Kendra Shank: A Spirit Free, Abbey Lincoln Songbook (Challenge). It would been have natural to assume that Abbey Lincoln's songs are so tied to her personality that no attempt to adapt them could succeed. Ms. Shank, however, manages to pay tribute to Ms. Lincoln and evoke her without imitating or … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2008
CD: Sam Yahel
Sam Yahel Trio: Truth And Beauty (Origin). This trio was called Yaya3 when it debuted in 2002. By whatever name, organist Yahel, tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman and drummer Brian Blade depart from the standard organ trio blockbuster approach into subtlety and taste, without sacrificing propulsion. … [Read more...]
DVD: Michel Petrucciani
2 Films: Nonstop Travels With Michel Petrucciani & Trio Live In Stuttgart (Dreyfus Jazz). The documentary film follows the late pianist in Europe and the United States. Beautifully directed and photographed, it captures his musicality, charm, wit and spunk. Memorable moments: a reunion in Big … [Read more...]
Book: Howard Mandel
Howard Mandel: Miles, Ornette, Cecil, Jazz Beyond Jazz (Routledge). Our fellow artsjournal.com blogger also calls his web log Jazz Beyond Jazz. His book further increases listeners' ability to understand the avant garde music he knows so well. Mandel helps clear the way toward appreciation of … [Read more...]
Other Matters: Language
From the second section of Strunk and White's English usage bible The Elements Of Style: Omit needless words. Harold Ross, the founding editor of The New Yorker, wrote in a memo to his staff, "The next writer around here who uses 'upcoming' will be outgoing." That's a good word to put … [Read more...]
Compatible Quotes And Two Videos: Sun Ra
And then when I went to Chicago, that's when I had these outer space experiences and went to the other planets. -- Sonny Blount (Sun Ra) ...even if this story is revisionist autobiography ... Sonny was pulling together several strains of his life. He was both prophesying his future and explaining … [Read more...]
Pomeroy Scholarship Concert
Here's a calendar item for those in, or planning to be in Boston on April 1. Joe Lovano (pictured), Hal Galper and Jack Walrath will headline a concert at the Berklee College of Music. Proceeds will benefit the Herb Pomeroy Scholarship Fund. Pomeroy, trumpeter, arranger, and Berklee teacher for four … [Read more...]
Ave Teo Macero
Following Teo Macero's death on February 19, most news stories and obituaries concentrated on his role as the producer of Miles Davis's Columbia recordings. Beginning in 1959 with Kind of Blue, Macero edited or oversaw Davis's sessions, which included those for Sketches Of Spain, In A Silent … [Read more...]
Brubeck: Things, Sweet
Someone known to me only by the e-mail handle "Bloorondo" pointed out links to a pair of Dave Brubeck video performances new to me and, perhaps, to you. The first, "All The Things You Are," was at a concert in Berlin in 1972 when Gerry Mulligan was the saxophonist in the Brubeck Quartet and Paul … [Read more...]
A Rifftides Makeover
Welcome to the new, improved, more functional Rifftides. Artsjournal.com commander-in-chief Doug McLennan and his team spiffed us up as the pioneer site (aka guinea pig) in reformatting all of the artsjournal.com blogs. The Rifftides staff thanks them for a dazzling makeover. There is a change in … [Read more...]
On Forging New Directions
Rifftides reader George Finch sent this message in reaction to a ten-year-old article in The Atlantic. There has been so little essential change in jazz since 1997 that The Atlantic piece might have been written last week. It consists mainly of a conversation among authors Tom Piazza, the late … [Read more...]
Phineas Newborn, Jr.
For weeks, the CD reissue of Phineas Newborn, Jr.'s 1961 album A World of Piano! has been propped up near my computer as a reminder to post something about him. It is neither his birthday (December 14, 1931) nor the anniversary of his death (May 26, 1989), and no recently discovered Newborn … [Read more...]
Compatible Quotes
A frisky spirit makes my trombone sing.--Chris Barber Never look at the trombones. You'll only encourage them.--Richard Strauss … [Read more...]
Julian Priester And Dawn Clement
Julian Priester is a musician of uncommon breadth as a composer, leader teacher and--most notably--a highly individual and subtle trombone soloist . Priester is quiet and self-effacing, but he could justifiably boast about having satisfied such contrasting leaders as Duke Ellington and Sun Ra, Cal … [Read more...]