Nearly as old as jazz itself, Svend Asmussen celebrated his 100th birthday in February. The Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival honored him in a concert by two violinists, Bjarke Falgren and Gunnar Lidberg, who were inspired by the centenarian. Asmussen’s longtime guitar colleague Jacob Fischer was also a … [Read more...]

As the Rifftides staff flies home, digital magic allows us to continue reporting on highlights of the 2016 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. In the first of two Ystad appearances accompanying soloists, Sweden’s formidable Bohuslän Big Band backed singer LaGaylia Frazier. The Bohusläns opened the … [Read more...]

As I prepared to leave Ystad, I learned that clarinetist Pete Fountain died on Saturday in New Orleans. By way of his recordings and television exposure, he became an unofficial and effective cultural spokesman for his beloved hometown and was happy to return there following his years in the 1950s … [Read more...]

When bassist Avishai Cohen and his trio wrapped up their concert after midnight on Sunday, the 2016 edition of the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival became history. For this listener, the festival's five days of music included opportunities to hear several artists in person for the first time. One of them … [Read more...]

The Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival is in its fourth day. It is so jam-packed and tightly scheduled that this is my first opportunity to begin reporting on it. The early posts will be a series of observations rather than full reviews. As always at this festival, things get underway with the Swedish … [Read more...]

As I fly to Sweden this morning, I’ll be humming “Ack Värmeland du sköna,” the patriotic folk song Swedes love so much. It is, in effect, the country’s unofficial national anthem. Here it is, sung by the great Swedish tenor Jussi Björling in 1959. When Stan Getz recorded the song in … [Read more...]

Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music!—Sergei Rachmaninoff They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.—Charlie Parker Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual … [Read more...]

Denny Zeitlin, Solo Piano: Early Wayne (Sunnyside) Over the years, Zeitlin has made clear his affinity for Wayne Shorter’s compositions. In previous Sunnyside albums he explored the harmonic depths and structural challenges of “Deluge” and “Footprints,” and in a MaxJazz CD more than a … [Read more...]

Claude Williamson, a piano mainstay of jazz in California for seven decades, died on July 16 in Los Angeles. He had been in decline since he fell in his home in 2015 and broke a hip. After Williamson moved from Boston to L.A. in 1947, he played with Charlie Barnet’s band for two years and was the … [Read more...]

After posting (see the previous exhibit) last night’s piece about Bill Mays and our impending visit to Sweden, it occurred to me that I failed to include an example of Mr. Mays’ prowess as a solo pianist. His gift has been on display since he came to prominence in California in the early 1960s. … [Read more...]

Bill Mays and I are looking forward to being a part of the 2016 Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. We have done our concert “A History of Jazz Piano” twice in The United States and are delighted that Jan Lundgren, the festival’s artistic director, invited us to Ystad to present it for the first time … [Read more...]

Many thanks to artsjournal.com commander-in-chief Doug McLennan (pictured) for posting the previous item while Rifftides was in a digital shambles that rendered us incommunicado. The photo Doug used to accompany the announcement symbolized the chaos. As the problem got worse over a couple of weeks … [Read more...]

With the Republican nominating convention in the US presidential race underway, a passage in the novel Poodie James comes to mind. The mayor, Torgerson, is trying to drive Poodie, the title character, out of town, claiming that he’s connected with a civic threat from hobos who camp along the … [Read more...]

Good things go around and come around, if we’re lucky. Many good things having to do with jazz show up on the Daily Jazz Gazette of the Mosaic Records website. Michael Cuscuna and the Mosaic staff post stories and performances of lasting value. Their latest alert concerns—for … [Read more...]

Bassist Bill Crow’s column “The Band Room” is an event New York musicians look forward to each month. It appears in Allegro, the newspaper of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians. As readers of Bill’s books know, he is a superb anecdotist who tells stories about jazz artists … [Read more...]

The generations move on. It’s a sad part of an observer’s task to acknowledge the deaths of musicians who made important contributions. Pianist Don Friedman died of pancreatic cancer at home in New York City on June 30. He was 81. Friedman was treasured by fellow musicians for the subtlety … [Read more...]