Archives for August 2016

…just because it has been too long since you’ve heard it, even if you heard it a few minutes ago. It is a B-flat blues called “Honesty,” composed by trombonist Dave Baker and played by a sextet led by George Russell (pictured). We hear seven musicians thoroughly experienced in the post-bop mainstream who were also immersed in the freedom that in 1961 was introducing new colors into jazz. Indeed, Russell had been an encourager and trailblazer of that freedom since he wrote for Dizzy Gillespie in … [Read more...]

Jim Wilke alerts us that his Jazz Northwest  broadcast this weekend features two drummers who at different times drove Woody Herman’s Herd.  Jeff Hamilton and Joe LaBarbera will co-lead an all-star big band that includes another Herman alumnus, baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan. Herman was known as “The Road Father” because he mentored countless young musicians who later became stars in their own right. The concert was recorded at this summer’s Jazz Port Townsend on Washington state’s Olympic … [Read more...]

Rudy Van Gelder, who recorded thousands of albums by musicians including some of the most important in jazz, died today at 91. As a young man, Van Gelder began recording in a room in his parents' house in Hackensack, New Jersey. Among his recordings were early albums by Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. He was a practicing optometrist, but he said in recent years that when he first found himself in a recording studio, he had a feeling that "this is what I should be doing." He went on to acquire … [Read more...]

Steven Lugerner, Jacknife: The Music Of Jackie McLean (Primary Records) After his studies at The New School in New York ended a couple of years ago, alto saxophonist Steven Lugerner returned home to the San Francisco Bay area and took Jackie McLean with him. Not in person, of course; McLean died in 2006, and Lugerner never met him, but the young man became immersed in McLean’s music. The audacity of McLean’s attack is apparent in everything that Lugerner plays. The aggressiveness, rough edges … [Read more...]

Toots Thielemans, the man who made the harmonica a well-known jazz instrument died today in Brussels, Belgium, his hometown. He was 94. Thielemans was recently hospitalized after a fall that resulted in a broken arm, but neither his family nor management representatives specified the cause of his death. On an instrument often dismissed as a novelty, Thielemans’ advanced musicianship and individuality made him a respected colleague of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman and George … [Read more...]

The Rifftides wrapup report on the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival included a brief, enthusiastic comment about a performance by the Kathrine Windfeld Big Band of her piece “Aircraft.” This young Danish composer, arranger and pianist writes for 15 young musicians from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Poland. They negotiate her demanding charts with aplomb, intensity and obvious appreciation for one another’s talents. Following the video, I’m including their names for you to remember because we are … [Read more...]

Bobby Hutcherson, whose vibraphone playing developed deep and complex harmonies, died on Monday at home in Montara, California. He was 75. When Hutcherson came to prominence in the early 1960s, he was in the forefront of young musicians already adept at bebop but seeking greater freedom. He expanded his instrument’s range of tonal colors, with particular attention to dramatic use of resonance, and he was open to ideas pioneered by free jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Along with saxophonists … [Read more...]

In fifty years the New Orleans JazzFest has evolved from a three-day pure jazz event into a musical spectacular that also encompasses rock, folk, zydeco, gospel, and genres that may not yet have names. As a weeklong citywide gala, it is second only to Mardi Gras. Ellis Marsalis was there from the festival’s birth in 1968 and has matured into one of the city’s celebrated patriarchs—in more than one sense. He is the father of Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason, themselves celebrated musicians. … [Read more...]

It was impossible to hear all of the music at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. I came as close as allowed by festival scheduling and the need for a minimal amount of sleep. Here are brief notes wrapping up this series of Rifftides reports on Ystad 2016. Swiss harmonica player Grégoire Maret reached peaks of excitement when he and drummer John Davis faced off in rhythmic flurries that amounted to mutual solos. They were particularly gripping in Maret’s “The Angel Gabriel.” The British singer … [Read more...]

Nearly as old as jazz itself, Svend Asmussen celebrated his 100th birthday in February. The Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival honored him in a concert by two violinists, Bjarke Falgren and Gunnar Lidberg, who were inspired by the centenarian. Asmussen’s longtime guitar colleague Jacob Fischer was also a part of the band, along with bassist Mattias Petri and drummer Andreas Svendsen. Above, we see Petri and Fischer, with Lidberg in the background. The concert was in the ancient Per Helas Gard courtyard, … [Read more...]

As the Rifftides staff flies home, digital magic allows us to continue reporting on highlights of the 2016 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. In the first of two Ystad appearances accompanying soloists, Sweden’s formidable Bohuslän Big Band backed singer LaGaylia Frazier. The Bohusläns opened the concert with “St. Louis Blues” in an arrangement that had touches reminiscent of Thad Jones and incorporated a reference to Fletcher Henderson’s “King Porter Stomp.” It had a peak moment in a Joakim … [Read more...]

As I prepared to leave Ystad, I learned that clarinetist Pete Fountain died on Saturday in New Orleans. By way of his recordings and television exposure, he became an unofficial and effective cultural spokesman for his beloved hometown and was happy to return there following his years in the 1950s with Lawrence Welk’s TV show. Despite the renown it brought Fountain, the Welk relationship was not a musical marriage made in heaven. He was happier in his Bourbon Street club than he was soloing in … [Read more...]

When bassist Avishai Cohen and his trio wrapped up their concert after midnight on Sunday, the 2016 edition of the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival became history. For this listener, the festival's five days of music included opportunities to hear several artists in person for the first time. One of them was Marlene VerPlanck, a veteran singer whose repertoire overflows with material from the A-list of songwriters and lyricists—among them Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Victor Young, Sammy Cahn, … [Read more...]

The Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival is in its fourth day. It is so jam-packed and tightly scheduled that this is my first opportunity to begin reporting on it. The early posts will be a series of observations rather than full reviews. As always at this festival, things get underway with the Swedish variation on a traditional New Orleans street parade—making its way through the streets of this charming medieval town on the Baltic Sea. The first evening, in the magnificent Ystad Theatre, … [Read more...]

As I fly to Sweden this morning, I’ll be humming “Ack Värmeland du sköna,” the patriotic folk song Swedes love so much. It is, in effect, the country’s unofficial national anthem. Here it is, sung by the great Swedish tenor Jussi Björling in 1959. When Stan Getz recorded the song in 1951 with pianist Bengt Hallberg and other Swedish musicians, it was retitled “Dear Old Stockholm.” Decades later another tenor saxophonist, Scott Hamilton, recorded it with pianist Jan Lundgren, bassist Jesper … [Read more...]