If you're attending the opening night of the Monterey Jazz Festival, you're not reading this. If, like me, you wish you were there, you will enjoy this feature by Paul Conley of KXJZ radio in Sacramento, California. The closing is priceless. Follow the link and click on "Listen." A year ago I was at … [Read more...]

Paul Gonsalves, the tenor saxophone star of Duke Ellington's band for nearly a quarter of a century, was a wonderfully warm man who had, as the jazz magazines used to euphemistically write, "personal problems." His most obvious personal problem was alcohol. When he had overindulged, it was often … [Read more...]

Not me. Ornette. Brian Wise of WNYC in New York sent an alert that Ornette Coleman will be the guest on Soundcheck tomorrow to talk "about his life and career, touching on some of his classic albums as well as his most recent one, Sound Grammar." Soundcheck airs from 2:00 to 3:00 pm EDT at 93.9 FM … [Read more...]

Thanks for gathering and posting the remarks on the Sudhalter "celebration", for that's what it was, as Dan Levinson and I agreed in L.A. over Labor Day. The timing of your posting is right since the AFJS is having its Washington Conference this coming weekend. I ask your permission to copy and … [Read more...]

The concert for Sudhalter went very well. Good attendance, and the musicians limited themselves to one or two numbers, so the evening moved along just right. Frishberg's "Dear Bix" brought a tear to my eye, and to his, I believe, as well. Marian McPartland, Joe Wilder, Jackie Cain and Steve Kuhn … [Read more...]

How's this for an eclectic playlist? "Fancy" Julia Murney, I'm Not Waiting "Unexpressed" Gavin Creel, John Bucchino, It's Only Life "Travellin'Thru" Dolly Parton, Transamerica "Chasing Cars" Snow Patrol, Eyes Open "Sweet and Lovely" One for All, The Lineup "Butterfly" Corrine Bailey Rae "Die … [Read more...]

I was unable to attend Sunday night's benefit concert for Dick Sudhalter because St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York is 3000 miles from Rifftides world headquarters. Friends who went, some of whom performed, sent reports. By their accounts, the event was a success on all fronts. … [Read more...]

I had lost track of the trumpeter Tim Hagans, whose searching, edgy, extraharmonic improvisational style I admire. I did an internet search and ended up on his modishly designed and constructed website, whose style reflects his adventuresome, but centered, music. Roaming through the site, I found … [Read more...]

Thanks to Terry Teachout for alerting me to the existence on YouTube of video performances by the great early 1960s Sonny Rollins Quartet with Jim Hall. As I lamented in the previous exhibit, that band is absent from Rollins's own web site. The clips are from Ralph Gleason's Jazz Casual series on … [Read more...]

Yesterday was Sonny Rollins's 76th birthday. He celebrated it, in part, by installing on his website nine video clips of performances over forty-nine years, beginning in 1957. They comprise a fascinating tour of his career. They will be accessible for six more days. Among the sidemen are Henry … [Read more...]

Let's wrap up the survey of a few of the recent CDs from High Note. Billy Hart, Quartet (High Note). Hart is a 65-year-old drummer prized by Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Dena DeRose, Pharaoh Sanders, Frank Morgan and virtually anyone else who has ever played with or heard … [Read more...]

If you are in the New York City area or can get to it by Sunday evening, please consider attending the concert to benefit Richard Sudhalter. If you don't know about Dick's medical predicament and the staggering bills he faces, you will find details here. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the quality … [Read more...]

Coincidental with the Rifftides review of a new Louis Hayes CD, Mark Stryker of The Detroit Free Press devoted his column to a festival that featured Hayes and others who began their careers in the Motor City. A remarkable chunk of Detroit-bred jazz history reunited on Monday evening at the Detroit … [Read more...]

I spent twenty-four years in television news, fourteen of them in front of the camera and reporting, then managing news operations, so I was compelled to watch the debut of The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric. If the dumbing-down cycle that began thirty years ago when WABC-TV hired Geraldo Rivera … [Read more...]

It was my intention to write mini-reviews of several more High Note CDs for this posting, but other matters intervened (see the previous item). One will have to suffice. Vincent Herring, Ends And Means (High Note). We last encountered Herring ghosting Cannonball Adderley on a new Louis Hayes album. … [Read more...]

The other day, Ashley Foot, the ebullient young host of the internet's Radio Allegro, invited me to be on his program. In the recorded interview, I told him, "There's an incredible outpouring of jazz CDs these days. You'd never know jazz was dying." "It's dying!" he said in alarm, "What are you … [Read more...]

Gillespiana In The Berkshires On vacation this week, in Connecticut to visit friends. Looking for musical diversion, I stumbled across the Tanglewood Jazz Festival at the summer home of the Boston Symphony in Lenox, MA. Due to time constraints, I was able to attend only one concert - so I chose the … [Read more...]

We continue to get comments on the news that pianist Steve Kuhn will record for Blue Note. This one is from drummer Steve Grover in Farmingdale, Maine. I enjoy Rifftides and I was pleased to see that some attention is being directed toward Steve Kuhn. I think he is one of the most intelligent jazz … [Read more...]

With video clips proliferating on the internet, you never know what you'll run across. Roaming around YouTube, I happened on one called Trumpet Summit '04. The lead-in box showed a still frame of Jon Faddis. Something clicked. When I punched up the clip, sure enough, it was part of the Vienne, … [Read more...]