[contextly_auto_sidebar id="qLx8WNFCTupNSc9FZVw6VR4dnH1CUSPQ"] Rifftides reader Svetlana Ilyicheva (pictured right) brings us up to date from time to time on musical events in and around Moscow. Her latest report concerns an organization founded by and for jazz listeners, and one of its concerts … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="kgkKxndiGsEr4q2r1Bj00SwKi8H0TICH"] Following a long illness, Jackie Cain died Monday afternoon in her New Jersey home. She was 86. She and Roy Kral combined their talents in 1946. They incorporated the spirit of bebop in their work with Charlie Ventura’s sextet, … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="wYWxo88Vzu1jpr9Z28eIwV3ORzVulWvV"] Tip 1. Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest program on Sunday will broadcast the tribute given pianist and composer George Cables at this summer’s Centrum Jazz Port Townsend festival on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Mr. Wilke recorded … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ZVuNAz4PuZiWnW61NbrwhdQMptuPXFbX"] In the September 8 Rifftides post about this week’s passing of Gerald Wilson, I mentioned his enhanced harmonic palette and its importance to modern jazz arranging (Photo courtesy of Gordon Sapsed). It is one aspect of the Wilson … [Read more...]

Word has come that Gerald Wilson died today in Los Angeles. A swing era trumpeter, he became the pioneering leader, composer and arranger of a modern big band that was a significant presence for more than sixty years. Wilson enriched the language of large ensembles by employing expanded harmonic … [Read more...]

Web server problems resulting in massive slowness interfered with Rifftides today and, evidently, with all other blogs under the artsjournal.com umbrella. As a result, it was not possible to prepare and post new items. I would be happy to report that the crack Rifftides technical staff wrestled the … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="uJr78HEchQJJoWsb2wylj0F9TynOSU4o"] In response to the recent Rifftides recommendation of the new album by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Bill Kirchner sent a link to video featuring the VJO’s progenitor. About the clip of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band in Belgium, in … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ywZdHeg0j94153bDEynmwkgewClS3h7v"] Bobby Shew sent a link to a performance by a guitarist named Doug Smith. After listening to Smith’s introductory story about his dad, no former Marine could be expected to ignore the video. Anyone who can finger-pick Sousa’s … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="XcJn6d3gJ0cB6BaNQrcnegJaxA7D0ffW"] As pointed out in the previous exhibit, Americans and Canadians are taking a three-day holiday to observe Labor Day, which this year is Monday, September 1. On this occasion established nearly a century-and-a-half ago, they do their … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="peFEHWz3alvMkmdlKKEbTkAadycaL0L3"] This is Labor Day weekend or, if you prefer the Canadian spelling, Labour Day weekend. Monday will see official observance of the day established in Canada in 1872 and the US in 1887 to honor the economic and social contributions of … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="MpRSBB3bwtejbkrwYL73ejP8yt4e09uC"] Here it is Charlie Parker's 94th birthday, and I'm just getting around to observing it. The photograph captures Bird in a moment of happiness. Such moments came fairly often in his troubled life, more frequently when he was at … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="qz1jw7WUIdmIG2UMpSa5plSqPGoJ7E9p"] At 87, Bill Holman still hits the road occasionally. He did this summer and unveiled a major work. Sunday on his Jazz Northwest program, the veteran jazz broadcaster Jim Wilke will present his recording of the new piece and others by … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Eyvxnz4hV6h5pr7Gxs0o1e2lbmroxTqa"] News has arrived that my notes for the new Jan Lundgren solo piano CD have been submitted to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for a possible Grammy nomination. I hasten to emphasize that a submission is not a … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="lMagSuglQxeZVPw981Fax1lTGBM7MFU8"] It’s time for the annual Rifftides apple crop outlook, with evidence snapped this week on a cycling expedition. Stacks of bins the size of apartment complexes sit waiting to be filled with what Executive Director Jon DeVaney … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="X7ICz92fMr2TQjqEuFrzub514LCnDMzO"] In an attempt to get the Europe virus out of the bloodstream (fat chance), here is the final report on our Ystad-Copenhagen adventure. Following the Ystad Jazz Festival in southern Sweden, son Paul and I spent three days in … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="VVahy7RGWUO30wsEZcSWbax7oAA2GEi4"] It has been two weeks since I returned from Europe, but the Ystad Jazz Festival is still on my mind. It was impossible to hear all of the young Swedish musicians who played at the festival and there was not enough space in my Wall … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="HVhHm239a4yNYMv1oNGdqm6HXrfceLn8"] From Philadelphia comes news of the death of John Blake, Jr., a violinist who combined his classical training, love for the African-American musical tradition and sense of adventure to become prominent on the forward edge of jazz in … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="82jMm24lXJZQiDsoQQFJayx17P2Lal9e"] Mike Harris is one of several Rifftides readers who sent reminders that this is Bill Evans’ 85th birthday. Over a decade in the 1960s and ‘70s, Mr. Harris surreptitiously recorded the pianist at the Village Vanguard in New York. … [Read more...]