Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Archives for 2009

CD: Jeff “Tain” Watts

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Jeff "Tain" Watts, Watts (Dark Keys). The vigorous drummer is in charge of a quartet with saxophonist Branford Marsalis, trumpeter Terence Blanchard and bassist Christian McBride. There's a lovely ballad ("Owed"), shuckin' and jivin' ("Dancin' 4 Chicken," take 25), a variation on Monk's "Trinkle, … [Read more...]

CD: Zoot Sims

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Zoot Sims in Copenhagen (Storyville). This catches the great tenor saxophonist in a 1978 club performance with the stellar rhythm section of pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pederson and drummer Ed Thigpen. No Sims version of "I'll Remember April," a staple in his repertoire, has … [Read more...]

CD: Jim Hall & Bill Frisell

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Jim Hall & Bill Frisell, Hemispheres (ArtistShare). Hall inspired Frisell. The younger guitarist famously became what Hall would have encouraged him to be, his own man. On Dialogues in 1995, they showed flashes of what they could develop together. On this 2-CD set, they follow through, in duo and … [Read more...]

CD: Nels Cline

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Nels Cline, Coward (Cryptogramophone). Hall and Frisell have impressed Cline. Jimmy Hendrix and John Abercrombie also seem to be in his DNA. Here, Cline is alone with his influences, his guitars, an arsenal of electronics and his startling originality. Despite his searching edginess, the CD is … [Read more...]

DVD: Louis Armstrong

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Louis Armstrong All Stars Live In Australia 1964 (Medici Arts). Armstrong, Trummy Young, Billy Kyle, Arvell Shaw, Danny Barcelona and Joe Darensbourg were wired. No one was phoning it in this day. The Australian television crew did a masterly job of capturing the complete concert. The closeups catch … [Read more...]

Portland Jazz Festival, Part 4

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Howard Mandel suffered a transportation glitch, but gamely picked up the reporting on the Portland Jazz Festival that I left dangling. The proprietor of Jazz Beyond Jazz, Howard does a fine job of pulling together the loose Portland ends. He manages to incorporate three video clips, including one of … [Read more...]

Other Places: Freddie Webster On Night Lights

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Every few years, there is a Freddie Webster revival, of sorts. In recent weeks, through internet contact jazz musicians, researchers and writers have again been discussing Webster, the trumpeter generally thought to have been an influence on Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Webster died in 1947 at … [Read more...]

Other Places: Criss Cross

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Viewing Tip The current offering on Bret Primack's web site is a video in which the Blue Note 7 all-stars play a complete performance of Thelonious Monk's "Criss Cross." It is worth your time. To see it, click here. For the Rifftides review of a Blue Note 7 concert as they got underway with their … [Read more...]

The Kessler Sisters, Scopitone And Desmond

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When I was looking for something on You Tube the other night, what to my wondering eyes should appear but the Kessler Sisters. I hadn't seen them in forty years, and they still looked terrific. Paul Desmond introduced me to them in 1965 at the Hilton Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Desmond had just … [Read more...]

Newman, Crawford and Cooper Remembered

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In today's Los Angeles Times, David Ritz writes from a personal standpoint about the nearly simultaneous loss of three important musicians. Ritz is the author or co-author of several books about blues and soul artists including Ray Charles. The headline on his op-ed piece is "Ray Charles' Heavenly … [Read more...]

Weekend Extra: Hyman and Waller

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Earlier this week, Dick Hyman played a noontime recital at a church in Manhattan. Fellow artsjournal blogger Jan Herman was there with his camera and posted videos of Hyman playing Fats Waller's "My Fate Is In Your Hands" and "Bach Up To Me." To see Jan's piece and hear Hyman, go here. When you come … [Read more...]

Portland Jazz Festival, Part 3

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Final report on the opening days of the Portland Jazz Festival: In elegant Schnitzer Hall, clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Don Byron had Edward Simon on piano and Eric Harland on drums in his Ivey-Divey Trio. It was the same instrumentation as the Gross-Frishberg-Doggett trio that played the night … [Read more...]

Portland Jazz Festival, Part 2

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Further reflections on highlights of the festival's first weekend: Gonzalo Rubalcaba opened the first major concert of the festival with a band of young sidemen who are in the thick of the latterday New York Latin jazz explosion that is producing some of the most important music of the new century. … [Read more...]

Louie Bellson

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What to add to the hundreds of tributes to Louie Bellson in the wake of his death last weekend? The outpouring of accolades emphasizes what anyone who ever encountered him knows: he was full of warmth, generosity and the largest available portion of human spirit. Dozens of obituaries are quoting … [Read more...]

Portland Jazz Festival, Part 1

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The sagging economy has led the Portland Jazz Festival to cancel one of the major concerts of its final weekend. Artistic director Bill Royston announced that for the first time in his 32-year-career as a jazz impresario he was pulling the plug on a primary event. Advance sales to a Friday night … [Read more...]

Rifftides Elsewhere

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The Rifftides staff was surprised and pleased to find Rifftides praised in Beckey Bright's "Blog Watch" column in today's Wall Street Journal. Ms. Bright also singles out Ethan Iverson's Do The Math and Jeffrey Siegel's Straight No Chaser. Her other topic today is weddings." To read "Blog Watch" and … [Read more...]

Correspondence: On Niewood And Mellett

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Gap Mangione writes from Rochester, New York, about the deaths of saxophonist Gerry Niewood and guitarist Coleman Mellett in last Thursday's plane crash near Buffalo. The three were to have played a concert that night in Buffalo with Chuck Mangione:" We gathered at the hotel Thursday night. Chuck … [Read more...]

Progress (+ -) Report

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Three days of music are echoing in my head. My notebook is full. As I drive through the gorgeous Columbia River Gorge on the way back to Rifftides World Headquarters, I'll be thinking about how to boil down hours and hours of listening into a cogent report or two. For now, suffice it to tell you … [Read more...]