Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end. - Igor Stravinsky You might try taking the horn out of your mouth. - Miles Davis, after John Coltrane said he found it difficult to play short solos … [Read more...]
Rounding Out The Picks
The new book and DVD recommendations are finally in place under Doug's Picks in the right-hand column. I stretched the DVD category to make you aware of a discovery. I doubt that you'll be sorry. … [Read more...]
The Policy On Comments
Readers have asked why Rifftides does not allow comments to be posted directly. I want the opportunity to review comments and, when it feels right, to respond to them in context and with editorial discretion. It has developed, as I thought it would, that Rifftides readers are not inclined to … [Read more...]
Comment: Pops On Film
Rifftides reader Marc Myers writes from New York City about the Louis Armstrong video mentioned yesterday: Fabulous clip of Pops in the 1930s! Pure joy. Two observations: The band appears to be integrated, which is strange if this is indeed the early 1930s. In addition, none of the musicians is … [Read more...]
Louis Armstrong’s Birthday
Louis Armstrong liked to tell people, and may have believed, that he was born on the Fourth of July, 1900. Given the circumstances of his family and of the rough part of New Orleans he came from, it is not unlikely that civic records were haphazard. Twelve years after Armstrong died in 1971, … [Read more...]
Sir Jim Hall
Speaking of colleagues, in case you haven't heard the news about guitarist Jim Hall's latest honor, there is no one better to tell you than his proud daughter Devra, aka the blogger DevraDowrite. Congratulations to both. … [Read more...]
Why The Cornet?
August 3, 2006 Deborah Hendrick read the comment about Bix Beiderbecke having been a cornetist, not a trumpeter, and asks: As part of my continuing education, why would a musician choose a trumpet over a cornet, or the other way around? Experts on brass instruments have written volumes on that … [Read more...]
Comment: Bix Beiderbecke
An alert reader of my Wall Street Journal piece about trumpeter Randy Sandke sent the following message: I read your article mentioning the Beiderbecke Festival in The Wall Street Journal. I enjoyed the reading, but I felt compelled to clear up a point. Seems like you referred to "Davenport, Iowa, … [Read more...]
Hank Jones, 88
I had just sat down to write a tribute to Hank Jones on his 88th birthday when I was alerted to a column about Hank by Mark Stryker in the Detroit Free Press. I may flatter myself that I know and understand a great deal about the elegant Mr. Jones, but on my best day I could not improve on what … [Read more...]
CD
One For All, The Lineup (Sharp Nine). I have groused often enough, maybe too often, about soundalike improvisers in the younger generations of jazz players. One For All have their audible influences but for the most part they are happy exceptions to the carbon copy rule. In addition, tenor … [Read more...]
CD
Neil Blumofe, Piety and Desire (Horeb). If you know New Orleans, you recognize Piety and Desire as the names of streets. If you know Jewish liturgy, piety and desire have additional meaning. If you think you know New Orleans music, you are likely to find surprises in this melding of Jewish and … [Read more...]
CD
Jan Lundgren in New York (Marshmallow). The great young Swedish pianist teams with two of the brightest rhythm players in New York, both named Washington; Peter on bass, Kenny on drums. Lundgren and the Washingtons give satisfaction in a program of classic standards plus originals by John Coltrane, … [Read more...]
DVD
This is not, precisely, a DVD. It is a portion of the only known video of a collaboration between Stan Getz and John Coltrane, tenor saxophonists of different styles who admired one another's work. (Coltrane once said of Getz, "We'd all sound like that if we could.") The occasion was a Jazz at the … [Read more...]
Book
Ashley Kahn, The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records, Norton. John Coltrane's dominance of the jazz of the 1960s intensified after he moved from Atlantic to Impulse!, a new label. His success made it possible for Impulse! (the exclamation point was part of its name) to record dozens … [Read more...]
New Picks
The right hand column sports new CD recommendations under Doug's Picks. DVD and book picks will follow in a few days. … [Read more...]
Weekend Extra: Manah Manah
The Rifftides staff received the following e-mail message from Portugal: I'd visit your blog. I hope you visit my blog: http://www.jazzseen.blogspot.com./. If you don't understand Portuguese, don't worry, you can listen jazz. Luiz Portuguese and Spanish are similar enough that I was able to make out … [Read more...]
Sanctonfied
One of the new Tulane University students reading Tom Sancton's Song For My Fathers sent this comment about the book and the Rifftides report on it: As an entering freshman at Tulane, I can only give the highest praise for Sancton's book. My first visit to New Orleans, in March of 2004, is forever … [Read more...]
Compatible Poems
Slow Drag Dead hallelulia four black Cadillac high black hearse and all the people come to hear the trom bone bawl look at Slow Drag picture on the Wall He call again Sweet Emma come Big Jim come when He call then honkie play and honkie plunk in Preservation Hall --Miller Williams, "Alcide … [Read more...]
Today In The Journal
The Bix Beiderbecke Festival opens today in Beiderbecke's home town, Davenport, Iowa. It features Randy Sandke and, in a nice stroke of timing, so does The Wall Street Journal. My piece called "The Best Trumpeter You Never Heard Of" is in the Journal's Leisure and Arts section. Here are samples: The … [Read more...]
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