Archives for 2007

Rifftides reader Scott Mortensen has created two web sites worth investigating. One is dedicated to the vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, a major figure in jazz since the 1960s. The site includes a discography, photos, a substantial biography containing links to information about Hutcherson's … [Read more...]

No blogging for the next few days. I'll be visiting the town that is the model, more or less, for the one in Poodie James. If I'm not jailed or assaulted, I'll be back in action on Monday. … [Read more...]

Willie Tee (Wilson Turbinton) died yesterday in New Orleans, the same day on which his close friend Joe Zawinul died in Vienna, both of cancer. See the next item for a remembrance and a picture of them together. Willie's death comes barely a month after that of his brother Earl, another member of … [Read more...]

In the endless parade of departing musicians, now we've lost Joe Zawinul, dead of skin cancer at seventy-five. The obituaries are stressing his fusion work with Miles Davis on In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, his partnership with Wayne Shorter in Weather Report and all the hits they had; … [Read more...]

Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill gave the world The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) in 1928. When it was running in Berlin, the artist George Grosz said, "You would hear those songs wherever you went in the evening." Long before Louis Armstrong made "Mack the Knife" a universal hit, theater … [Read more...]

Sonny Rollins is seventy-seven years and three days old. I thought of acknowledging his birthday on Friday, but Rifftides traffic is down on weekends and I wanted to point more of you to his web site for previously unissued recordings of Rollins's work from 1956 with the Max Roach-Clifford Brown … [Read more...]

Stumbling around the internet, I was pleased to find that Henry "Red" Allen's World On A String is still available on CD, as well it should be. A few years after the 1957 album appeared, the young trumpeter Don Ellis called Allen, "the most avant garde trumpet player in New York." Allen's slurs, … [Read more...]

That's the name of a piece Italian trumpeter and fluegelhornist Franco Ambrosetti's quartet played on a Swiss television program in 1977. With him were pianist Hal Galper (USA), bassist Dave Holland (UK) and drummer Daniel Humair (France). Galper accurately describes the performance as "burnin'." To … [Read more...]

It is a pleasure to announce that Libros Libertad has added a banner headline to the Poodie James page at the publisher's web site: Poodie James By Doug Ramsey LIBROS LIBERTAD'S BEST-SELLING BOOK! Thanks to all who made that possible. … [Read more...]

Marc Myers is doing good things on his new blog JazzWax. His most recent posting is about a listening session with fellow blogger Terry Teachout. Before that, he and Danny Bank tell the sad story of Billie Holiday's last recording session. To read both pieces, go here. … [Read more...]

Recent Rifftides visitors are from all sectors of the United States, including most major cities, and smaller places with wonderful names like Blooming Glenn and Avondale, both in Pennsylvania; Bloomington, Indiana; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Newton, Lower Falls, Massachusetts; and Morro Bay, Camarillo … [Read more...]

Gap Mangione sent this message: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUh1SlrtEG0 http://youtube.com/watch?v=W-8CNslGOPc I've never been able to listen to this second one with dry eyes; especially the final 58 seconds. May he rest in peace... Gap … [Read more...]

Rifftides Washington, DC, correspondent John Birchard alerts us to a tribute concert by an international quintet of major jazz musicians who were affected by the Voice of America's Willis Conover. If you live in the DC area, make your reservation early. Willis Conover The Voice of America and the … [Read more...]

News from the publisher: less than two weeks off the press, Poodie James has gone into a second printing. Many thanks to Rifftides readers who have helped to make that possible. As an excerpt from the novel posted on Rifftides makes clear, Poodie is deaf and mostly mute. After she read that passage, … [Read more...]

A message from Sue Mingus, widow of Charles: I believe it was in Rifftides that someone recently quoted one of Charles Mingus's sons talking about his father telling him to jump off a shed and then not catching him. That was an old joke I heard about 50 years ago in Paris-- not very funny-- about a … [Read more...]

Several major jazz bassists - including Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown, Sam Jones, and Percy Heath - also played the cello. Ron Carter doubles on cello. For the most part, Carter employs it as a midget replica of his main instrument, soloing by plucking the strings, as did his predecessors. Indeed, … [Read more...]

Two of the leading pianists in modern jazz are now man and wife. Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes were married last week. For details go to this New York Times story. The Rifftides staff offers hearty congratulations. … [Read more...]

Announcing the publication of Poodie James the other day, I included an excerpt from the only episode in the novel in which Poodie reacts to music. To read it, go here and you will see that the music, at a dance, is "Caldonia," played by Woody Herman's band. After it became a hit in 1945, Herman … [Read more...]

Mr. JazzWax, aka Marc Myers, tracked down the venerable baritone saxophonist Danny Bank, one of the few Charlie Parker sidemen still with us, to talk about Bird. Among Bank's anecdotes: "One morning, sometime in 1951, I think, I took out one of the Sonatas for Woodwind by Hindemith and used it to … [Read more...]