[contextly_auto_sidebar id="eLGqKTVu9BcEJMc9dg6KFgrxMenyWU3E"] Dee Daniels, Intimate Conversations (Origin) Accompanied only by Martin Wind’s forthright bass lines, the singer sets her story-telling course with the imperishable 84-year-old “Exactly Like You.” She and Wind are so convincing again in “I Wish You Love” that this listener found himself wishing for an entire album with just the two of them. However, Daniels is equally effective accompanying herself on piano and coloring “All … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2014
Recent Viewing And Listening: Charles Lloyd
Charles Llloyd, Arrows Into Infinity (ECM) Charles Lloyd, Manhattan Stories (Resonance) The steadfastly independent saxophonist and flutist Charles Lloyd stepped out of the limelight more than once, but even when he was inactive his recordings remained in demand. Lloyd is drawing renewed attention because of a film about his life and music, and an album of previously unreleased performances from a fertile early period of his career. His million-selling 1966 album Forest Flower and the … [Read more...]
Compatible Quotes: Autumn
No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.—John Donne, The Autumnal But then fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done … [Read more...]
Autumn Comes
In most of the Northern Hemisphere, this is officially the first day of fall. In a weblog devoted primarily to jazz, it seems fitting to welcome the advent of the new season with music. The pleasant problem is that there are so many wonderful recordings of songs with autumn themes, it’s impossible to choose just one. So, here are three. Nat Cole, 1948 Woody Herman, 1948 Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane, 1963 Have a pleasant autumn season or—if you’re in the Southern … [Read more...]
Monday Recommendation: Ali Jackson
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ISZxkrkQhOkAlato9pn6SY8rSH7uQvje"] Ali Jackson, Amalgamations (Sunnyside) In this appropriately titled collection, the irrepressible drummer and 13 colleagues from the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra and elsewhere combine in groups as small as two. Jackson's precision and drive stimulate trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, pianist Eldar Djangirov and saxophonists JD Allen and Ted Nash, among others. Performances include the laconic “Done Tol’ You Fo’ Five Times” in … [Read more...]
The Way Kenny Wheeler Worked
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="4dY9MWCUJx2hVkKp17XAOLYbCLBq7Rf5"] Anne Braithwaite alerted me to Kenny Wheeler’s account of how he prepared when he was searching for inspiration. The trumpeter and composer died this week. See yesterday’s Rifftides post for details. The story came from Ken Schaphorst, chairman of the Jazz Studies Department at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Mr. Schaphorst told me this afternoon that in the fall of 2002, Wheeler gave a master class at NEC. Famously … [Read more...]
Kenny Wheeler Is Gone
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="3h16qsoi29nhGo0KHDo5c6BrUrZd2qlK"] Kenny Wheeler, a Canadian who became a towering figure in British music and an icon of jazz musicians around the world, has succumbed to a long illness. He was in a London nursing home for several months and was moved recently to the hospital where he died. He was 84. Wheeler's brilliance as a composer and arranger, dating from from the 1960s, came to be generally acknowledged fairly late in his career. From the 1968 suite … [Read more...]
Report From Russia: Арфа и джаз (Take Five)
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="qLx8WNFCTupNSc9FZVw6VR4dnH1CUSPQ"] Rifftides reader Svetlana Ilyicheva (pictured right) brings us up to date from time to time on musical events in and around Moscow. Her latest report concerns an organization founded by and for jazz listeners, and one of its concerts by an unusual group. Recently, the Moscow 'Jazz Art' Club celebrated the closing session of its 20th concert season. The club has presented nearly 1,500 weekly concerts, to say nothing of its … [Read more...]
Losses: Jackie Cain, Joe Sample
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="kgkKxndiGsEr4q2r1Bj00SwKi8H0TICH"] Following a long illness, Jackie Cain died Monday afternoon in her New Jersey home. She was 86. She and Roy Kral combined their talents in 1946. They incorporated the spirit of bebop in their work with Charlie Ventura’s sextet, capturing the public imagination with “East of Suez” and “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” Recorded with Ventura at a concert in Pasadena, California, in 1949, the records received widespread radio airplay in … [Read more...]
