I’ve been busy in my continuing battle with the tech monster you see on the right. He won’t leave my computer system alone. I was so occupied with his depredations that I didn’t realize until the day was all but gone that this is Roy Haynes’ 88th birthday. It would be wrong to let it go by … [Read more...]

Just because: Michael Brecker, tenor saxophone Joey Calderazzo, piano Jay Anderson, bass Adam Nussbaum, drums “Peep” Juan Le Pins Jazz Festival, 1990 … [Read more...]

The drummer Artt Frank is observing his 80th birthday and the impending publication of his memoir about work and friendship with Chet Baker (they are pictured together). On Frank’s website, Baker is quoted as saying, “Artt Frank is my all-time favorite drummer. He always seems to know where I'm … [Read more...]

The attention-getting device above is one of the late Leo Meiersdorff’s album covers for the Thad Jones Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. If we have your attention, here’s an announcement from Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest about next Sunday's broadcast: SRJO PLAYS THAD JONES: FROM BASIE TO THE … [Read more...]

All The Things You Are: The Life of Tony Bennett by David Evanier Reviewed by Paul Paolicelli Tony Bennett is the longest-running act from the “greatest generation” of American popular singers. His career has spanned seven decades and his popularity is as strong today as it was when … [Read more...]

Speaking of John Coltrane (see the post two items down), if you’re looking for a starter saxophone for your child, here’s a great opportunity. Yes, that says $115,000. But, hey, shipping is free. Before he became famous for his tenor and soprano saxophone playing, Coltrane was an alto … [Read more...]

Blogging will be suspended while we try to subdue an invading tech gremlin. Damage so far is slight, the only casualty a printer. The Rifftides staff is doing everything possible to make sure that the incursion is terminated—with prejudice—and we send the troublemaker back to infinity, or … [Read more...]

Lester Perkins of Jazz On The Tube pointed out that today is Jimmy Garrison’s birthday. Garrison, who died in 1976, would have been 79. Perkins alerted his subscribers to a 1968 video from Danish television of the bassist featured with Elvin Jones’s trio on Garrison’s composition “Sweet … [Read more...]

At last year’s Healdsburg Jazz Festival in California, pianist Michele Rosewoman’s trio welcomed trombonist Julian Priester as their guest. They played Priester’s “End Dance” from his album In Deep End Dance (say it aloud, fast). Andy McKee is the bassist, Billy Hart the drummer. The sound … [Read more...]

There’s a lot happening at night in the City Of Roses during the Portland Jazz Festival, but overlapping scheduling makes it impossible to hear many of the excellent Pacific Northwest musicians featured in clubs and hotels. During my five days in town, concerts at the big theaters precluded … [Read more...]

Steve Kuhn's Portland festival edition of his trio teamed the pianist with his longtime collaborator Joey Baron on drums and Buster Williams playing bass. The flow of Kuhn’s melodic lines, the density of his harmonies and his assured swing established him long since as one of the major trio … [Read more...]

In a Portland festival conversation at the Art Bar, interviewer Tim DuRoche questioned pianist Steve Kuhn (pictured ca 1960) about first hearing Bill Evans. “Did it rattle you a little bit?” DuRoche asked. It did, because we were sort of on parallel paths. I heard him for the first time … [Read more...]

Friday night, members of several graduating classes of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers celebrated their boss. Tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson assembled the intergenerational all-star band only for their concert at the Portland Jazz Festival. Jackson, alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, trombonist … [Read more...]

Conversations with musicians are valuable sidebars to performances at the Portland Jazz Festival. They allow audiences to hear artists talk about what they do. At the Art Bar, drummer and radio host Carlton Jackson rounded up four prominent drummers and asked them: "When every element is in … [Read more...]

Patricia Barber Ms. Barber’s fans seem to admire whatever she does. The Thursday night audience at Portland’s Winningstad Theater indulged the pianist and singer’s every eccentricity. They chuckled as she spent the first two or three minutes of her set adjusting or removing her shoes. She … [Read more...]

Full of his customary pzazz behind the drum set and on the microphone, Wilson led two sets last night at Jimmy Mak's, one of the prime small venues at the Portland Jazz Festival. He and his fellow Arts And Crafters hewed more or less to the repertoire of their most recent CD, An Atitude for … [Read more...]

In a Portland Jazz Festival conversation this morning, host Devin Philips asked his fellow saxophonist Kenny Garrett to watch a video of himself and comment on it. The performance was 16 years ago at the Montreux, Switzerland, festival. Pianist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Nat Reeves and drummer Jeff … [Read more...]