[contextly_auto_sidebar id="vuRd87ug4idXpW5aLnIa3C9oeQj6u8zn"] The past seven days have seen the deaths of three musicians who came to prominence as young men and had long careers in the swing, bebop and post-bop eras. Buddy DeFranco, who in the 1940s was the first to successfully adapt the … [Read more...]

Nat Cole (1919-1965) was one of the most admired young jazz pianists of the late 1930s and early ‘40s. In nightclubs, he occasionally included vocals in numbers with his trio, and patrons began requesting more of them. The King Cole Trio’s 1943 recording of his composition “Straight Up and Fly … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="uPkcdoYgiMKZmu9XXlsLZ6ZBsnrWUexG"] Doing a bit of holiday morning web surfing, I discovered a live version of one of the pieces from Carla Bley’s delightful 2008 album Carla’s Christmas Carols. Ms. Bley and Steve Swallow performed it in Montenegro in 2010 with Ed … [Read more...]

The Rifftides staff’s present to you is a masterpiece from John Lewis’s rare 1958 album European Windows. Thank you for being with us in 2014 and for the reader comments that are essential to what makes blogging for you so rewarding. … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="YSgOUejoUSrxyclfDlxHra23Kqs4TDny"] Frank Zappa (1940-1993), a gifted musician who dipped his toe into jazz, never demonstrated more than a smidgeon of what he knew about the genre. But he left us with the memorable observation, “Jazz isn’t dead. It just smells … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="biC2vOREzy8PdTTbhFZPNiv22lClwGTG"] Thanks to Rifftides reader Greg Curtis for flagging a performance by Les Paul of Harold Arlen’s best known song. This was at Fat Tuesday’s in New York, most likely in the 1990s. Paul’s accompanists were rhythm guitarist Lou … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ROYWqvJQiOpHdWzJ4ffCpdzOkv72hIvn"] Once during a listening session, I apologized to Paul Desmond for the pops and scratches on a worn LP. “I don’t care if it’s on a cellophane strip,” he said, “ as long as I can hear what everybody is doing.” When it comes … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="bgvh2yyaxsx3eADh8mpRBNp3N9AboaQT"] If your listening mood has shifted to Christmas, veteran jazz broadcaster Jim Wilke is ready to accommodate you. He has prepared a wide-ranging program by artists from his neck of the woods, the Pacific Northwest. Here’s Jim’s … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="qdDCS7BZfPPmKCFIpI6c55e5Q5Rp04io"] How do you get to Carnegie Hall? "Practice," the violinist Fritz Kreisler famously told a tourist who asked him that question on a New York street. But can a performer practice too much—practice the life out of a piece of music? … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xanFlgjw7HSoTPVozCDubGHxw1mWLgn4"] The new video recording of an acclaimed theatre piece recounts the surreal workings of pianist Fred Hersch’s mind during a long medically induced coma. Documentaries about trumpeter Clifford Brown and the composer, arranger and … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="bLXjQhCHqLSvwiD0ns2KNtC7foLJY6By"] Alexander Eydelman, who founded the Moscow Jazz Art Club in 1993 and has been its only president, writes stories under the name" Aleksander Antoshin. Through" the help of Rifftides Moscow correspondent Svetlana Ilicheva, Mr. Eydelman … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="2IyUmP9Wbts3ABKAM1m53LFcxeaEnZMg"] On this second anniversary of Dave Brubeck’s death, an animated cartoon from Russia is a reminder of the impact that his music has had in many, perhaps most, parts of the world. Occasional Rifftides Moscow correspondent Svetlana … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="QB7unMhULzJRqZGJtIxG8oEfTtjZAkaq"] Pianist Spike Wilner, the proprietor of Smalls and Mezzrow’s in New York’s Greenwich Village, sends occasional email newsletters about who is playing at his clubs. Now and then he includes sidebar items about things that interest … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="UVgREQ9ulr6Z58oK6mJtAtDNQUqL2uRn"] Billy Strayhorn was born 99 years ago today. He wrote the music and the wan, world-weary lyric of “Lush Life” when he was a sixteen-year-old in his native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Having arranged to meet Duke Ellington backstage … [Read more...]

Three cheers, five stars and a slap on the back for Sony. I was trapped interminably in the electronics company's voice mail system. Sony made up for it when I finally got a robot voice that said, Due to an unusually high volume of calls, all of our associates are busy with other customers. … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="TVJkPaiRMT3p8zMzY0XaAFwQX51qzktS"] Into his waking hours Denny Zeitlin manages to work fly fishing, mountain biking, master-level wine connoisseurship, the practice of psychiatry and—let’s see, there was something else. Oh yes, he plays the piano. In his … [Read more...]