Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Archives for March 2020

An Intriguing Trio Album

Asked about his intriguing new album, west coast trumpeter Dick Titterington talked about the project’s genesis at a Christmas party gig. At their bandleaders’s request, each of the musicians wrote a new composition for the occasion.  Titterington says that they enjoyed one another and the resulting interplay so much that they expanded the Christmas encounter into material for an entire album. The CD has emerged on the HeavyWood label as Horn Art Works: 14 Pieces.

It has plenty of counterpoint, humor and lines whose intricacies are closely woven despite the small number of instruments. The three movements of Titterington’s “Russian Blue” emphasize the virtuosic characteristics of all three musicians, from the purity of Tim Jensen’s flute to the muscular, strategically-placed offbeat notes of Lars Campbell’s trombone. Titterington’s trumpet playing is brilliant.

This charming chamber music encounter includes bonus tracks featuring a frequent Titterington collaborator, singer Rebecca Kilgore (it’s okay; they’re married). Those bonus pieces are both titled “No Encore.” They are arranged by Titterington and Kilgore.  This album doesn’t need an encore, and I would be surprised if its rewarding music didn’t inspire frequent replays.

Here is Titterington’s “Russian Blue.”

Dick Titterington’s New Trio Album

Asked about his intriguing new album, west coast trumpeter Dick Titterington talked about the project’s genesis during a Christmas party. Their bandleader had asked each musician to write a new composition for the occasion. Titterington says that the trio enjoyed one another and the resulting interplay so much that they expanded the Christmas encounter into material for an entire album. The CD, Horn Art Works: 14 Pieces, has emerged on the HeavyWood label at https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/hornartworks.

It has plenty of counterpoint, humor and lines whose intricacies are closely woven despite the small number of instruments. The three movements of Titterington’s “Russian Blue” emphasize the virtuosic characteristics of all three musicians, from the purity of Tim Jensen’s flute to the muscular, strategically-placed offbeat notes of Lars Campbell’s trombone. Titterington’s trumpet playing is brilliant.

This charming chamber music encounter includes bonus tracks featuring a frequent Titterington collaborator, singer Rebecca Kilgore (it’s okay; they’re married). Those pieces are both entitled “No Encore.” They are arranged by Titterington and Kilgore.  Welcome as they are, this album doesn’t need an encore. I would be surprised if its intricate sense of fun didn’t inspire frequent replays.

Here is Titterington’s “Russian Blue.”

Want To Feel Better? This May Help.

Rifftides has been inactive for a few days. None of the reasons for that…thank goodness…have to do with a virus. The staff are healthy and keeping our distance from other humans, as instructed. We hope that you are doing the same. I’m not positive what music is best to share with readers and listeners as this worrisome infection sweeps the world, but I’m convinced that it must make us  feel better. These two classic recordings should be a good start.

Please be well and stay safe.

Fred Hersch Addresses The Virus Threat

Concerned about the advance of the coronoavirus in many parts of the world, pianist Fred Hersch has announced his approach to providing, if not relief from the threat, a way to get it off your mind for a while. Below is the message from Hersch’s web page. We realize that his message consumes more space than the average Rifftides post and trust that its size won’t cause you a problem.

 

Mini Concert Every Day

I hope everybody is safe and healthy and will remain that way. This is an unprecedented challenge to everyone on the planet and we all need resilience and resourcefulness going forward.

Starting this Sunday, every day at 1pm EST,10am PST, 7pm in Europe I will do a live mini concert of piano music from my home.

You can see and hear the concert here:

https://www.facebook.com/fredherschmusic

You don’t have to “be” on Facebook or sign in to anything to access the concert. Just click the image below. And if you “like” the page you will be notified each day.
Wishing you all strength and much love,
Fred

Fred’s Web Page

A Brent Jensen Desmond Reissue

Curious about the unannounced and unpromoted reissue of a Brent Jensen album eighteen years after its debut, I asked Origin Records chief John Bishop in Seattle about its reappearance. The CD is Jensen’s The Sound Of A Dry Martini: Remembering Paul Desmond, first issued in 2002.  Mr. Bishop replied:

“That record has been popular since it came out, with steady sales and a lot of action on Pandora still happening. Since Brent moved to Seattle, and Jamie Findlay’s up here now too, he’s made it a regular performance thing again. We did a reprint awhile back and were just thinking the (roughly) 20th anniversary is something to marvel at, and thought about all the radio people who weren’t around back then. That was the main push, just seeing how radio would respond and let people know it’s still relevant. It could have easily been a nice little project that then got shelved, but that little pup has legs!”

