Pianist Billy Childs and vocalist Alicia Olatuja, their flight delayed for hours by snowstorms in the east, made it to Portland barely in time for Childs’ concert of songs by Laura Nyro (1947-1997). The material came from Childs’ 2014 Nyro tribute album Map To The Treasure. Olatuja and vocalist … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ejjCe3LCsqjJQn8kJxdcMpnu0P7qEyU8"] Trumpeter Nicholas Payton’s kaleidoscopic talent was on full, and generally satisfying, display with his trio at the Newmark Theatre. He frequently accompanied himself with his left hand on an electric piano as he played the trumpet … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="rdvSDvH6Ys5VJTuMSTZnKzNuxJHQzgiP"] The Portland Jazz Festival is in the final week of its 12-day run, with performances by headliners Julian Lage, Hal Galper, Sheila Jordan, Laurence Hobgood, Ron Carter and bluesman Lucky Peterson. Also scheduled: a plethora of … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ggRKAU1HDLT8SpIg1GAyLr0aJVnjCaBh"] There will be a funeral Service for Clark Terry next Saturday at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City’s Harlem. The trumpet and flugelhorn giant died last Sunday in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he and his wife Gwen lived … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="rF0eDyTpLAFzu8MsJDiRjSnwZo8FkTBA"] In the student competition held in connection with the festival, first-place prizes went to alto saxophonist Joel Steinke and singer Jacob Houser, both from Edmonds-Woodway High School near Seattle. Backed by the trio of pianist … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="bSJxHQ0ghWA1yfiWNuINjk9dyPdkgrTj"] With the theme of the Portland Jazz Festival centered around the 100th anniversary of Frank Sinatra's birth, two artists with top billing focused on interpreting songs associated with Sinatra. Mini-concerts by winners of the … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="sV2F4GLfaSN7Jbm7LWt4SpIIM6yemqqC"] At the Portland Jazz Festival, Freda Payne reached into her jazz, pop and soul background for the ingredients of an eclectic evening. Her performance summarized a career that began in the 1950s when she was a Detroit teenager. Payne … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="pNaOHkTH6QinLZJEcz1ZfG1EfqZpDbZF"] Clark Terry has died at 94 following his long battle with the effects of advanced diabetes. His wife Gwen posted the announcement this morning on her Facebook page. Our beloved Clark Terry has joined the big band in heaven … [Read more...]

Just one more reason why it’s good to be in Portland: Mount Hood from my hotel window at noon today. This is not typical winter weather here, but to the residents of this frequently damp city it certainly is welcome. … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="0wtFSeOt9q8YabkkEHXW4M8nK8lBlR7m"] As usual at the Portland Jazz Festival, no one can take in more than a slice of the music filling this city of 610,000. A friend and I paused at a crosswalk to hear a musician, tip basket at his feet, serenading passersby with his … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="TRFZkP4QckYoUE99f7oeqqwLtDQBlGtQ"] The Rifftides staff is off to Portland, Oregon for the first four days of the ten-day PDX Jazz Festival. I have been recruited to moderate a Saturday panel discussion about Frank Sinatra’s influence on jazz musicians. In my primary … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="BXUZN9ghI1VQcbBokGAHK9xIOnRD5hlS"] Boston, it would be kinder not to let you see this, but February out here is treating us rather differently from what you are enduring. Most years at this time eastern Washington State is likely to be covered in white. Today, … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="zgOOiq4KD7i3ik7zbTyBTiEwFVVXWDEv"] The obvious choice for music in a Valentine’s Day post may seem a cliché. Of course, Rifftides wouldn’t be caught dead clichéing. Still, given yesterday’s news about Clark Terry (see the next item in the queue), it seemed … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="loGbVUqbKpT3xbXqqM0jpl6axZ6P9Ns2"] Clark Terry has gone into hospice care after years of illness in which he was able to stay at home. The great trumpeter is 94 and suffers from extreme complications of diabetes. A fund raising campaign in and beyond the jazz community … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="5Er7CMgerFyJUIIxa1ub2yafBtzG90sL"] It is possible to have good luck on Friday the 13th. We have proof in the form of a recording from a Town Hall concert played by Thelonious Monk in New York City on February 28, 1959. “The Thelonious Monk Orchestra” is the grand … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="lC5rW7y607YF2QfYVshzQS5zazUh5NEk"] Mike Harris, Rifftides reader, surreptitious recordist (Bill Evans: The Secret Sessions) and avocational pianist, sent this query: I wonder if Alan Broadbent could expand a bit on the thought he expresses, in your Wall Street … [Read more...]

In the aftermath of my Bill Evans piece in The Wall Street Journal this week and the many generous comments about it here and in the online edition of the paper, I thought you might enjoy a rare Evans performance. It is the exquisite concert version of a piece that he recorded for this album in 1978 … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="TFNC3BjujaRuBwPexpx3t6CVpJoE6lW0"] On her SloaneView blogspot, Carol Sloane posts recollections of her long-running affection for The New Yorker. Describing the time Whitney Balliett interviewed her for a profile in the magazine, she discloses how the great writer … [Read more...]