Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Archives for 2010

Other Matters: A Tech Support Story

by

A couple of days ago, I called a company for technical support. A well-spoken young woman answered. She did not put me on hold, dump me into voice-mail hell, pass me along to a robot or connect me with someone in Bangladesh. In about three minutes, she analyzed the problem and provided a solution. … [Read more...]

Other Places: Stomp Off

by

I should have long since added Chris Albertson's Stomp Off blog to the Personal Jazz Sites roll under Other Places at the of the middle column. It is hereby added. For your first Albertson fix, I recommend that you take in his latest entry. It has to do with a jam session he recorded in Copenhagen … [Read more...]

Other Places: Learning Through Hearing

by

Jazz as an academic discipline has made huge strides in colleges and universities, even in high schools and middle schools. Students can major in jazz studies in music departments where 40 years ago they would have been suspended for jamming in practice rooms. The University of North Texas, Indiana … [Read more...]

Great Solos: Jack Jenney, “Stardust”

by

An Occasional Series Jenney is famous for eight-bars of trombone improvisation on Artie Shaw's 1940 recording of "Stardust." Several months earlier with his own band, he played a full-length solo on this little-known version of Hoagy Carmichael's classic song. … [Read more...]

CD: Chet Baker

by

Chet Baker, The Sesjun Radio Shows (T2). The trumpeter and singer soars in two CDs compiled from 1970s and '80s concerts on the Dutch radio program Tros Sesjun. Baker's fleetness, lyricism, hard swing and vocal improvisations put this among the best work of his later years. Of the sidemen, pianists … [Read more...]

CD: Mike Barone

by

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...]

DVD: Steinway

by

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

by

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...]

Reilly’s Joyful Thanks

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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...]

Correspondence: Jack Brokensha RIP

by

Mark Stryker, music critic of the Detroit Free Press, sent this note: Thought you might be interested in this— a couple months ago I recall a comment on your Mitch Miller/Bird post including a reference to the Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet. The vibraphonist from the group, Jack Brokensha, a … [Read more...]