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Archives for 2007
Ave Whitney Balliett
Whitney Balliett Writing about jazz generally takes one of two paths, analysis or appreciation. Whitney Balliett was not a musicologist, but one of the field's most gifted appreciators. His descriptions of what he heard, saw and felt in music are among the best twentieth century English prose in … [Read more...]
Radio Alert
The second half of a remarkable concert I told you about last October is going to hit the airwaves and cyberspace this weekend. Here is the announcement from Jim Wilke: Jazz meets classical music in Part 2 of a concert by The Bill Mays Trio and members of Finisterra on Jazz Northwest on Sunday … [Read more...]
Kenny Barron
The Rifftides staff is awash in deadline assignments that yield even more than this blog pays, so we're bound to keep at them. When the waters subside, my plan is to begin surveying some of the CDs that have come in on the tide recently (is this aquarian metaphor getting out hand?). For now, please … [Read more...]
Correspondence: Clifford And Soupy
Mark Stryker, the jazz columnist of the Detroit Free Press, read the Clifford Brown posting and wrote: Given Soupy's Detroit connections, I once wrote a story about Soupy and the Clifford tape not long after it first surfaced in 1996. There's no link but I've copied some details below, as well as … [Read more...]
Clifford And Bud
For years, I have heard reports that when the great trumpeter Clfford Brown appeared on a Detroit television program hosted by the comedian Soupy Sales, his performance was recorded. A kinescope has surfaced to confirm the reports. The guest shot with Sales produced what seems to be the only film or … [Read more...]
Finnerty On Brecker
Barry Finnerty, a guitarist who worked with Michael Brecker in the Brecker Brothers band of the late 1970s, has posted a lengthy reminiscence about his friend. It includes this paragraph: He used to take his humility to extremes sometimes... he would complain to me that he hated his own playing, was … [Read more...]
Woody Herman On Requests
They're asking for ludicrous, ridiculous kinds of tunes. It could be "Johnson Rag," or "Don't you have any Russ Morgan pieces?" or they're always getting your tunes mixed up with someone else's, so you get requests for "Green Eyes" or "Frenesi" or "In The Mood." And they get some very terse replies … [Read more...]
New Things To Hear And See
Please adjourn to the exhibit in the right-hand column under the sign reading Doug's Picks for the Rifftides staff's latest recommendations. The Louis Armstrong book is a holdover because no one on the staff has had time to read a new book. Hey, it was the holidays. … [Read more...]
CD
John Gross, Dave Frishberg, Charlie Doggett, Strange Feeling (Diatic Records). Gross, the outside tenor saxophonist; Frishberg, the inside pianist; and Doggett, the adaptable young drummer, meet on the common ground of a brilliantly assembled repertoire. The pieces are by Ellington, Strayhorn, Monk, … [Read more...]
CD
Fats Waller, If you Got to Ask, You Ain't Got It (Bluebird/Legacy). This is not a comprehensive Waller set, but a well chosen three-disc survey of the stride pianist whose song writing, singing and irrepressible personality made him an American favorite son in the 1930s and early '40s. Even … [Read more...]
CD
Paul Carlon Octet, Other Tongues (Deep Tone). From Red Norvo to James Moody, Ray Charles, Rod Levitt, Gil Evans, Lee Konitz and Bill Kirchner, I'm a sucker for medium-sized ensembles supported by resourceful writing. To the list add this octet of New Yorkers led by saxophonist and flutist Carlon. … [Read more...]
DVD
Amalia Rodrigues: The Spirit of Fado (MVD World Music Talents). Rodrigues was the leading interpreter of fado, the moody music that expresses Portugal's national preoccupation with fate. In fado at its best there is a commonality with jazz in the give-and-take among the perfomer and the guitar … [Read more...]
Book
Louis Armstrong, Satchmo: My Life In New Orleans (Da Capo). A friend asked me recently, "What's the best book about Louis Armstrong?" It may turn out to be the one Terry Teachout is writing, I said. I told him about Armstrong biographies by Gary Giddins, Laurence Bergreen, James Lincoln Collier, Max … [Read more...]
Comment: On Floyd Standifer
Bill Crow writes from New York: So sorry to hear of Floyd's passing. When I returned to the Seattle area after 3 years in the Army, I met Floyd and Quincy and Gerald Brashear and Buddy Catlett and Kenny Kimball and Ray Charles. We played a lot together in the music annex of the University of … [Read more...]
Floyd Standifer
From Seattle comes news that Floyd Standifer died Monday night. The trumpeter, saxophonist and vocalist went into the hospital in late December for treatment of a shoulder problem. Doctors discovered that his shoulder pain came from cancer that had spread to his lungs and liver, and that his … [Read more...]
…and…Feitlebaum
A little research discloses that the man who did that brilliant dual-personality lip-synch performance to Charlie Parker's and Dizzy Gillespie's "Leap Frog" is named Jeremiah McDonald. He has other clips on YouTube, none of them based in jazz. Still, jazz listeners who dig Spike Jones (there are … [Read more...]
Compatible Quotes
After I left Texas and went to California, I had a hard time getting anyone to play anything that I was writing, so I had to end up playing them myself. And that's how I ended up just being a saxophone player. --Ornette Coleman I am an improviser...I improvise music. Whatever you want to call it … [Read more...]
A George Cables Moment
George Cables played a concert at The Seasons performance hall the other night. It was the kind of evening his listeners have come to expect, flowing with the inventiveness, technical skill and joy that Cables has demonstrated in a four-decade career with Art Pepper, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, … [Read more...]