[contextly_auto_sidebar id="rNlup2zO1VNkePGfUuq6DhtoDwx4ohqE"] Steve Provizer’s comment about Bill Hardman’s off-center trumpet embouchure in last weekend’s Horace Silver video reminded me of other trumpeters with unconventional mouthpiece placement. There are many examples. Hardman’s, … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="5CmKLz89MiZp0hOSmYugrCc4XZEMEGkG"] In art, there is a bright line of quality above which categories do not matter. The best works of Mozart, Picasso, Charlie Parker and Laurence Olivier—to pick four names out of the stratosphere—are at a level of … [Read more...]

In the course of his career as a leader, Horace Silver (1928-2014) included in his band many of the most prominent young jazz musicians of the twentieth century. The quintet he took to Denmark in 1968 for the Jazz Omkring Midnat (Jazz Around Midnight) series was not together long, but the chemistry … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="3xxFBGJblDfpL1YA8SzgMmZvu25ge6qJ"] Organist Eddy Louiss died on June 30 in a Paris hospital. He was 74. His long career included widely praised albums with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and pianist Michel Petrucciani. Louiss became an organist when he was a member of the … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Ng3P59k8dqaUlOEzGI2gD4dhUmx4L977"] On his weekly broadcast today, Jim Wilke presents a band of New Yorkers and Seattleites whose performance was a highlight of an increasingly important Seattle jazz festival. Here is Jim's announcement: The Lucas Pino No Net Nonet … [Read more...]

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. –Benjamin Franklin America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. –Abraham … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="vfhCUAuB4vlhXm8lArlMKmMR85v2wSrb"] The Rifftides staff devoted a meeting to choosing a piece of music to bring you on this most American of holidays. After what seemed like hours of discussion, we bogged down in disagreement. Feelings may not have been running as high … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="4PrXl3PmgaKRloVqpCcNtKksYP8V4kec"] Dave Bass, NYC Sessions (Whaling City Sound) In the 1970s when pianist Dave Bass thought that a broken wrist had ended his career, he dropped out of music and into law school. Eventually, he became deputy attorney general of … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="PWhYCEov85WQIgonmjKOCbYxKpy6NM8p"] Here in the deep interior of Washington State, we are in our third day of heat above 100"° F (43.3"° C). Today's predicted high is 110"°. Public health officials are urging people to seek air conditioning, walk slowly, drink lots of … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="izTdsT1ZG2hP8MHQkmQfpbAchiRafDZc"] There will be a funeral service for the saxophonist, composer, bandleader and iconoclast Ornette Coleman in Manhattan at 11 o’clock tomorrow morning, June 27. Coleman died on June 11 at the age of 85. Rifftides noted his passing … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9RqU1dIrifC7uR0c7znDwSMywzk0Js6h"] In 1997 pianist Greg Reitan faced a problem familiar to many musicians. Practicing and trio rehearsals in his Los Angeles apartment building were bothering the neighbors. In their search for more private quarters Reitan and his … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="MoW5eXQN9tZ8ZrwbbXWxycIznHVRk6p9"] Gunther Schuller wrote two books about the history and development of jazz. The first, published by the Oxford University Press in 1968 was Early Jazz. The second —in 1989—was The Swing Era. They were detailed histories, … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="V9xcnr3kYNZjxUa1tNMFGLo5TLhnMu1r"] Gunther Schuller, who was prominent in classical music and stimulated attention to a hybrid movement in jazz, died today in Boston. He was 89. In addition to his authorship of influential modern classical pieces, Schuller in the late … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="tbnHIPKgXd5DgkIPJqOtn5LyTEdXbmuk"] One of the pre-eminent alto and tenor saxophonists of his time, James Moody (1925-2010) was also a flutist of extraordinary technique and imagination. Dozens of saxophonists have doubled on flute and a few—Sam Most, Eric Dolphy … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="81H3CUcExRx4dlMqzSnGa2VBPmbG9P2J"] Maria Schneider Orchestra, The Thompson Fields (artistShare) Maria Schneider leads a band of eighteen of the best musicians in New York and keeps winning awards for being on the leading edge of composers and arrangers. Yet, her … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="dmsAL8mp2nzKfEwXv6wDHXYPTH4QsyK1"] In the fall of 1965 pianist Bill Evans, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, bassist Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Alan Dawson toured parts of Western Europe. It was both a time of Cold War tension and a time when jazz enjoyed … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="RAkMOKggCsqJaveaQ0tpCZBCIwqtagjw"] Ornette Coleman, whose forthrightness and conviction helped change the course of jazz, died today in New York. He was 85. To many, the alto saxophonist, composer and bandleader seemed to have come from nowhere, or outer space, when … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="iZwj6xH22IHyU3vTEnJynWxsnvYoadRg"] Sometimes I’m happy, but not when malicious adware captures the computer’s operating system and paralyzes it. As ArtsJournal commander in chief Doug McLennan informed you, the attack came a couple of days ago and we were unable to … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="GpAkUWuCoXaLD4iP31uKt3vy3rpi19he"] Marc Myers, as all explorers of the jazz blogosphere know, is the proprietor of JazzWax, a winner of the Jazz Journalists Association's Blog Of The Year award. He is the author of the valuable book Why Jazz Happened. He writes … [Read more...]