… [Read more...]

Nearly four years ago, Rifftides reminded you of the bassist Ron Crotty, whose brief season of renown came in the early 1950s. Andrew Gilbert, a free lance writer and critic in the San Francisco Bay area, sought out Crotty recently and published an update in The Monthly, an East Bay magazine. … [Read more...]

The veteran Bay Area pianist Dick Vartanian sent the following illustrated note: From 2006 to 2009 Ron and Harold Jones were in my trio. I never worked with any bassist (or drummer) whom I enjoyed more, or was more relaxed with, than those two. I sure miss our gigs. … [Read more...]

If you missed last night’s BBC concert commemorating the late composer, arranger and bandleader Graham Collier, you can still hear it online. The concert at the BBC studios in London featured the British premiere of The Blue Suite, one of Collier’s final works. His partner John Gill describes … [Read more...]

Among those who shared November 25 as a birthday was Nat Adderley. The cornetist was born in 1931 in Tampa, Florida. His distinguished career included two extended periods in his brother Cannonball’s quintet. He also played in the big bands of Woody Herman and Lionel Hampton and in trombonist J.J. … [Read more...]

Paul Desmond was born on this date in 1924. As I was contemplating how to observe his 88th birthday without repeating material from the previous seven Rifftides observances of the occasion, a reader came to the rescue. Frank Roellinger sent a link and the following message. There is an … [Read more...]

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States. The staff is thankful for all Rifftides readers, wherever they live. From somewhere in vacationland (seen below)... ...Happy Thanksgiving … [Read more...]

I’m on vacation, but my mind seems not to be. It summoned up Bill Holman’s arrangement of “Just Friends” and wondered if Holman has ever recorded it on video. So, my mind and I went to the web. Sure enough, there was Willis with the WDR Big Band in 2000. We get not only his celebrated chart … [Read more...]

The flurry of comments, reminiscences and stories stimulated by the Konitz And Kenton post in the previous exhibit leads me to suspect that there may be considerable interest in Konitz’s current work. Jim Brown’s comment about that item described the effect on him of Konitz’s new quartet with … [Read more...]

Following up on the piece in the next exhibit, below is a poster for an edition of Stan Kenton’s Festival of Modern Jazz that played in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 7, 1954. Kenton was a busy fella in the fifties and put together concert packages that included a variety of artists in the days when … [Read more...]

Through the 1950s, touring jazz package concerts filled huge auditoriums. This picture from Jet Magazine’s September 4, 1952, issue shows three stars of a Stan Kenton package that combined Kenton’s band and an array of guest artists. If Gillespie, Christy and Parker recorded together on that … [Read more...]

When Rifftides launched in the dark ages of jazz blogging, 2005, a handful of us, if that many, pursued this hybrid form of communication. Now, jazz blogs have proliferated to the point where it is probably impossible to keep tabs on the expansion. This evening, Howard Mandel, president of the Jazz … [Read more...]

As he was about to leave for three weeks of gigs in Japan, to be followed by a week in Prague, peripatetic trumpeter Bobby Shew forwarded a succinct message and a video link from Cal Haines: Here is "Salt Peanuts" on tube. The band was swinging and solos were very good. There are … [Read more...]

Why? Because it’s been too long since you’ve heard it. What, you’ve never heard it? Good. I envy your coming to it for the first time. Here’s Count Basie from The Complete Decca Recordings. February 4, 1939. Harry Edison wrote the tune. He has the trumpet solo. Jack Washington is the … [Read more...]

Much of the post-election analysis overflowing the airwaves, newspapers and internet has to do with how the demographics of the United States have shifted. The change away from decisive political dominance by white people was underway long before the first Obama election in 2008. Since, it has … [Read more...]

Memo, or tweet, to Ben Ratliff: I owe you one. Somehow, I managed never to have heard of Cécile McLorin Salvant until Mack Avenue, a record company, sent a message announcing that it has signed her. The announcement included a link to a Sunday New York Times story by Mr. Ratliff. In … [Read more...]

I am a radical, having a nature that leads me to perpetual revolt. One thing I can’t understand is why people have such trouble with modern music. It seems to me to be perfectly intelligible. When I hear one of my pieces again, or listen to the record, I don’t see why people could … [Read more...]

Elliott Carter went his own way writing music that was often difficult to play and, for many audiences, difficult to hear. Eventually, he captured listeners and became one of the most honored American composers. Carter died yesterday in New York at 103 in the Greenwich Village apartment where he … [Read more...]