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Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Reaction To Jessica Williams

April 30, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

Jessica Williams linked readers of her blog to the Before & After test she allowed me to give her for the current issue of Jazz Times. In the test, she reacted to recordings by ten pianists. To read some of the comments she received, go to Currents and scroll down.
Oddly, Rifftides has received no reaction to the article despite Ms. Williams’ unreserved assessments.

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Comments

  1. Michael J. West says

    April 30, 2007 at 5:04 am

    Well, actually, I just read it this past week and was going to tell you I’d enjoyed it….Although she broke my heart because I ADORE Robert Glasper and the way he rides the changes. It actually hurt to read that he “lost the listener,” because I was hanging on every note.

  2. Carol Sloane says

    April 30, 2007 at 5:24 pm

    I was hoping a Bill Charlap recording would be included in Ms. Williams’ Before And After exam, but I am sorry she not only gave Bill’s playing such short shrift. I’m also disappointed she did not recognize Ellington’s “Jump For Joy.”

  3. Andi says

    May 1, 2007 at 9:59 am

    She is one tough critic. Should I be embarrassed to say that I was enthralled when I saw Gonzalo Rubalcaba? And I’m not even a guy.

  4. Matt says

    May 3, 2007 at 9:55 pm

    I read this Before and After a few days ago and my initial reaction was “Where does she get off saying things like this about fellow pianists? Doesn’t she know her thoughts are going into print?”
    But then I realized most musicians I know are really harsh critics of other people’s music in private commentary I’ve had with them. The other day I was talking to a former Blue Note artist who was hating on some other saxophone players really intensely. It’s just part of the game.
    It’s also funny that roughly in the same month Downbeat and JazzTimes published their respective versions of “Blindfold Test”/”Before & After” with musicians who gave unsparingly harsh criticisms of the music and musicians – in DownBeat the hating was done by bassist Ron Carter. Check THAT out…

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

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Doug’s Books

Doug's most recent book is a novel, Poodie James. Previously, he published Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. He is also the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He contributed to The Oxford Companion To Jazz and co-edited Journalism Ethics: Why Change? He is at work on another novel in which, as in Poodie James, music is incidental.

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