Today is the 100th birthday of the great Danish violinist Svend Asmussen. Without going into the details of Asmussen’s long, varied and influential career, let us simply recognize him as one of the handful (or fewer) of violinists who in the 1930s proved their instrument capable of swing and emotional expression at the highest jazz level. He may well be the only man alive who played with Fats Waller, Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli, Stuff Smith and Duke Ellington.
Our first clip is of Asmussen, Alice Babs and guitarist Ulrik Neumann, who were known as the Swe-danes, performing a piece that was a hit in Scandinavia for years. They thrived in the late 1950s.
In the next video, we find Asmussen in 1986 at the Club Montmartre in Copenhagen. His accompanists are Kenny Drew, piano; Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, bass; and Ed Thigpen, drums. The piece is by Duke Ellington.
Thanks to Sven Bjerstedt of Lund University in Malmö, Sweden, for the reminder about Asmussen’s birthday.
Romero Lubambo. Effusive and dramatic in a garment of geometric design, she appeared after the quartet warmed up with “Summertime,†a nice touch in wet and wintry Portland.
With the 2016 Portland Jazz Festival built around the legacy of John Coltrane (1926-1967), Javon Jackson’s appearances were reminders of his tenor saxophone hero’s lasting impact on the music. In a Winningstad Theatre concert, Jackson headed a quartet called We Four. The band included a Coltrane colleague, the veteran drummer Jimmy Cobb; pianist George Cables; and the young bassist Corcoran Holt. Jackson kicked off “So What†at a turbo-charged tempo. In his solo he disclosed his ‘Trane credentials and chops in variations on a phrase adapted from Coltrane’s celebrated solo on the piece in the 1959 Miles Davis Kind of Blue
into his solo; right-hand fillips commenting on his own improvisation. It was a surprising and beautiful manifestation of the mind’s ability to create simultaneously on two levels. With impressive arco tone, Holt bowed a solo on the song’s bridge section. Jackson ended the tune with an unaccompanied tag that featured harmonics—the playing of two notes at once. Coltrane mastered the technique, and so has Jackson.
We Four paid tribute through several pieces associated with Coltrane. Highlights:
of most interesting jazz towns in the country. Guitarist Dan Balmer (pictured) was the leader, with Tony Pacini piano; Ed Bennett, bass; and Mel Brown, drums. Playing to a packed house at Jimmy Mak’s club, their repertoire was heavy on pieces by pianist Tommy Flanagan, one of Coltrane’s favorite colleagues in the 1950s. The tunes included “Minor Mishap,†the blues “Freight Trane,†and “Eclypso.†Without the leadership duties of the previous evening, Jackson seemed relaxed in the comfortable surroundings of the club. He again played a superb solo on “My Shining Hour.†Pacini was impressive in a vigorously two-handed solo that had a stirring passage of parallel octaves. Everything Balmer played was alive with the energy that has helped make him an Oregon institution.
Alto saxophonist Gary Bartz opened his Portland Jazz Festival concert singing a slow blues. He wasn’t lamenting his or anyone else’s troubles. The main message of his lyric was, “Sadness gotta leave this room.†It was his only vocal of the evening. If there was sadness, he banished it quickly in a series of four-bar exchanges with guitarist Paul Bollenback. The quartet picked up the tempo and Bartz soloed with phrasing and humor reminiscent of Sonny Rollins, one of his early inspirations. Indeed, Bartz’s sound has more in common with Rollins’s commodious tenor saxophone tone than with that of most other alto players. In the course of his set he constructed a saxophone triptych of sorts, briefly quoting “Like Sonny,†John Coltrane’s piece in tribute to Rollins.
listener. When he wasn’t soloing, he locked in with concentration and evident enjoyment on every solo by Bollenback, bassist James King and drummer Greg Bandy. Bollenback is strangely disregarded in discussions of jazz guitarists despite his history of stimulating work with Bartz, Joey DeFrancesco and Steve Gadd, among others. He soloed well and accompanied Bartz’ solos with blues-inflected chords. Bollenback and Bartz indulged in a couple of free-range games of tag that merged into funky endings. Like Lloyd and bassist Gary Peacock the night before, Bartz did not announce tunes, sliding from one into the next. As he neared the end of the set, he substituted his curved soprano sax for the alto, quoted “I’ll Never Be The Same†and leaned into the blues, riding on Bandy’s drum backbeat and managing to smile as he played.
the soul feeling that Martino absorbed and refined with the saxophonists Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt and with organists Richard Groove Holmes, Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith and Don Patterson. Martino is admired equally for his technical agility and a mathematical approach to improvisation that he is able to combine with his blues sensibility. In Portland, that resulted in an exhilarating series of solos. Bianchi at least matched his leader’s verve and inventiveness and in a couple of cases outstripped Martino in swing and interesting ideas. Intorre’s drumming propels without intruding. His ability to place a rhythm accent at precisely the right millisecond was a major factor in the band’s swing.