From the liner notes I wrote for the Jensen album all those years ago, here’s a brief segment about Desmond and Jensen:

“Over the years, Paul created verbal camouflage intended to obscure the fact that he was a master of the instrument. He claimed to have won a special award for quietness. He called himself the John P. Marquand of the alto saxophone. He told me that during his reemergence in the l970s, he tried practicing for a while but ended up playing too fast. None of these evasions fooled Brent Jensen for a minute. He knows what Desmond was made of. In this homage, Jensen succeeds uncannily in marshalling many of Desmond’s essential qualities.”

Here, Jensen demonstrates his grasp of the Desmond essentials by way of his reading of Mercer Ellington’s “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.”

Brent Jensen, alto saxophone; Jamie Findlay, guitar; Zac Matthews, bass; Dean Koba, drums. Origin Records, recorded at The Bakery in North Hollywood, California, in March, 2001.

 

 

Bill Smith And McCoy Tyner Are Gone

James Moody told me that his Georgia-born grandmother said one morning while looking through the newspaper, “Folks is dyin’ what ain’t never died befo’.” The trend continues, as It always has and, if human suscsceptibility is a guide, always will.  Recently, the parade of departures resumed when the jazz world lost two giants in their nineties, McCoy Tyner and William O. Smith. Smith (pictured left) a clarinetist, composer, teacher and formidable arranger, was 93.

Encouraged by the classical composer Darius Milhaud when he studied with Milhaud at Mills College, Smith formed an octet with Dave Brubeck in the early 1950s. In recent decades he was a professor of music at the University of Washington.

From late in their careers, here are Smith, Brubeck and the Montreal Festival Orchestra playing one of Brubeck’s most beloved compositions, “Blue Rondo ala Turk.”

For a thorough obituary of Bill Smith, see Paul de Barros in The Seattle Times.

McCoy Tyner attracted significant attention when he emerged from Philadelphia as the pianist in Art Farmer’s and Benny Golson’s Jazztet in 1959. He achieved widespread fame after he became a member of John Coltrane’s quartet the following year.  His rich harmonies and mastery of demanding rhythms were at the core of what made Coltrane’s group one of the most successful in all of music during Tyner’s five years as a member.

Tyner died at 81 at his home in New Jersey.  Here he is in concert on the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2002 with Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Charnett Moffet on bass and Eric Harland playing drums. The composition is one of Tyner’s most famous, “Naima.”

McCoy Tyner, RIP.

Marc Seales And His Quintet on KNKX This Weekend

Jim Wilke continues his long-running Jazz Northwest broadcasts this weekend with a group headed by Marc Seales, one of the region’s firmly established veteran pianists. In the announcement below, Jim tells you how to find the program:

Jim Wilke

KNKX and Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley are teaming up to present, on the last Monday of each month, a monthly series starring top jazz artists in the region. February’s event featured the Marc Seales Quintet playing a program that mostly featured the pianist’s compositions. Recorded for radio, the first part of the Seales program will air on Jazz Northwest  Sunday, March 8, at 2 PM Pacific time on 88.5 KNKX-FM. It will stream at knkx.org.  Playing for an enthusiastic full house at the venerable Jazz Alley, the group includes Seales, piano and keyboards; Jesse Seales, guitar; Thomas Marriott, trumpet; Chuck Deardorf, bass; and Moyes Lucas, drums.

Marc Seales

Seales has backed many touring artists in addition to fronting his own groups. He first attracted attention playing and recording with the late saxophonist Don Lanphere, and in the Ellington Sacred Music concerts of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra.  Today a Professor of Music at The University of Washington, he has led several well-received CDs and appeared as a sideman on many others. The quintet playing this concert at Jazz Alley continues a long history of their working together.

Rebecca Kilgore’s New Albums

Rebecca Kilgore, unfailingly musical in any setting, sings with contrasting accompaniments in a pair of recent releases. In one, concentrating on songs with winter themes, she is accompanied by a distinguished European quartet. A second album finds her alone with the harmonically resourceful and swinging Chicago guitarist Andy Brown.

