Mike Barone, Live 2005! Redux (Rhubarb). Barone is one of the most accomplished big band arrangers never to become famous. For this reissue, he remixed to improve the sound, pruned overlong solos and added a track. Why "Grand Central" hit the editing room floor the first time around is a mystery. … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2010
DVD: Steinway
Ben Niles, Note By Note: The Making Of Steinway L1037 (docuramafilms). This gem of the documentarian's art follows a 9-foot concert grand for a year, from its beginning as lumber to its arrival at the Steinway showroom in New York. Director Ben Niles and his crew equal the love, knowledge and skill … [Read more...]
Book: Maynard Ferguson
Ralph Jungheim, Maynard! (Buster Ann). Jungheim's book is a collection of 30 transcribed reminiscences about the trumpeter and bandleader. Most of them are by musicians, but Ferguson's valet, bus driver and instrument maker also contribute. Some of the anecdotes are amusing, some interesting, some … [Read more...]
New Picks For Listeners, Viewers & Readers
Recommendations in the center column, under Doug's Picks: CDs by a trumpeter, a bassist and an arranger A DVD documenting the birth of a piano A book of stories about a brass phenomenon … [Read more...]
Reilly’s Joyful Thanks
Pianist Jack Reilly will be at the Johns Hopkins Medicine Center in Baltimore today to pay musical tribute to the memory of the doctor who saved his life. For details, go here. … [Read more...]
Other Places: When Laughton Met Scott
Rifftides reader Don Frese recommended this item from Bill Crow's "The Band Room" column in Allegro, the newspaper of New York Local 802 of the American Federation of musicians. The late British tenor man and club owner Ronnie Scott once told me that he was standing one day on the platform of a tube … [Read more...]
A Moody Update
The November 4 post below and coverage elsewhere about James Moody's illness generated so much concern that it has created a problem in the Moody household. Here is part of a message from Moody's wife Linda. Would you mind posting that people should leave Moody messages on Facebook? Our computers … [Read more...]
James Moody
The news about James Moody is not good. He has been aware of it for some time, but kept it private until this week. No one who knows him will be surprised that he is at peace with the decision he has made. Here is the first paragraph of George Varga's story in The San Diego Union Tribune. Jazz … [Read more...]
Playing Hard To Get: Hank Jones And Jakob Bro
As noted in a Rifftides review last week, record companies from abroad often come to the United States to make CDs of American musicians. Conversely, it is not unusual for Americans to record when they are touring overseas. Either way, some of the best work of US artists is done for labels that … [Read more...]