Archives for 2007

If you are holding on to your turntable and LPs, you may be encouraged by what Katie Allen reports in The Guardian, especially if you are in the United Kingdom. The format was supposed to have been badly wounded by the introduction of CDs and killed off completely by the ipod-generation that bought … [Read more...]

Sue Raney, Heart's Desire: A Tribute To Doris Day (Fresh Sound). Sue Raney is hardly without a following, but it is a puzzle why a singer of her gifts never achieved widespread fame. For far too long, general audiences have been unaware of Raney's sublime work. Happily, EMI recently reissued All By … [Read more...]

There are undoubtedly pairs of CDs farther apart in spirit than these; say, New Orleans Rhythm Kings 1922-1925 and The Art of Mabel Mercer. Well, I like both of those together under my roof. Weber and Salim are welcome to join them. Eberhard Weber, Stages Of A Long Journey (ECM). In 2005 Weber's … [Read more...]

In response to the John Frigo item in the next exhibit, Rifftides reader Jim Brown writes: In later years, I heard Johnny say of "Detour" that "it was all mine, words and music." He explained that The Soft Winds was a co-op group, and they had an agreement that all of their names would go on … [Read more...]

If John Frigo's only contribution to good music had been his co-authorship of "Detour Ahead" and "I Told You I Loved You, Now Get Out," he would have deserved admiration and gratitude. He wrote those songs in the late 1940s with Herb Ellis and Lou Carter, his partners in the elegant Soft Winds trio. … [Read more...]

Vladimir Godar, Mater (ECM). In the course of writing the notes for George Mraz's forthcoming CD Moravian Gems, I made the aural acquaintance of the Czech singer, violinist and actress Iva Bittová and was enchanted by her. Mraz informed me that the composer Vladimír Godár, inspired by Bittová's … [Read more...]

Remember our series of Rifftides riffs and exchanges about applause? It started like this. Then it went here and here In the past year and a half, the issue has not gone away. San Diego Union-Tribune classical music critic Valerie Scher's Sunday, July 8 column bore the headline, "Think Before You … [Read more...]

If you enjoyed the video montage of women in painting a few weeks ago, click here for act two; women in film. The cello accompanist is the same. I wonder who it is. … [Read more...]

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body.--Oliver Wendell Holmes You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow.--Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket My … [Read more...]

Readers of Safford Chamberlain's An Unsung Cat: The Life and Music of Warne Marsh--indeed, anyone interested in that staunch individualist among saxophonists--will want to investigate The Warne Marsh Site. The web pages developed by Rifftides reader Jack Goodwin include a thorough discography, a … [Read more...]

Terry Teachout, our favorite polymath arts blogger, has cleaned out and reorganized his clearinghouse of cultural blogs and websites, to my knowledge the most extensive such guide on the internet. It's worth a look. For TT's preamble to the revision, go here. When you see the extent of his choices, … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Don Emanuel alerted us to video of Supersax nineteen years ago at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. The band organized by Med Flory was devoted to Charlie Parker solos transcribed and harmonized for a saxophone section. It played them with accuracy and feeling that gave their … [Read more...]

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.--Charlie Parker If Charlie Parker was a gunslinger, there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats.--Charles Mingus … [Read more...]

In Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond, I told of having heard Desmond's "Take Five" on a music box in a Prague gift shop and in a number of other unlikely places including the Mexico City subway and my neighborhood gas station. There are sheet music arrangements of "Take Five" … [Read more...]

A message from Bill Crow: Here's a YouTube video I found, of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet in Rome, 1959, playing my tune. Bill Crow The composer is featured on bass. The trumpeter is Art Farmer, the drummer Dave Bailey. The Chinese Shadow Show effect is interesting. Just try to disregard the … [Read more...]

Frances Lynne, Remember (SSJ). Often discussed but seldom heard, Ms. Lynne is a charming singer. She worked with Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond and Norman Bates in 1948. Recalling their time with her at the Geary Cellar and the Band Box, all of them told me that they were moved by her clarity, phrasing, … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Peter Luce has a question: I'm wondering if someone in Rifftides' knowledgeable readership can help clarify some conflicting information I've read about Ellington's used of trumpet, trombone and clarinet in the original recording of "Mood Indigo." John Edward Hasse, in The Life and … [Read more...]

Graham Collier, Hoarded Dreams (Cuneiform). Here we have further, but not recent , adventures of the pioneering British composer, arranger and leader. Hoarded Dreams is a seven-part suite commissioned by the Bracknell Jazz Festival in 1983. Following its one performance by a band of European stars … [Read more...]

(An annual Rifftides reminder) Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.--Benjamin Franklin America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed … [Read more...]