Jazz expresses a yearning for freedom that survives the worst oppression. In his essay "Red Music," the Czech novelist Josef Skvorecky wrote about an urge that even the most brutal tyranny cannot fully extinguish. Skvorecky grew up under Nazi occupation in World War Two. He was a budding tenor … [Read more...]

The latest DVD recommendation has joined the other new Doug's Picks in the right-hand column. … [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 improvising--there's … [Read more...]

In the right column under Doug's Picks, you will find three recommended new CDs and a book of photographs to keep you company. Soon to come: a new DVD pick. … [Read more...]

We get a lot of notices about concerts and club appearances. We don't publish them ("post them," in blogese). Rifftides is not, and will not be, a publicity clearinghouse. However, the Rifftides staff is making a one-time exception, partly because Margaret Davis, Henry Grimes' manager and ranking … [Read more...]

I have long been convinced that one of the predominant reasons listeners took the classic Dave Brubeck Quartet to their hearts was visual. In the late fifties through the sixties, it was hip for jazz musicians to turn their backs--literally or figuratively--on the audience and each other. In … [Read more...]

Eric Felten writes: On the "Kelly Blue" post: There's another reason to cherish Wynton Kelly's Kelly Blue. The title cut has what I consider to be Benny Golson's finest solo on record, and one of the great tenor solos of all time. It starts out bluesy and easy-going and builds relentlessly (and … [Read more...]

a href="http://www.arsc-audio.org/"target="_blank">The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2006 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. BEST RESEARCH in RECORDED JAZZ MUSIC Best History: Take Five: The Public and Private … [Read more...]

Once in a while it is necessary to take a day off and listen for the pleasure of the music, ignoring assignments and deadlines, including those that are self-imposed. Randomness is the key, letting one piece of music lead to the next. Sometimes the results are a surprise. I took a day off. Here's … [Read more...]

A couple of faithful Rifftides readers comment on the posting about the Bill Evans- Kenny Burrell video on YouTube. Ted O'Reilly counters my supposition that Evans and Burrell recorded together only one other time. He writes: Bill and Kenny are both sidemen with Chet Baker on Chet -- The Lyrical … [Read more...]

As far as I knew until today, Bill Evans and guitarist Kenny Burrell recorded together only once, on Evans' 1976 Quintessence session, which also included tenor saxophonist Harold Land, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Philly Joe Jones. The resourceful Jan Stevens of The Bill Evans Web Pages has … [Read more...]

The conventional web widsom is that the possibilities of the internet are infinite. Fellow blogger DevraDoWrite, aka Devra Hall, seems determined to prove the theory. She has launched a new multifaceted venture in addition to her blog. It's called SnapSizzleBop! The exclamation point is part of the … [Read more...]

ASCAP (American Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers) has formally announced the winners of its 39th annual Deems Taylor Awards. As promised earlier, when I learned that Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond is a winner, here is the alphabetical list of authors and … [Read more...]

Johnnie Taylor, the blues singer, called me up one day and said I ought to play some rock and roll. No. No way. The blues, yes, that's my heart. And let me play some Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, good standards, improvise on those. But play rock and roll? No, sir, that just isn't music to me. I'd … [Read more...]

It was not for nothing that Dinah Washington was called, or called herself, The Queen of The Blues. Whatever she sang was infected with the blues. While YouTube still exists, or before it is transformed by new ownership or copyright suits, do not miss the opportunity to see and hear a pertinent … [Read more...]

I actually tried to get a sound as big as Adrian Rollini, who was playing bass sax at that time . . . so I suppose whatever sound I get goes back to that.--Harry Carney No baritone player should be afraid of the noise it makes. Harry Carney isn't.--Pepper Adams … [Read more...]

Dan Nimmer's tale of talent and a lucky break resembles the story line of a feel-good movie. An accomplished twenty-one-year-old pianist, he moved from his native Milwaukee to New York City in early 2004. Wynton Marsalis heard him and was so impressed that when the piano chair in the Lincoln Center … [Read more...]

News has arrived of the death of Claude Luter, the French trumpeter turned clarinetist who formed a close friendship with Louis Armstrong. Luter died last Friday at eighty-three. Already a success at the age of twenty-five when he met Armstrong at the Nice Jazz Festival in 1948, his popularity … [Read more...]

The Rifftides staff loves to get your comments. We do not love to get messages in the comments file that are solicitations for Viagra, deviant sex, investment opportunities and cheap electronic equipment. Bogus comments come in by the dozens, doing the sender no good; they are dispatched to … [Read more...]