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Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

You are here: Home / 2007 / Archives for July 2007

Archives for July 2007

Hamp, Cuber and Hinton, Flying

July 31, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

The Rifftides staff is up against non-Rifftides deadlines. Rather than abandon you, we offer links to Lionel Hampton videos. You can use them in lieu of your morning coffee to perk you up, or benzedrine to keep you awake. The piece is "Flying Home," which was to Hampton what home runs are to Barry Bonds and tie-breaking goals to Beckham. The first version is from the 1960s. It has solos by Hamp and the very young baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber, playing with ferocity. The second is from a 1957 … [Read more...]

Shank With McPartland

July 31, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

The guest on Marian McPartland's current edition of Piano Jazz is alto saxophonist Bud Shank. Engaging talk and fine quartet playing, including one of the fastest versions of "Beautiful Love" you're likely to encounter. Go here. … [Read more...]

Other Matters: Un Buon Giorno

July 29, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

This turned out to be Italian Sunday. My frequent companion Vigorelli Bianchi and I went for a twenty-mile ride full of ups, downs and early morning beauty in the hills of orchard country. Back home, I wrapped up a two-day ciabatta project and baked four loaves, then made a dinner that also featured salmon, pasta with pesto and a homey 2000 La Loggia Barolo from Trader Joe's. The wine is not a triumph of the Piedmont, but it worked with the meal. A classic (read expensive) Barolo would have … [Read more...]

Future File: Logan Strosahl

July 28, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

A year and a half ago a Rifftides report on the conference of the International Association of Jazz Educators included this paragraph: It is impossible to predict the course of an artist's career, but here's a name to file away: Logan Strosahl. He is a sixteen-year-old alto saxophonist with the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band from Seattle, Washington. Strosahl has the energy of five sixteen-year-olds, rhythm that wells up from somewhere inside him, technique, harmonic daring with knowledge to … [Read more...]

Ooh Shoobee Doobee

July 26, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

There is a joke from a category of jazz humor labeled the chick singer file. I hasten to add that there are plenty of non-chick singers to whom the sentiment of the story applies. A woman asks to sit in with a band. The leader suggests "My Funny Valentine." She agrees, but confesses that she's a bit unsure of the bridge. "That's okay," the leader tells her. "You'll be next to the bass player. He knows it. If you get hung up, just turn to him." She approaches a part of the song where she needs … [Read more...]

Strollin’ With The Shoemakes And Holman

July 25, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

It's amazing; YouTube can cosponsor presidential debates and still find time to put new music on the internet. In the past few days, up popped two clips of vibraharpist Charlie Shoemake playing and his wife Sandi singing with the Bill Holman Orchestra. Charlie Shoemake Bill Holman Sandi Shoemake YouTube provides no information beyond the superimposed titles, so the Rifftides staff swung (heh-heh) into research mode. The video was taken in Los Angeles during … [Read more...]

Poodie James

July 25, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

No, that is not the name of an obscure Mississippi Delta blues man. It's the title of my forthcoming novel, which has nothing to do with the Delta or the blues, except, perhaps, the kind we all have. A few Rifftides readers have expressed interest. On its web site, the publisher provides an excerpt and a few outside opinions. Please have a look. … [Read more...]

CD: Sue Raney

July 24, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

Sue Raney, Heart's Desire: A Tribute To Doris Day (Fresh Sound). After too long, a new collection by a magnificent singer. See this Rifftides review for details. … [Read more...]

New Picks

July 24, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

In the right-hand column under Doug's Picks, you will find new recommendations for your aural, visual and mental pleasure. Please use them responsibly. … [Read more...]

CD:Tom Harrell

July 24, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

Tom Harrell, Light On (High Note). Another artist who takes his time between releases, the trumpeter and uncompromising composer is worth waiting for. Light On has nine new Harrell tunes, his deep solo explorations, the muscularity of Wayne Escoffery's tenor saxophone and a fine young rhythm section. The intriguing "Sky Life" could capture the kind of attention Harrell achieved eighteen years ago with "Sail Away," his most famous composition. … [Read more...]

