed in the previous posting, go here. Thanks to all for their help. … [Read more...]
Phil Woods, 1968
Thanks to Rifftides reader Tyler Newcomb for sending a link to this Phil Woods video from 1968. YouTube gives almost no information about it. I gather from the ID bug in the upper right-hand corner of the screen that this was made in the studios of Norddeutscher Rundfunk in what was then East Germany. If so, given the cold war chill at the time, there must be a story about what the American musicians were doing there. The rotary valve flugelhorn player is Jimmy Owens. The trombonist appears to … [Read more...]
Hearing Red
Your more or less faithful correspondent is working pretty much full tilt on an essay to accompany the reissue of an important Red Garland album. In the course of researching the piece, I ran across an article I wrote about the pianist for Texas Monthly in 1977. It included Garland's story about his first job with a name band. Not long out of the Army, in 1946 he was back in his hometown, Dallas, and sat in with the great trumpeter and singer Hot Lips Page. Page's band was short a pianist, but … [Read more...]
Olomouc Blues
Pianist Emil Viklický and his trio recently did a tour of the Czech Republic with the American trumpeter Marcus Printup. It began at the Prague Castle and took in other cities including Olomouc. Viklický reports that a CD will be released of music from the castle concert. In Olomouc, a fan captured video of Viklický, Printup, bassist Petr Dvorsky and drummer Laco Tropp in a modern old-timey b-flat blues. The Rifftides staff thought that you would enjoy it. The camera work is amateurish. The … [Read more...]
Compatible Quotes
We're in the most stupid business in the world. -Artie Shaw, BBC interview Are big bands coming back? Sure, every football season. -Woody Herman … [Read more...]
Glass Bead Games: A Reissue Event
Clifford Jordan, one of the great (term used advisedly) tenor saxophonists of the second half of the twentieth century, in 1974 made a magnificent album called Glass Bead Games. Billy Higgins was the drummer on all twelve tracks. Cedar Walton and Stanley Cowell shared piano duties. Sam Jones and Bill Lee were the bassists in the two editions of Jordan's quartet represented on the album. Sonny Rollins, who rarely provides blurbs, called Glass Bead Games "Clifford Jordan at his best...with a great … [Read more...]