If you feel the urge, don't be afraid to go on a wild goose chase. What do you think wild geese are for, anyway? - Will Rogers Tonight I heard the wild goose cry, Wingin' north in the lonely sky. Tried to sleep, it weren't no use, 'Cause I am a brother to the old wild goose. -- 1950 hit record for … [Read more...]

If you are puzzling over the course jazz is taking in the second decade of the new century, this would be a good weekend to be in New York at the Winter Jazzfest. The event is packed with young artists making waves that excite fans their ages and younger, and frustrate many older listeners who have … [Read more...]

A memorial service for Stacy Rowles is set for Sunday, January 10, in the auditorium of the Musicians Union local in Hollywood, California. The growing list of more than fifty musicians who will perform in tribute includes Pete Christlieb, Joe LaBarbera, Charlie and Sandi Shoemake, Gary Foster and … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Ty Newcomb sent a link to video of the Dutch singer Fay Claassen doing Gerry Mulligan's "Line for Lyons." After enjoying it, I noticed that YouTube has another version of the piece by The Dave Brubeck Quintet. What to do? Why, show you both, of course. First, we see and hear the … [Read more...]

On his JazzWax blog, Marc Myers begins a series about pianist Dick Hyman. What a good idea. The first installment of the interview adds a video clip of Hyman and Billy Taylor doing a two-piano duet on "Hot House." If you thought Hyman played only Scott Joplin and James P. Johnson, read Marc's … [Read more...]

Gary Peacock and Marc Copland, Insight. Marc Copland, Alone (Pirouet). Copland's previous explorations on the fine German label Pirouet were four trio CDs and one by a quartet. In these new ones, he pares down personnel but not his signature keyboard touch, melodic inventiveness or harmonic … [Read more...]

I have been robbed of three million dollars all told. Everyone today is playing my stuff and I don't even get credit. Kansas City style, Chicago style, New Orleans style, hell, they're all Jelly Roll style. --Jelly Roll Morton When Jelly Roll said that he wrote his first jazz tunes in 1902, or that … [Read more...]

Film producer Andrew Thomas writes with news of what perhaps everyone but Jack Berry and I knew: Like many fans of Vince Guaraldi, I make sure that Google sends me an alert every time he's mentioned in posts and blogs, so I was directed to this Rifftides page. I was surprised by your suggestion that … [Read more...]

On a New Years eve in the mid-1960s, my wife and I attended a dance with music by Duke Elllington. At midnight, Ellington nodded casually and the band concocted a head arrangement of "Auld Lang Syne" that sounded very much like this. As you listen, please accept the wishes of the Rifftides staff … [Read more...]

2009 brought to the Rifftides doorstep an unprecedented number of albums hoping for attention. If I had listened all day every day this year, I could not have paid proper attention to even a small percentage of them. I have been attempting to catch up with some of the CDs in the stacks that occupy … [Read more...]

This seems to be the week for unexpected videos to materialize. In the piece highlighted in the previous exhibit, Jack Berry joined me in lamenting that we could find no evidence of Vince Guaraldi on film or tape. Jazz writer Ken Dryden came to the rescue this morning with a reminder that Guaraldi's … [Read more...]

The recent reissue of music by Vince Guaraldi and subsequent Rifftides and radio ramblings led the veteran print and broadcast journalist Jack Berry to grace a new web site with an account of a piquant Guaraldi adventure. It has to do with Vince's ability to make lemonade. When he climbed up on the … [Read more...]

When Terry Pollard died the other day, I scoured the internet in hopes of finding video of her playing. I had no luck. But moments ago, Mark Stryker of The Detroit Free Press notified me that a clip has appeared on YouTube of the pianist in Terry Gibbs's quartet on The Tonight Show in 1956. They … [Read more...]

San Francisco's Company C Contemporary ballet company includes this item in the announcement of its spring season. Charles Anderson, Beautiful Maladies
 Music by: Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart, Hoagy Carmichael, George Benson and others 
 Arranged and performed by: Chet Baker Expanded from last … [Read more...]

Two year after he took over the Isham Jones band, Woody Herman had infused it with his personality and leadership. We see and hear evidence in this piece from a film short made in 1938. It may seem a quaint choice of material, but in the late thirties, King Oliver's "Doctor Jazz" was still a minor … [Read more...]

The Rifftides staff wishes you a Merry Christmas, a splendid holiday season and good listening. … [Read more...]

Terry Pollard was a gifted pianist whose ability paralleled that of her fellow Detroiters Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris. She shared their grasp of the bebop vocabulary and, some admirers claimed, swung even harder. I became aware of her when she recorded with the vibraharpist Terry Gibbs in the … [Read more...]

I yield to no one in my admiration for Bob Brookmeyer, but Darcy James Argue gives me a good run for my money. Brookmeyer, the ground-breaking composer, arranger, leader and nonpareil valve trombone soloist, entered his ninth decade this week. Early in December, the Eastman School of Music honored … [Read more...]

"Open Country" is one of Bob Brookmeyer's notable compositions from the 1950s. Here, he plays it with Gerry Mulligan in Mulligan's quartet. Wyatt "Bull" Ruther is the bassist, Gus Johnson the drummer/ … [Read more...]