Another established firm took over when pianist Kenny Barron (pictured at rehearsal) brought bassist Kyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Jonathan Blake to the stage. As if he had inherited a portion of Bud Powell’s manic energy, Barron tore into “Bud Like,†his composition named with Powell in mind. He unquestionably makes use of Powell’s way with harmony, although Barron’s softer keyboard touch is a major part of the individuality he brings to whatever he plays. “Lullaby,†another original, was a waltz in which Blake’s brushes provided a backdrop for Barron’s application of that touch and for the pianist’s ingenuity in deepening a tune’s harmonic interest. “Nightfall†was Barron’s tribute to the ballad’s composer, the late bassist Charlie Haden, with whom he recorded a memorable 
bobbing or swaying in place, Lloyd gave bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Eric Harland (pictured left) the same close attention. The quartet’s unity was remarkable through the traditional Mexican song “La Llorona†and three parts of 
                              Peacock     Baron     Copland
bass pattern that set up “Footprints,†the Wayne Shorter piece played by several bands at this festival. Peacock maintained his bass pattern for Copland’s solo. Baron continued to sculpt patterns of his own that continued during the virtuoso Peacock solo that followed Copland’s. Baron switched from brushes to sticks for a melodic solo that included a deftly placed “Salt Peanuts†quote that brought smiles from his colleagues and chuckles in the audience.
Fortune’s “Footprints†explosion, pianist Theo Saunders eased off before invigorating his solo in a series of keyboard flurries and parallel chords.
Fresh from winning the American Pianists Association’s Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz, Fortner incorporated influences both subtle and obvious. He used the blues to work his way into “Making Whoopee and invested the performance with a rollicking quote from “Surrey With The Fringe on Top†and a sly borrowing from Willie The Lion Smith’s “Echoes of Spring.†Fortner seems anything but calculated in his improvisations. In “Someone to Watch Over Me,†he led himself briefly into what might have been a blind harmonic alley and with a daring octave leap found a way out. He made a transition from Bill Evans’s “Very Early†to his own composition “Ballade,†which included a lovely cycle-of-5ths section. Although he can be dazzling in his use of technique, nothing Fortner plays seems intended purely for effect. He made clever paraphrases of the melody in “Just One of Those Things,†worked in a few seconds of waltz time, hinted at James P. Johnson’s swing feeling, then went into the full stride piano style of which Johnson was the master. Introducing his melding of Ellington’s “Single Petal of a Rose†and Strayhorn’s “Star Crossed Lovers,†he described their storied partnership as a “love story†inspired by the Divinity, then reflected on his own love of the piano and of music. 
right), Charles Lloyd, Sonny Fortune, Pharaoh Sanders, Gary Bartz, Javon Jackson, Jimmy Greene, James Carter, Joe Lovano and other saxophonists who have come to prominence under Coltrane’s influence. Among the festival’s other main-stage artists will be Chuck Israels (pictured left), Pat Martinto, Kenny Barron, the Brian Blade Fellowship, Dianne Reeves, John Scofield and Orrin Evans. To see
the complete rundown, 
In case you have been in solitary confinement and haven’t heard the news, below are the winners of 2016 Grammys in the jazz category. The links (in blue) are to Rifftides posts that contain reviews of three of the winning albums.
It’s not his birthday or the anniversary of his death, but Bill Evans seems to be in the air. Perhaps he’s always in the air. Response to the previous Rifftides post seems to say so.
Last month’s Rifftides post titled “Evans After LaFaro†included video of the Bill Evans Trio in a 1962 performance that I credited to Italian television because of its imprint RAIDUE, the name of an Italian broadcast company. Reader Peter Levin’s detective work turned up the true source of the clip. He wrote,
In the years before his death in late 2013, the American alto saxophonist Herb Geller often traveled from his home in Hamburg for appearances with Italian pianist Roberto Magris and his trio. This last live Geller album is from the 2009 Novi Sad Jazz Festival in Serbia, with bonus tracks recorded shortly after at Vienna’s Porgy & Bess club. It finds Geller still thriving at 81, playing heartily and treating the audience to stories about several of the tunes in his repertoire. He emphasizes his debt to Benny Carter, then performs a moving version of Carter’s “Lonely Woman.†The album has Geller in good form in pieces by Johnny Mandel, Zoot Sims, Cole Porter and Billy Strayhorn, among others. The energy and joy he pours into Frank Loesser’s “If I Were A Bell†inspire Magris and the young bassist Nikola Matosic to solo with equal vigor. Enzo Carpentieri is the resourceful drummer.
concentrates on his connections to the hip-hop phenomenon (Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, et al). That may cause apprehension among those yet to be enamored of hip-hop. They needn’t be too concerned.
