Archives for 2010

Edwin Newman's death at age 91 is not the end of an era. The broadcast news era that produced Newman ended long ago, as you may have noticed in most of the news programs you watch on television and, particularly, on cable. Newman worked for NBC News. He was of a generation of broadcast news people … [Read more...]

A dyslexia attack a week ago caused the Rifftides proprietor to alert readers to a radio broadcast last Sunday that, in fact, will take place this coming Sunday, September 19. The only way to make amends is to correct the mistake and post the item again. The entire Rifftides staff is on vacation … [Read more...]

First of all, I never strive for identity. That's something that just has happened automatically as a result, I think, of just putting things together, tearing things apart and putting it together my own way, and somehow I guess the individual comes through eventually. Especially, I want my work - … [Read more...]

In today's Wall Street Journal I have an article in observance of the 30th anniversary of Bill Evans' death. Here are a few of the 900-plus words: Among pianists, Evans, who died 30 years ago Wednesday at age 51, is as immediately identifiable as Tatum, Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson and Bud Powell. In … [Read more...]

Dominick Farinacci, Sounds In My Life (Keystone). When I first heard Farinacci five or six years ago, he was one of two trumpet students featured on a Warren Vaché instructional DVD. In his solo on a blues, I was intrigued that he seemed to be reflecting in a personal way a school of trumpet … [Read more...]

Shots from this morning's ride: There's nothing better for color development than a succession of warm days and chilly nights. For comparison with color less than a month ago, go here. While I was shooting, a flock of geese flew over, headed south. … [Read more...]

Tenor saxophonist Hadley Caliman died Wednesday in Seattle. He was 78 and had liver cancer. Until a few weeks before his death, Caliman thrived in the Pacific Northwest, starring in the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and leading his own group. Here, we see him soloing with the SRJO. I wrote in … [Read more...]

The siege of deadlines has lifted. The assignments were good for the sagging exchequer but put the blogging account in arrears. In the days remaining before the staff goes on vacation, we'll pay attention to a few recent CDs. Denny Zeitlin, Precipice (Sunnyside). Following Mosaic's release last year … [Read more...]

In the beginning, Stash Records specialized in songs from the '20s, '30s and '40s that dealt with drugs and sex. The first Stash compilation of old recordings, in 1976, was called Reefer Songs. Another of the label's big sellers was Copulatin' Blues. Eventually, founder Bernie Brightman, began … [Read more...]

As the 30th anniversary of Bill Evans' death approaches, he is on many minds. I am preparing a piece that will run the week of the date he died, September 15. As I researched it, among the Evans posts I found buried in the Rifftides past is one from four years ago. In those primitive days, the staff … [Read more...]

The Detroit Jazz Festival runs through the Labor Day weekend, with an impressive array of musicians including Roy Haynes, Maria Schneider, Terence Blanchard and Branford Marsalis. The festival's artist-in-residence, Mulgrew Miller, received advance attention from Detroit Free Press music critic Mark … [Read more...]

Bill Kirchner sent a link to a video. He accompanied it with a succinct message: Play this when you're having a bad day. I wasn't having a bad day, but the Thad-Jones Mel Lewis band made it better. This is from a European tour probably in the fall of 1969—not '68, as YouTube says. The reed … [Read more...]

As far as I know, this is the first time I've been quoted in Magyar. It's a blurb on the back of the Hungarian edition of Jeroen de Valk's Chet Baker: His Life and Music. That invaluable book is also available in English. Thanks to photographer Paolo Gant (behind the book) for sending the pictures. … [Read more...]

This is Charlie Parker's 90th birthday. In observance, the German trumpeter, teacher and indefatigable blogger Bruno Leicht posted an entry tracing the evolution of Parker's "Ko-Ko" from its roots in Ray Noble's "Cherokee." In his introduction, Bruno writes: ...Ray Noble had no idea, but this piece … [Read more...]

For reasons that cannot be fully explained or quantified, some of the most personal soloists in jazz remain out of the spotlight despite their accomplishments. There is no better example in modern jazz than the trumpeter Johnny Coles (1926-1997), an insiders' favorite barely known to the general … [Read more...]

Further evidence has come in verifying the value of that cache of previously unheard recordings in the Savory Collection at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Proof is posted on Newsweek's web edition—tantalizing solos from the late 1930s and early '40s by Mildred Bailey and Jack Teagarden; … [Read more...]

Deadlines are stacking up around here like cordwood or like the piles of CDs I haven't heard. I have mixed feelings about deadlines. On the one hand, I'd like to avoid them. On the other, they help make it possible to meet certain commitments; feeding the family, for example. For the next few days … [Read more...]

A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all.—Rita Mae Brown Call me a braggart, call me arrogant. People at ABC (and elsewhere) have called me worse. But when you need the job done on deadline, you'll call me.—Sam Donaldson I love deadlines. I like the … [Read more...]

In the meantime, here is interesting modish playing by Jeremy Pelt, flugelhorn and trumpet; J.D Allen, tenor saxophone; Dwayne Burno, bass; and Gerald Cleaver, drums. The video was made, evidently recently, at the Paris restaurant Duc des Lombards. YouTube did not supply the name of the tune. You … [Read more...]