Arrangements by pianist Bernd Lhotzky and saxophonist Chris Hopkins make Winter Days At Schloss Elmau at once relaxed and adventurous. Kilgore and the quartet address a repertoire incorporating lyrics from a variety of writers that includes Dave Frishberg, Emily Brontë and William Shakespeare. Recorded at the Bavarian Alps resort of Schloss Elmau, the performances before a live audience are intimate and stimulating. The band opens with Hoagy Carmichael’s “Winter Moon,” far from Carmichael’s best-known song but one of his loveliest, made more interesting by this performance employing a determined 5/4 time signature. There are impressive solos by Lhotzky, trumpeter Colin T.Dawson and alto saxophonist Chris Hopkins. Drummer Oliver Mewes is constantly stimulating in his rhythmic patterns. The earlier reference to Shakespeare was not a misprint. Lhotzky collaborated with Shakespeare across the centuries to make a song of the master’s “Sonnet 97,” with Ms. Kilgore employing her purest, softest high notes.

As I wrote in what seems to be the only pre-release endorsement I’ve ever agreed to, “It’s a treat to hear Rebecca Kilgore and Andy Brown intertwine her singing and his guitar. The album is remarkable for their musicianship, empathy and insights as they illuminate a dozen classic songs. It includes what is likely to be long considered the definitive version of Dave Frishberg’s and Johnny Mandel’s ‘You Are There.'”

In that new album on the Heavywood label, Together Live, Ms. Kilgore and Mr. Brown (pictured below) apply that deeply felt empathy to a dozen songs that, to paraphrase the title of one of them, might induce a nap if the rhythmic component of their work weren’t so compelling. That song is Benny Carter’s “Rock Me To Sleep,” composed by Carter in 1950 with a lyric by Paul Vandervoort II. There are other pieces by Frank Loesser, Victor Young, Ray Noble, Luis Bonfá and, from 1940, Artie Shaw’s “Any Old Time,” a hit for Shaw and Billie Holiday.

This is a captivating collection.

Two New Albums From Rebecca Kilgore

Rebecca Kilgore, unfailingly musical in any setting, sings with contrasting accompaniments in a pair of recent releases. In one, concentrating on songs with winter themes, she is accompanied by a distinguished European quartet. A second album finds her alone with the harmonically resourceful and swinging Chicago guitarist Andy Brown.

Arrangements by pianist Bernd Lhotzky and saxophonist Chris Hopkins make Winter Days At Schloss Elmau at once relaxed and adventurous. Kilgore and the quartet address a repertoire incorporating lyrics from a variety of writers that includes Dave Frishberg, Emily Brontë and William Shakespeare. Recorded at the Bavarian Alps resort of Schloss Elmau, the performances before a live audience are intimate and stimulating. The band opens with Hoagy Carmichael’s “Winter Moon,” far from Carmichael’s best-known song but one of his loveliest, made more interesting by this performance employing a determined 5/4 time signature. There are impressive solos by Lhotzky, trumpeter Colin T.Dawson and alto saxophonist Chris Hopkins. Drummer Oliver Mewes is constantly stimulating in his rhythmic patterns. The earlier reference to Shakespeare was not a misprint. Lhotzky collaborated with Shakespeare across the centuries to make a song of the master’s “Sonnet 97,” with Ms. Kilgore employing her purest, softest high notes.

As I wrote in what seems to be the only pre-release endorsement I’ve ever provided, “It’s a treat to hear Rebecca Kilgore and Andy Brown intertwine her singing and his guitar. The album is
remarkable for their musicianship, empathy and insights as they illuminate a dozen classic songs. It includes what is likely to be long considered the definitive version of Dave Frishberg’s and Johnny Mandel’s ‘You Are There.'”

In their new album on the Heavywood label, Together Live, Ms. Kilgore and Mr. Brown (pictured) apply that deeply felt empathy to a dozen songs. The title of one of them that might induce a nap if the rhythmic component of their work weren’t so compelling. That song is Benny Carter’s “Rock Me To Sleep,” composed by Carter in 1950 with a lyric by Paul Vandervoort II. There are other pieces by Frank Loesser, Victor Young, Ray Noble, Luis Bonfá and, from 1940, Artie Shaw’s “Any Old Time,” a hit for Shaw and Billie Holiday.

This is a captivating collection.