CD: Logan Richardson

July 24, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

Logan Richardson, Cerebral Flow (Fresh Sound New Talent). A twenty-seven-year-old Kansas Citian now living in New York, Richardson is an alto and soprano saxophonist with a song-like approach to improvisation, even at his edgiest. He and his equally adventurous quintet colleagues sustain interest through their interaction on ten pieces Richardson composed or, in the cases of "Animated Concept of Being" and "Free the Blues," conjured as urgent pas de deux for himself and drummers Nasheet Waits … [Read more...]

DVD: Miroslav Vitous

July 24, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

Miroslav Vitous, Live in Vienna (MVD Visual, Quantum Leap). Another in the Quantum Leap series featuring bassists in club performance at Vienna's Porgy and Bess. This time, it's Vitous, the Czech bassist who materialized in New York in 1967 and quickly became embedded with leading players in the US jazz scene. He was one of the founders of Weather Report. Now a veteran solo concertizer, his repertoire in this concert reflects his eclecticism with variations on Beethoven, Dvorak, Miles Davis, … [Read more...]

Book: They’re Playing Our Song

July 24, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

Max Wilk, They're Playing Our Song (Da Capo). Wilk's survey of classic songwriters doesn't have the wisdom and analysis of Alec Wilder's American Popular Song. Still it's a minor classic full of wonderful anecdotes about two dozen of the people who brought you the great American songbook, among them Kern, Gershwin, Berlin, Fields, Mercer, Duke, Rogers and Styne. … [Read more...]

Ingrid Jensen Quartet At The Seasons

July 23, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

When I arrived home after a post-concert hang late Saturday night, I found this message from a musician friend: Has there ever been a better concert at the Seasons than the Ingrid Jensen one this evening? No. I have attended most of the jazz and classical events at The Seasons in its nearly two years of operation. I have heard wonderful performances in that former church, with its dramatic domed space and nearly perfect acoustics, but none better than when Jensen, the gifted Canadian … [Read more...]

On The Way

July 23, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

For two years, the Doug's Books section of the right-hand column has ended with this forecast: His next book is a novel that has almost nothing to do with music. That is about to change. The target date for publication is next month. Am I relieved, breathing easier? Yes. Am I excited? You bet. Please stay tuned. … [Read more...]

Weekend Extra: Other Matters

July 21, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

Singular They By way of suggesting that I was misguided when I railed against the use of "they" with singular antecedents, Rifftides reader David Seidman directed me to a web log called Language Log. Language Log summons up the Bible and Shakespeare to make the case that "everyone" and "themselves" are good partners, and concludes, alliteratively: This use of "they" isn't ungrammatical, it isn't a mistake, it's a feature of ordinary English syntax that for some reason attracts the ire of … [Read more...]

Compatible Quotes

July 21, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae. --Kurt Vonnegut Jr One should not be too severe on English novels; they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed. --Oscar Wilde … [Read more...]

Correspondence: Lorraine Geller

July 20, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

Rifftides reader Marc Myers writes: Among the most underrated and barely celebrated pianists from the 1950s has to be Lorraine Geller, the late wife of alto saxophonist Herb Geller, who today lives in Germany. Stylistically, Lorraine was a funky bop cross between Bud Powell and Horace Silver. She can be heard playing with Herb on a number of solid Emarcy LPs from the mid-50s, including Herb Geller Plays and the stunning The Gellers. Just listen to "Araphoe" from The Gellers, which is set to … [Read more...]

Other Matters: Our Suffering Language

July 19, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

In the steady dumbing-down of the English language, there is little dumber than the convoluting fandango that began about twenty years ago to achieve political correctness by avoiding gender. Today's Wall Street Journal story about efforts to protect the pre-publication sanctity of the new Harry Potter book quotes Potter's inventor, J.K. Rowling: I'd like to ask everyone who calls themselves a Potter fan to help preserve the secrecy of the plot for all those who are looking forward to reading … [Read more...]