Pianist Diehl attracted attention and favorable reviews with his first album, The Bespoke Man’s Narrative. Touring and recording with singer Cécile McLorin Savant brought him further acclaim for his thoroughgoing musicianship and grasp of all aspects of the jazz tradition. With bassist David Wong and drummer Quincy Davis rounding out a solid rhythm section, Diehl brings in four collaborators. The young tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley appears on two tracks, pleasing with his light tone and impressive for fluency and harmonic acuity reminiscent of Lucky Thompson and Benny Golson. Perhaps not coincidentally, Golson plays on two tracks. There is a rollicking guest shot on another by the venerable baritone saxophonist Joe Temperley.
final performance—might lead a listener to expect stark, autumnal music. Nine months before Kenny Wheeler died in 2014, his celebrated extreme high register was gone, but his lyricism and sense of beauty were intact. He had confined his playing to the trumpet’s gentler cousin the flugelhorn. If anything, his expression was more profound. Little abrasions in some of his notes, burryness in his tone, don’t matter because the content he invents in piece after piece is perfection. The emotion he expresses and the clarity of the spontaneous composing in his solos are flawlessly in synch. Guitarist John Parricelli, bassist Chris Laurence, and especially tenor saxophonist Stan Sulzmann and drummer Martin France, made Wheeler’s last quintet a nonpareil vessel and a mirror for his brilliance. There is much in Wheeler’s long career to remember him by. Songs For Quintet provides a heartfelt Amen.
For the next couple of Rifftides sessions, let’s try to catch up with the ceaseless incoming flow of jazz recordings. Catching up can’t be done, of course, but why not enjoy attempting the impossible? The first installment considers a few relatively recent releases.
Pianist Matthew Shipp’s solo, duo, trio and quartet CDs appear so frequently that the only way to keep up with them would be to leave little time for other listening. Following last year’s tribute to Ellington, To Duke, the pianist applies his imagination, risk-taking and formidable technique to seven of his own compositions. The mainstream jazz current that has flowed through his music even at its most daring is strong here, notably so in “Blue Abyss†and “Primary Form.†Michael Bisio is again the pianist’s bassist, joined at the hip with Shipp. The veteran Newman Taylor Baker is in for Shipp’s longtime drummer Whit Dickey. The setup riff for the title tune might serve as an introduction to Bernstein’s “Something’s Coming.†Shipp incorporates a dancing feeling that would be compatible with an avant garde Broadway musical, if there were such a thing. Baker has thoughtful drum breaks in the piece that speak of his bebop and post-bop leanings. Shipp’s unaccompanied solo piece, “Stream of Light,†seems to be sheer invention, with no apparent compositional reference points. Yet, it hangs together as a high point of the album.
best-known compositions. Bassist Hans Backenroth (Swedish) and drummer Kristian Leth (Danish) add to the spirit of international cooperation. For the most part, Allen avoids the blandness that has sometimes encouraged naps during his solos. More than that, he all but explodes with energy in “Cinnamon and Clove,†which has an equally stirring Lundgren solo. Allen ends the piece with a saxophone sigh of satisfaction. In “Suicide is Painless,†the theme from M*A*S*H, both dig into stirring double-time passages. Backenroth’s bass line and Leth’s brushes on his snare drum work hand-in-hand to give “Quietly There†propulsion that makes the piece at once relaxed and compelling. The quartet performs loving versions of two classic Mandel ballads, “A Time For Love†and “Just A Child.†This 2014 album got lost in the shuffle and worked its way back to the top of the logjam. I’m glad that it did.
The press release that came with Rebecca Kilgore’s new album quotes Johnny Mandel:
The German saxophonist Nicole Johänntgen is one of Europe’s busiest musicians, traveling frequently from her home in Switzerland to play with a cross-section of the continent’s jazz artists. In a review, the critic Mane Stelzer called her “a bundle of energy with great creative power.†Ms. Johänntgen has organized a movement called Sofia that is dedicated to bringing together accomplished women jazz artists. A recent promotional video brings her together with herself—in quadruplicate.
This is an alert to an event—a recording documenting the birth of an ensemble that electrified listeners and set a new standard for big band jazz. Count Basie trumpeter Thad Jones and Stan Kenton drummer Mel Lewis first played together at a jam session in Detroit in 1955. More than a decade later, their affinity coalesced into the creation of a big band that debuted in New York’s Village Vanguard. Fifty years later, its successor still appears there every Monday night. What began as rehearsals of leading jazzmen playing for the joy of it became one of the most admired outfits in the music’s history. Resonance Records’ George Klabin recorded the band’s first night. He captured the joy in excellent sound. This is an invaluable addition to the Jones/Lewis canon. For background, see 
It is Superbowl Sunday in the United States. The Superbowl is an event in which the top two National Football League teams play one another for the league championship. Tickets to the game sell for as much as $5,000. The television audience numbers in the millions. Our photograph shows Al Hirt at the Superbowl in 1967. Jazz musicians are no longer invited to play there; rock and roll dominates the halftime show. Before today’s kickoff, Lady Gaga sang the national anthem.
Rifftides reader Mike Harris responded to last week’s post about the passing of pianist Frank Collett (pictured) and the outpouring of comments about him.