"Good Morning," he said, "this is John Ciardi prowling around your breakfast table and peering into your cereal bowl to find a whole cluster of words there." It was his introduction to one of the pieces he did on National Public Radio's Morning Edition in the 1980s. To hear the whole thing, go here … [Read more...]

He published 38 books, 12 of them for children, one a translation of Dante. He was a fine poet. Measurements I've zeroed an altimeter on the floor then raised it to a table and read three feet. Nothing but music knows what air is more precisely than this. I read on its face Sensitive Altimeter and … [Read more...]

Art Kane’s 1958 photograph of fifty-eight musicians in front of and on the steps of a Harlem brownstone ran in Esquire magazine, which called it A Great Day In Harlem. It became one of the best known snapshots in the world, already famous for decades when Jean Bach made a film about it in 1994. … [Read more...]

“Jazz is where you find it.” That is the opening sentence in the first paragraph of an essay in Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. Here is the rest of the paragraph. The Polish novelist and essayist Leopold Tyrmand, who spent much of World War Two as a forced laborer … [Read more...]

Several versions of a joke usually beginning something like, "A note walks into a bar...." are floating around the internet. Buddy DeFranco forwarded the most elaborate I've seen. The Rifftides management makes no claims about the reliability of the musicology in this tale: A C, an E-flat, and a G … [Read more...]

Reaction to the Bush administration's cockeyed attempt to emasculate the Voice of America through budget cuts is getting shocked attention not only among policy analysts at home but also from members of the VOA's audience abroad. Here is part of a letter from a New Delhi man named Vijay Kranti to … [Read more...]

John Stowell's solo on "Blues on the Corner" should be transcribed by every serious guitar player on the planet. On second thought, make that every serious player. Bill Kirchner Jeff Albert's story the other day about his daughter's innocently perceptive question brought this followup. Doug, My … [Read more...]

Not that you would, but don't miss Terry Teachout's essay about going home again. This will give you a hint of what it's about, although it's about much more. “Thanks, Carol, I'd love to, but…” But the truth is that I don't play anymore, Carol, I haven't touched a bass in years, it wouldn't be … [Read more...]

You may be interested in where some of your fellow readers are following Rifftides. A recent check of the site meter finds them all over the world, in places including: â–ªMickleover, Derby, United Kingdom â–ªMere, Warrington, United Kingdom â–ªBrussels, Belgium â–ªBarcelona, Spain â–ªArche, … [Read more...]

DevraDoWrite is trying to answer a question from one of her blogees. This is it: In 1966, the Hampton Hawes trio (with Red Mitchell & Donald Bailey) recorded ‘live’ for Contemporary Records at Mitchell’s Studio Club in Los Angeles (the ‘Mitchell’ in question was no relation to Red, the … [Read more...]

If you direct your attention to the right-hand column and scroll down, you will come upon the new batch of Doug's Picks. At the top of that column in "About," the Rifftides staff makes the assumption that people who follow jazz are also interested in other matters. The book pick this time around may … [Read more...]

Nice piece of writing by Ben Ratliff in today's New York Times. He covered the concert in which 87-year-old Gerald Wilson took over the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Ratfliff reports that Wilson "hijacked the evening." Mr. Wilson made the show an exclamation point. He stalked the front of the … [Read more...]

The Portland Jazz Festival ends on Sunday, but the main events took place last weekend. Here are samples of my impressions, from a long review for Jazz Times. McCoy Tyner’s trio with bassist Charnett Moffett and drummer Eric Gravatt played the opening concert. Before a capacity audience in the … [Read more...]

Doug: Fine commentary on Earl Hines' rightful place in jazz legend. You might also have mentioned how indebted Nat Cole was to the Fatha and how Nat is also often unrecognized today for the giant he was--most people seem to remember him as just a singer. He exhibited the same joy and exuberance in … [Read more...]

In my Maria Schneider report a few weeks ago, I speculated about the economics of moving large congregations of musicians around the country. It turns out, according to DevraDoWrite, that the speculation was on target. The difference between Devra and me is that she has the inside facts. A … [Read more...]

Under Other Places in the right-hand column, you will find a new link, to Jazz Scene, a site operated by the British journalist David Fishel. Jazz Scene is rather like an internet radio station over which the listener has scheduling control. Mr. Fishel's specialty is interviews with musicians. He … [Read more...]

Although most modern jazz pianists don’t acknowledge the fact or don’t know it, modern jazz piano begins with Earl Hines. For the most dramatic evidence, listen closely to Hines in the 1920s, especially in the mind-blowing “Weatherbird” duet with Louis Armstrong or his QRS recordings from … [Read more...]

In the next day or so, I'll post impressions of the Portland Jazz Festival, including performances by McCoy Tyner, Miguel Zenon, Bill Frisell, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dave Peck and Lynn Darroch. We're overdue for new Doug's Picks. Watch this space or, more accurately, the space in the right-hand … [Read more...]

Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond has been running neck and neck with Frank Sinatra: The Life as best-selling book on jazz at the Barnes and Noble website. Yesterday we were first. Today we're second. And you thought the Winter Olympics were exciting. … [Read more...]