Almost two years ago I disclosed with some excitement that videotape existed of portions of a television performance of Focus, the classic collaboration between Stan Getz and the brilliant composer and arranger Eddie Sauter. The Rifftides staff tracked down the clip and posted it. I hope that you … [Read more...]

. . .this is my dilemma. I’m a guy who makes things up as I go along, so nothing is ever finished; there are so many layers. So when you solo, yeah, you might get into one thing, but then, hey, everything has implications! You can hear the next level. And that’s how I feel about … [Read more...]

I wanted to be able to write for the symphony orchestra. I wanted to write for the movies. I wanted to write for television. I wanted to be able to do it with great speed, great accuracy, and that’s what I did. Jazz, to me, has to be loose. You can’t be tight. When you get too tight … [Read more...]

Response to the recent Rifftides post about courtesy titles in news stories made it clear that readers care about ethical practices affecting the news reports they read, hear and watch. A post from 2006, in the Pleistocene era of this blog, dealt with journalism ethics at large. Here it is again, … [Read more...]

Yes, yes, I know. Sonny Rollins is 83 today, and Rifftides is joining the celebration late. There is a reason but no excuse. We jump on the birthday bandwagon by bringing you Rollins playing an extended version of a tune his mother remembered from her girlhood in the Virgin Islands. "St. Thomas" has … [Read more...]

For a couple of hundred years, newspapers used courtesy titles. Many papers that equated Abraham Lincoln with the devil often wrote about “Mr. Lincoln” or “The President,” even as their editorials pilloried him. Up until about the time of Ronald Regan, in news columns and in radio and … [Read more...]

Gerald Wilson celebrated his 95th birthday yesterday. He looks back on a career studded with achievement as a trumpeter, bandleader, composer and pioneering arranger. Early on in his writing Wilson achieved the unexpected, incorporating daring classical harmonic techniques in his big band … [Read more...]

If you, too, did not make it to Detroit over the weekend for the city’s jazz festival, reading about it may be small consolation. Nonetheless, Mark Stryker’s account in The Detroit Free Press conveys his excitement and covers the highlights as he heard and saw them. Stryker is not a sports … [Read more...]

Rifftides readers have developed the recent Bing And Trane post into a colloquy on Red Garland (pictured). Garland was the pianist on “Love Thy Neighbor,” the Coltrane recording featured in the piece, and in the Miles Davis Quintet of the second half of the 1950s. His 1970s Texas comeback brings … [Read more...]

Monday, September 2, is Labor Day in the United States. Congress established it in 1894 as a national holiday to honor working people. Decades ago, the observance expanded into a long weekend during which Americans celebrate the end of summer by going to beaches, swimming pools, mountains, … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Fred Augerman writes: Hi Doug, I was kind of surprised that there was no mention of the passing of Stan Kenton, which was on August 25, 1979! Here's Shelly Manne's very poignant tribute at the time of Stan's … [Read more...]

Reminding us all that today is Charlie Parker’s 93rd birthday, Rifftides reader Mark Mohr sent a message. We have been going through a siege of major losses in jazz, so it is of considerable comfort to be cheered by Mr. Mohr’s message, which, in its entirety, is: Bird Lives … [Read more...]

By special arrangement with the publisher, Rifftides readers may acquire autographed copies of Doug's novel Poodie James at a reduced price. To see a description of the book, read an excerpt and learn how to order, click on Purchase Doug's Books on the blue border above. The special price will be in … [Read more...]

The piece below ran earlier this month. After it was posted for a few days, the videos were removed. No one at Rifftides or the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts has been able to find out why. Several readers have asked what happened and whether we can restore the videos. The answers are: I don't … [Read more...]

A week after her death at 95, Marian McPartland is still on my mind. She’ll be there for a long time. In his biography of the pianist published earlier this year, Shall We Play That One Together? Paul de Barros did a splendid job of blending the facets of McPartland’s personality. He contrasts … [Read more...]

I don’t know whether “Love Thy Neighbor” is the most unlikely song John Coltrane ever recorded, but his 1958 version is one of the most delightful. Mack Gordon and Harry Revel wrote it for the 1934 movie We’re Not Dressing, a classic of the shipwreck survivor genre. Bing Crosby sang it … [Read more...]