As 2011 wound down, American music lost two octogenarians who were dramatically different except for what they had in common, insistence on getting to the heart of the matter without compromise. Sam Rivers died in Orlando, Florida on December 26 at the age of 88, Barbara Lea the same day in … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2012
New Recommendations for 2012
Happy New Year to all Rifftides readers around the world. For your listening, viewing and reading pleasure, the Rifftides staff offers recommendations of three CDs that differ dramatically from one another, an intimate Chet Baker DVD, and the autobiography of an irrepressible jazz institution. … [Read more...]
CD: Corea, Gomez, Motian
Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez, Paul Motian, Further Explorations (Concord) The two-CD album is described in the notes as a “template,†a “tabula rasa,†rather than a tribute to Bill Evans. Nonetheless, Corea’s encounter with two great Evans sidemen underlines Evans’s profound influence on … [Read more...]
CD: Pinky Winters
Pinky Winters, Winters In Summer (SSJ) To borrow from Paul Williams’s words to Ivan Lins’ “Love Dance,†Winters knows how to turn up the quiet. Using subtleties in phrasing, pitch, intensity and tone shading, she takes ownership of a song without violating its writer’s intentions. Here, … [Read more...]
CD: Ronnie Cuber
Ronnie Cuber, Ronnie (Steeplechase) Cuber has been playing uncompromising jazz on the baritone saxophone for more than half a century. With pianist Helen Sung, bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Jonathan Blake, he is in top form in this 2009 album that escaped my attention until recently. … [Read more...]
DVD: Chet Baker
Chet Baker, Candy (MVD) In a private library in Sweden in 1985, Baker plays and sings with his working trio of the period, pianist Michael Graillier and bassist Jean Louis Rassinfosse. Red Mitchell is a guest, not on bass but at the piano showing Baker his preferred changes to “My Romance,†… [Read more...]