Archives for March 2014

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="WPvSYmcpkqtUj8nRkCE3AdYlrqC1Iy3P"] There is no possibility of keeping up with the flow of albums pouring out of what is often described, absurdly, as a declining jazz scene, but it can be interesting to try. Here are brief observations on a few more or less recent CDs. Sam Boshnack, Exploding Syndrome (Shnack Music) Sam Boshnack is an aggressive, rowdy, uneven trumpeter who heads a quintet of adventurers from Seattle’s avant jazz community. She … [Read more...]

For more than two days, Rifftides and all of the other arts journal.com blogs have been taken down by software robots—hacker bots. The attackers have been vanquished, security measures are being put in place and we look forward to the resumption of regular posting. Say goodbye to this rascal. By way of celebration, let's see and hear the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra in Copenhagen in 1969, playing Thad's "Central Park North." Thad Jones, flugelhorn & conductor Al … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="1tQI8nCzIiTd1BiBnMJiAxcbKsXDtR1X"] I got bored with the old way - it came too easy. I worked until I could play any chord changes at any tempo in any key, and then said 'What else is there?' Now I'm finding out. I expect the audience to come up to my level. I am not interested in compromising my music to make it palatable to an assumed sub-standard mass. If one takes all the styles in jazz harmonically from the earliest beginnings to the … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="F4UbLPqvEYgZNOhOBf4XiXW5icbYUIbd"] My visiting son went skiing in the Cascade Mountains, and I accompanied him. This is how it was on the lightly populated runs of White Pass at 4500 feet. Après-ski, driving down the mountain by the time we reached about 3500 feet, warmer weather had removed the snow except for patches in the valleys and on the peaks. My son is sad to see the snow go. Not to worry, Blossom Dearie makes everybody glad. … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="dG5AgtayhUWoWVzslWSHH4LzSHeCp6fs"] Trumpeter Don Ellis (1934-1978) provided the instrumental focus in yesterday’s Third Stream Revisited post. He portrayed young Peter Parker, a boy learning to be a jazz musician. Let us look into Ellis’s all too brief future following that impressive 1962 appearance with Gunther Schuller, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. He built on his experience with Ray McKinley, Charlie Barnet, Maynard Ferguson, George Russell … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="kvXzUb3qq7bTxNyCRJWooFNCtCWry5Le"] From time to time, we reach into nine years of posts stored in the Rifftides vaults for pieces that the staff thinks are worth a second look. This is one of those times. Originally posted on Rifftides on March 25, 2010. "Third Stream" seems a quaint term nearly half a century after it kicked up a bit of a fuss in jazz and classical circles. Still, it never quite goes away, as the recent Eric Dolphy posting reminded me. Two … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="AkSxhYHLc105k3wnpv2VTPGktkWgIrID"] Lennie Tristano was born in Chicago on this day in 1919. At birth, influenza ruined his vision. By his 10th birthday he was blind. Formally trained at a music conservatory, he played piano and, as a 12-year-old clarinetist, led a traditional band. When he moved to New York in1946, Tristano had begun deepening the harmonic possibilities in modern jazz and by the end of the decade was a guru to forward looking musicians including … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="rAujx5558iqADMBlt5zj0tGNJtOX6QUs"] “How Are Things In Gloca Morra,” featuring Sonny O’Rollins, tenor saxophone; Donald McByrd, trumpet; Wynton Kelly, piano; Gene MacRamey, bass; and Max O’Roach, drums. On St. Patrick’s day, the whole world is Irish. The recording is from Sonny Rollins, Volume One, Blue Note, 1956. May the road rise up to meet you this fine day. … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="bdYaweGTmZmzZDeaWraqu5CutuAOU6wL"] Thanks to Lester Perkins of Jazz On The Tube for reminding us that today Tommy Flanagan would have celebrated his 84th birthday. The great pianist died in 2001. From the time he made his debut as a teenager in his native Detroit, Flanagan was one of the busiest sidemen in music. These are just a few of the musicians with whom he toured and recorded: Milt Jackson, Miles Davis, Lucky Thompson, J.J. Johnson, Ella Fitzgerald, Jim … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="eyvYYg0fmRcIGDmwQJopimDDA5uO1nGP"] Alto saxophonist Med Flory was best known to the general public as an actor, but jazz listeners are most likely to remember him as the co-founder and leader of Supersax. Flory died this week at the age of 87. He made hundreds of appearances in television shows and a few in motion pictures, usually as characters in westerns and action flicks. He’s the big man in the foreground in a scene from the 1966 film Night Of The Grizzly. He … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="asOJct6gYgSkFqhnVaMCI6YG7znfNMbJ"] Iola Brubeck died today. She had been under treatment for cancer discovered several months ago during oral surgery. She was 90 years old. Her children made the announcement through the University of the Pacific, home of the Brubeck Institute. Mrs. Brubeck and her husband Dave were alumni of the university. They met there at a student dance in the early 1940s and decided that night they would marry, which they did a few months … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="W7fa71eO5lzJBaKSRMLoqtlZSKpEQTE9"] In his Jazz Profiles blog, Steve Cerra posts a piece about Bud Shank (1926-2009) that is packed with remembrances of the saxophonist and flutist, interviews, photographs and music clips that recall the career of an amazingly productive, versatile and expressive musician. Steve’s introduction summons his own youthful impression of Shank: To the older guys that I hung out with, Bud Shank was the epitome of West Coast “Cool.” … [Read more...]

