Archives for October 2007

Thanks to all of you who have sent condolences. Some of you were friends of Jack Brownlow (see the next item). Others knew him only by his music. A few have asked if his CDs are available. This web site says it has them. I'm doing the things an executor does. It will take full attention. Blogging will be intermittent, if at all, for a few days. … [Read more...]

Rifftides will be in suspension for a while. I don't know for how long. Two years ago, I wrote this about a great pianist: Jack Brownlow, at 81, has doggedly refused to let a round of health problems put him out of commission. He is gigging less, but a stream of colleagues comes to his house to play music with him and learn from him. He is an inspiration to them, as he has been to me since I was sixteen. This evening, the health problems won. I've lost my best friend, a wise teacher, the older … [Read more...]

We continue the Rifftides survey of the second release of Jazz Icons DVDs. For earlier reviews of the Mingus and Ellington discs, go here. In addition to their first-rate musical material and high production values, the Jazz Icons discs--unlike far too many DVDS--provide background about the music and the artists. Each includes a booklet with discographical information, photographs, and program notes by knowledgable experts. Patricia Willard wrote essays for the Ellington disc and for the Sarah … [Read more...]

Miles Davis: You know you can't play anything on a horn that Louis hasn't played. Dizzy Gillespie: No him, no me. … [Read more...]

A few weeks ago, writing at length about a new CD of music by the Charles Mingus Sextet, I referred to a forthcoming DVD of that remarkable band on its '64 European tour. The disc is one of a set of eight in the second release of Jazz Icons DVDs. I am viewing and reporting to you about them as time allows. Charles Mingus Live in '64 (Jazz Icons). It is a revelation to see this edition of the Mingus sextet at work during one of his happiest periods. Explosive temperament under wraps, the bassist … [Read more...]

No longer being in New York has disadvantages--not being able to attend a concert of Benny Carter's music, for instance. Carter died in 2003. He would be 100 years old now. The concert over the weekend was the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra's season opener. Ben Ratliff's account in The New York Times makes me sorry to have missed it. If there was a star, it was a whole bloc within a band: the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra's saxophone section, playing the tightly harmonized passages that … [Read more...]

Mateusz Kolakowski, Ad Libitum, 1st Warsaw Jazz Concert (Zaiks). When I first heard Kolakowski, he and two of his Polish contemporaries were touring the United States with their mentor, the clarinetist Brad Terry. That was in 1998. At thirteen, the boy was an impressive jazz pianist. He has continued to develop his jazz sensibility as a student at the Music Academy of Katowice while winning international awards for his performances of Chopin. Mateusz Kolakowski Now twenty-one, Kolakowski is … [Read more...]

Rifftides has readers today in Ecuador, France, New Zealand, Italy, Japan, the UK, Brazil, South Korea, France, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Mexico, Australia, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, Iceland, and across the United States from Federal Way, Washington, to Swoope, Pennsylvania and Hollywood, Florida. Thank you all for joining us. … [Read more...]

Gail Pettis, May I Come In? (Origin). In her recording debut, the Seattle singer chooses a mixture of familiar standards and less-well-known songs, delivering them with warmth and intelligent interpretation. Pettis concentrates on serving songwriters' intentions, but her delighted treatment of Jimmy McHugh's "I Just Found Out About Love" includes one of two scatting episodes in the collection. She scats with musicianly understanding of harmony. There is not a lot of that going around among … [Read more...]

Former Down Beat editor Jack Tracy has always had an ear for fresh young talent. He sent this link to video of a blues-singing bird - the avian variety. Could it be the reincarnation of Rob McCroby (1934-2002)? McCroby's recordings for Concord, something of a sensation in the 1980s, have never been reissued on CD. To see a compilation of his television appearances, go to this web site. You may not want to sit through all twenty minutes, but there's no denying that McCroby could blow. … [Read more...]

Piano. n. A parlor utensil for subduing the impenitent visitor. It is operated by depressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the audience. -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary Nothing soothes me more after a long and maddening course of pianoforte recitals than to sit and have my teeth drilled. -- George Bernard Shaw Get up from that piano. You hurtin' its feelings.-- Jelly Roll Morton … [Read more...]

Bill Evans redeems the piano from Bierce's and Shaw's disdain in this video clip, made in Norway in August of 1980 when Evans was mortally ill and undoubtedly knew it. Thanks to Jan Stevens of The Bill Evans Web Pages for finding it. The bassist and drummer are Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera. … [Read more...]

In his blog, About Last Night, Terry Teachout quotes Whitney Balliett's incomparable tribute to the ability of most jazz musicians to maintain their unbreakable spirit despite being cold-shouldered by the culture. Whatever the reasons, these musicians form a heroic legion. They work long hours in seedy and/or pretentious places for minimum money. They make sporadic recordings on unknown labels. They play for benefits but are refused loans at the bank. They pass their lives pumping up their … [Read more...]

Harry Whitaker, Thoughts (Past And Present) [Smalls]. Whitaker has been a working pianist since he was fourteen, but for much of his career he has concentrated on producing, arranging and serving as musical director for others, including singer Roberta Flack and vibraphonist Roy Ayers. In nine of his compositions, Whitaker's firm touch, careful chording and absence of pyrotechnics add up to what musicians often call arranger's piano. In that category he is in good company with people like Gerry … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Sam Stephenson writes from North Carolina: I'm excited to hear this new Gil Coggins record. Thank you for the tip. I only wish it could have been released before he passed. In 2002 I interviewed Gil as part of my loft project. He was a veteran of the 6th Ave. loft I'm researching and is recorded on a few of W. Eugene Smith's tapes circa 1960-61. I went to hear Gil at his regular gig in the East Village, where he played beautifully the night I heard him, and a few days later we … [Read more...]

Gil Coggins, Better Late Than Never (Smalls). The first phase of pianist Coggins' career tapered off in the mid-1950s after he recorded with Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Jackie McLean. Although his work was distinct from his contemporary John Lewis, he shared with Lewis a spare approach to soloing, and chords in his accompaniments that often formed complementary melodies. Coggins went into real estate in 1954, continuing to work in jazz occasionally and recording with McLean as late as … [Read more...]

Sunday, we harvested the last of the blackberries, cut back the spent canes from the arches and tied down the canes that will produce next year's crop. That pleasant task out of the way, my Italian friend and I went for a thirty-mile ride through farm and orchard country. The route had early autumn scenery of a kind that might have inspired Ralph Burns and Johnny Mercer. I looked down on a little valley below the road into a field bordered by a perfect white fence. On two adjoining sides, rows … [Read more...]

Following the August Rifftides piece about Hal McKusick, Marc Myers, aka Mr. JazzWax, sought out McKusick and is running a multi-part interview with the veteran reed man. The 83-year-old McKusick reminisces about a life in music from his debut as a teenager in the big bands to his teaching today. The gifted saxophonist, composer and arranger Al Cohn was among his colleagues. Al and I worked in Elliot Lawrence's band in the early 1950s. Al was the most unbelievable arranger. He could write … [Read more...]

I did not attend Sonny Rollins' Carnegie Hall concert last month and had not heard or read much about it until a review by Francis Davis in the current issue of The Village Voice. Davis calls it "this year's be-there-or-be-square event" and gives it a thorough going-over, reporting the good and the better; unsurprisingly, there seems to have been no bad. Rollins, who is seventy-seven, performed with his current band. He also played with a pianoless trio, as he did at Carnegie Hall fifty years … [Read more...]