Monday Recommendation: Mark Turner
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="5qRmd8CplKQ3LDavL9URbHBQZpmNzSx8"] Mark Turner, Lathe Of Heaven (ECM) The tenor saxophonist bases the CD’s title on an Ursula K. LeGuin sci-fi novel in which dreams seem to change reality. Her story line turns on unclear perceptions, but Turner’s music is unambiguous in its extension of modern mainstream jazz tradition. Though the harmonized lines he plays with trumpeter Avishai Cohen bear intimations of Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter, Turner’s compositions and … [Read more...]
Three Listening Tips And A View
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="wYWxo88Vzu1jpr9Z28eIwV3ORzVulWvV"] Tip 1. Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest program on Sunday will broadcast the tribute given pianist and composer George Cables at this summer’s Centrum Jazz Port Townsend festival on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Mr. Wilke recorded the concert in July. For years, as performer and teacher, Cables has been an integral part of the festival and its jazz workshops. From Mr. Wilke’s announcement: Three pianists, Geoffrey Keezer, Benny … [Read more...]
Gerald Wilson And Harmony
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ZVuNAz4PuZiWnW61NbrwhdQMptuPXFbX"] In the September 8 Rifftides post about this week’s passing of Gerald Wilson, I mentioned his enhanced harmonic palette and its importance to modern jazz arranging (Photo courtesy of Gordon Sapsed). It is one aspect of the Wilson craftsmanship that continues to influence those who write for big bands. When I was working on the essay that accompanies the Mosaic box set of his Pacific Jazz recordings, Mr. Wilson and I discussed his … [Read more...]
Gerald Wilson, 1918-2014
Word has come that Gerald Wilson died today in Los Angeles. A swing era trumpeter, he became the pioneering leader, composer and arranger of a modern big band that was a significant presence for more than sixty years. Wilson enriched the language of large ensembles by employing expanded harmonic structures. He was noted for, among other things, his colorful music inspired by Mexican bull fighting. For an obituary, see Don Heckman's article in today's Los Angeles Times. In a post to come, … [Read more...]
We’re Back
Web server problems resulting in massive slowness interfered with Rifftides today and, evidently, with all other blogs under the artsjournal.com umbrella. As a result, it was not possible to prepare and post new items. I would be happy to report that the crack Rifftides technical staff wrestled the problem to the ground and eliminated it, but there is no Rifftides technical staff. The difficulty seems to have fixed itself, and we're back up and running, witness the next exhibit. I believe the … [Read more...]
Thad, Mel And Co. In Belgium
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="uJr78HEchQJJoWsb2wylj0F9TynOSU4o"] In response to the recent Rifftides recommendation of the new album by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Bill Kirchner sent a link to video featuring the VJO’s progenitor. About the clip of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band in Belgium, in 1973, Bill writes: So-so, though acceptable, sound, but great playing and interesting camera work. Note the repair tag hanging from Knepper's trombone. The program includes one of Brookmeyer’ greatest … [Read more...]
Other Matters: Finger-Pickin’ Good Sousa
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ywZdHeg0j94153bDEynmwkgewClS3h7v"] Bobby Shew sent a link to a performance by a guitarist named Doug Smith. After listening to Smith’s introductory story about his dad, no former Marine could be expected to ignore the video. Anyone who can finger-pick Sousa’s famous piccolo part in “Stars and Stripes Forever” while also playing the harmony and melody must be taken seriously. This is an opportunity to see and hear a man who enjoys his work. I must confess to … [Read more...]
Recommendation: Brookmeyer For The Vanguard
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="67ncgR1vvlmj1hiIh5BAhDnIaOTTmnBY"] The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Over Time: Music of Bob Brookmeyer (Planet Arts) This is the album Bob Brookmeyer was preparing for the Vanguard orchestra before he died at the end of 2011. As a composer and arranger, Brookmeyer was a creative force in the Vanguard’s predecessor, the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, and its forerunner, the big band co-led by Lewis and Thad Jones. With Jones-Lewis, he was also a principal soloist, on … [Read more...]
Labor Day # 2: Workin’
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="XcJn6d3gJ0cB6BaNQrcnegJaxA7D0ffW"] As pointed out in the previous exhibit, Americans and Canadians are taking a three-day holiday to observe Labor Day, which this year is Monday, September 1. On this occasion established nearly a century-and-a-half ago, they do their best to get sunburned, exhausted and happy—the latter with or without the aid of beer, which sells in oceanic quantities as summer winds down and people populate beaches, mountain meadows, … [Read more...]