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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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Doug’s Picks

We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside

As Rifftides readers have undoubtedly noticed, it has been a long time since we posted. We are creating a new post in hopes  that it will open the way to resumption of frequent reports as part of the artsjournal.com mission to keep you up to date on jazz and other matters. Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s stunning new trio album […]

Recent Listening: The New David Friesen Trio CD

David Friesen Circle 3 Trio: Interaction (Origin) Among the dozens of recent releases that deserve serious attention, a few will get it. Among those those receiving it here is bassist David Friesen’s new album.  From the Portland, Oregon, sinecure in which he thrives when he’s not touring the world, bassist Friesen has been performing at […]

Monday Recommendation: Dominic Miller

Dominic Miller Absinthe (ECM) Guitarist and composer Miller delivers power and subtlety in equal measure. Abetted by producer Manfred Eicher’s canny guidance and ECM’s flawless sound and studio presence, Miller draws on inspiration from painters of France’s impressionist period. His liner essay emphasizes the importance to his musical conception of works by Cezanne, Renoir, Lautrec, […]

Recent Listening: Dave Young And Friends

Dave Young, Lotus Blossom (Modica Music) Young, the bassist praised by Oscar Peterson for his “harmonic simpatico and unerring sense of time” when he was a member of Peterson’s trio, leads seven gifted fellow Canadians. His beautifully recorded bass is the underpinning of a relaxed session in which his swing is a force even during […]

Recent Listening: Jazz Is Of The World

Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren, Mare Nostrum III (ACT) This third outing by Mare Nostrum continues the international trio’s close collaboration in a series of albums that has enjoyed considerable success. With three exceptions, the compositions in this installment are by the members of Mare Nostrum. It opens with one the French accordionist Galliano […]

Monday Recommendation: Thelonious Monk’s Works In Full

Kimbrough, Robinson, Reid, Drummond: Monk’s Dreams(Sunnyside) The subtitle of this invaluable 6-CD set is The Complete Compositions Of Thelonious Sphere Monk. By complete, Sunnyside means that the box contains six CDs with 70 tunes that Monk wrote beginning in the early years when his music was generally assumed to be an eccentric offshoot of bebop, […]

More Doug's Picks

Blogroll

All About Jazz
JerryJazzMusician
Carol Sloane: SloaneView
Jazz Beyond Jazz: Howard Mandel
The Gig: Nate Chinen
Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong
Don Heckman: The International Review Of Music
Ted Panken: Today is The Question
George Colligan: jazztruth
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Jazz Music Blog: Tom Reney
Brubeck Institute
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Notes On Jazz: Ralph Miriello
Bob Porter: Jazz Etc.
be.jazz
Marc Myers: Jazz Wax
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I Witness
ArtistShare
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Night After Night
Do The Math/The Bad Plus
Prague Jazz
Russian Jazz
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Jazz History Online
Lubricity

Personal Jazz Sites
Chris Albertson: Stomp Off
Armin Buettner: Crownpropeller’s Blog
Cyber Jazz Today, John Birchard
Dick Carr’s Big Bands, Ballads & Blues
Donald Clarke’s Music Box
Noal Cohen’s Jazz History
Bill Crow
Easy Does It: Fernando Ortiz de Urbana
Bill Evans Web Pages
Dave Frishberg
Ronan Guilfoyle: Mostly Music
Bill Kirchner
Mike Longo
Jan Lundgren (Friends of)
Willard Jenkins/The Independent Ear
Ken Joslin: Jazz Paintings
Bruno Leicht
Earl MacDonald
Books and CDs: Bill Reed
Marvin Stamm

Tarik Townsend: It’s A Raggy Waltz
Steve Wallace: Jazz, Baseball, Life and Other Ephemera
Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest
Jessica Williams

Other Culture Blogs
Terry Teachout
DevraDoWrite
Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
On An Overgrown Path

Journalism
PressThink: Jay Rosen
Second Draft, Tim Porter
Poynter Online

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