Musicians concerned about the health of their fragile instruments do whatever they can to keep them from the tender mercies of airlines baggage handlers. Perhaps it is possible for them to protest too much. Trumpeter Valery Ponomarev is suffering the pain of a broken arm and the inconvienience of an … [Read more...]

I've seen men lose 50 years in just a few hours. Baseball is better than sex. It is better than music, although I do believe jazz comes in a close second. It does fill you up. --John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil, Jr. (1911-2006) Mr. O'Neil died last Friday at 94. He was a star of the Kansas City Monarchs … [Read more...]

Next weekend, Jim Wilke will broadcast the first half of the Bill Mays concert melding jazz and classical music. Jim recorded the concert at The Seasons for his Jazz Northwest. Part 1 will air exclusively on Tacoma/Seattle's KPLU 88.5 on Sunday, October 15 at 1 pm Pacific Daylight Time. Cellist … [Read more...]

It is hardly a secret that some of the best large jazz aggregations in the world operate under the auspices of the United States military. One index to the excellence of the Air Force's Airmen Of Note and the U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble is the number of major civilian jazz soloists who have … [Read more...]

Last month's Paul Gonsalves posting continues to stimulate recollections by Rifftides readers who admired the Duke Ellington tenor saxophonist. Here is another reminiscence, from a man who heard the band when neither Ellington nor Gonsalves had long to live. I appreciate your piece on Paul … [Read more...]

What is music to you? What would you be without music? Music is everything. Nature is music (cicadas in the tropical night). The sea is music, the wind is music. The rain drumming on the roof and the storm raging in the sky are music. Music is the oldest entity. The scope of music is immense and … [Read more...]

The Fall Festival at The Seasons ended on Saturday night with a shout. In the second of two concerts by the Bill Mays Trio, the focus was primarily on themes from classical music. The string section of the Finisterra Trio integrated with the Mays group on several pieces. Following two days of … [Read more...]

Many Rifftides readers check in regularly with Terry Teachout's indispensable artsjournal.com blog About Last Night. You may also read him in The Wall Street Journal, where Terry's Sightings column over the weekend concerned the economic, ethical, commercial and cultural facets of a phenomenon … [Read more...]

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers called this morning with the news that Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond is the winner of a 2006 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, my second. I am unable to tell you the names of the winners in other categories. ASCAP is waiting … [Read more...]

A Rifftides reader wrote to say that he did not understand drummer Nick Martinis's quote in Charlie Shoemake's anecdote about swinging or not swinging. Martinis said to his bandmates....."Well cats, do we swing tonight or do we hide 'one'?" Perhaps there are other readers who don't get it. Here's an … [Read more...]

Posting will be light, if at all, for the next few days. For one thing, the Rifftides staff will be employed in prepping and painting the larger of the two sheds at Rifftides world headquarters. For another, The Seasons Fall Festival is underway, there's a lot of jazz and classical music to be … [Read more...]

Charlie Shoemake, the vibraharpist, leader and teacher, checks in with a story pertinent to the Rifftides discussion about swing and jazz values. Thought you would get a laugh out of a true anecdote that concerns the current topic in your column. 40 years (or so) ago I was playing a night at Dontes … [Read more...]

In the right-hand column under Doug's Picks, we have three CDS, a DVD and a book. One of the CDs is old and up to date. The book is old with a message that's never out of date. … [Read more...]

Saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator Bill Kirchner writes from New Jersey: I've read all the comments with interest--fortunately, they all come from thoughtful persons. Otherwise, discussions like this can be insufferable. My favorite rejoinder in such discussions comes, I believe, from … [Read more...]

We have posted several new comments about Mel Narunsky's communique concerning what is and is not jazz, including a new one from Mr. Narunsky himself. You will find them here, appended to the original message. We also received a mini-essay from the bandleader, arranger, composer, trombonist, … [Read more...]

Reaction to Mel Narunsky's forthright declaration that it don't mean a thing if--well, you know--is posted following his manifesto. Frankly, I thought there would be more comment, and I hope that there will be. There is a fortunate byproduct of this discussion. I clicked on the link in the ID at the … [Read more...]

Quite apart from nailing down a definition of swing, Ornette Coleman agreed to talk with Ben Ratliff of The New York Times about the nature of music itself. To his credit, Ratliff got the perenially unorthodox musician to emerge, even briefly, from the cloud of vagueness in which he has customarily … [Read more...]

This is Chico Hamilton's eighty-fifth birthday. I spent some of it listening to his new recordings, admiring his taste and versatility and marveling at the undiminished energy he pours into his drum set, an instrument that challenges the physical resources of players a quarter his age. Like many … [Read more...]

Bennie Maupin was on the New York jazz scene as a saxophonist and bass clarinetist in New York in the 1960s and '70s, most famously as a member of Miles Davis's Bitches Brew cast and of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi group. He worked off and on with Hancock for twenty years. In Penumbra … [Read more...]