It has been Rifftides practice to make Doug's Picks recommendations in batches, with long periods between. Beginning with the recommendation below, the picks are going to come singly and more often. As always, clicking on the title of the CD, DVD or book will take you to where it can be found. The current recommendations are in the right column under Doug’s Picks. If you click on “More Doug’s Picks” at the end of that section, you can read them clear back to 2006. That covers a lot of listening, … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ylqITQpsqXjiYLIeYMoqRuEy6UASXOH9"] Speaking of Poodie James (see the previous post), if you have read the novel you might like to see a bit of the town and valley that bear a not entirely coincidental resemblance to the book’s locale. I just watched a short promotional video made by Charley Voorhis and his colleagues at an outfit called Voortex Productions. I had never heard of Voortex until a friend sent me a link to this little film. I am impressed with the … [Read more...]

As the digital revolution makes inroads into traditional publishing based in paper, bookstores are not having a notably good century so far. Hardly a week goes by without news of a large or small bookstore, including those owned by chains, going out of business somewhere in the US. Yakima, Washington, the longest running of the Ramseys' many hometowns, has an independent bookstore that does well because this reading community supports it. That is in no small part because Inklings Bookshop … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="JcNUILe4bAh6cCwx3ZRXQQCtFZUP6p89"] The Bill Holman documentary that I helped with late last year is moving closer to reality. Its producer, Kathryn King, has launched a fund-raising drive to help her and her crew complete the film on schedule. That is how many projects are accomplished these days when they don’t have the backing of big Hollywood investors. Few of them have that kind of support, especially when the ventures have to do with the arts. In November, I … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="5ukc15UJXurI8MJ71NmO3fiEEZF7MJdG"] Jan Allan with the Visby Big Band, Berwaldhallen Stockholm, Sweden, 1985. Arranged, conducted and introduced by Rob McConnell. Later this month, Allan, now 79, will join pianist Jan Lundgren, bassist Georg Riedel, saxophonist-composer Erik Norström and the Bohuslän Big Band for an eight-city tour of Sweden in honor of the late pianist Bengt Hallberg. For a previous Rifftides post about Jan Allan, go here. … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="2m4FW9BeWZVHVa8BrLb9rePRMLx27VJA"] The distinguished pianist, composer and leader is the 2014 occupant of the chair held by Bernstein, Cage, Eliot, Stravinsky and Gordimer, among others. For further details, including how to get a ticket for the remaining lectures in the series, go here. As for what qualifies Hancock for the honor, we have a demonstration of two attributes, his composing and his playing. The piece is “Chan’s Song.” His accompanists are … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="icLgcTZ2l3UKVn9QanSe19cCVcm9ZTgS"] Rifftides reader Ted O’Reilly writes from Toronto: I wasn’t much inclined to shop much at Crocojazz personally – I’m not into vinyl as some are – but it was not as inviting as I’d hoped. Unorganized, dusty, boxes and crates on the floor...a treasure hunt, perhaps, but as I was without my spade, not much more than ‘a cultural’ experience. Here’s the late John Norris in a picture I took (it sez here) on May 28/08. Note … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="efAmRuKaaqX5rj6ZjnTamyx8TZc7XSdP"] Rifftides reader Greg Curtis is on a study sabbatical in Paris. Wishing to stimulate envy—and succeeding—he sent an illustrated message about two used record stores in the 5th arrondissement, near his apartment. One, La Dame Blanche, specializes in classical recordings. The name of the other, Crocojazz, is self-explanatory. They are across from one another on the rue de la … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="avlwvqI5zBWc3SRma1jeCfNlPLnf2cmW"] From her opening blues, “Filosophical Flying Fish,” to the concluding “Summertime” done as a sort of neo-boogaloo, Grace Kelly’s Thursday concert at The Seasons in Yakima, Washington, left no doubt that she is in the top flight of today’s alto saxophonists. She has been there for some time. Here is what I wrote after I first heard her at a festival jam session in 2007 (pictured then, above). I know of no explanation other … [Read more...]