• Home
  • About
    • Doug Ramsey
    • Rifftides
    • Contact
  • Purchase Doug’s Books
    • Poodie James
    • Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond
    • Jazz Matters
    • Other Works
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal
  • rss

Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

From The Archive: Fín-uhs

Josh Rutner wrote to remind me of this Rifftides piece that ran nearly five years ago. When I exhumed it from the archive, I discovered that digital gremlins had stolen the subject’s picture and destroyed some of the links. The staff has restored the post, and that’s reason enough to remind us all of this wonderful pianist.

March 3, 2008

Phineas Newborn, Jr.For weeks, the CD reissue of Phineas Newborn, Jr.’s 1961 album A World of Piano! has been propped up near my computer as a reminder to post something about him. It is neither his birthday (December 14, 1931) nor the anniversary of his death (May 26, 1989), and no recently discovered Newborn recording has been released, but we need no special occasion to remember his astonishing talent.

Because he was sporadically troubled by emotional instability, Newborn’s career was spotty. He never got the recognition his virtuosity might have brought him if his health had been on an even keel. Still, from the time the young man from Memphis debuted with Lionel Hampton in 1950, musicians and informed listeners were aware that he was a phenomenon. He made a splash in New York in the mid-fifties when Count Basie and the producer-promoter John Hammond gave him a boost. He worked in a duo with Charles Mingus and played with the bassist on the soundtrack of John Cassevetes’ celebrated art film Shadows. His recordings on RCA, Atlantic, Roulette, Steeplechase, Pablo and a smattering of other labels remain available and sell steadily if modestly. Few serious jazz pianists are without Newborn shelves in their collections.

Through the ’60s and ’70s he recorded a series of albums for Contemporary, at first as a sideman with Howard McGhee and Teddy Edwards, then four under his own name. Concord Records, the custodian of the Newborn Contemporary CDs, has allowed several of them to drop out of the Original Jazz Classics catalogue. Some of them have resurfaced as imports and may be found, along with other Newborns, at this web site. It would be difficult to go wrong with any of them. There are, as far as I can determine, no Phineas Newborn albums worthy of fewer than four-and-a-half stars out of five. You will find his complete discography here.

A few clips of Newborn playing with the monumental bassist Al McKibbon and drummer Kenny Dennis have shown up on You Tube. They all seem to come from the Jazz Scene USA televison program hosted by Oscar Brown, Jr., in the early 1960s. If you’re unfamiliar with Newborn, try “Oleo” for an introduction to the piston-perfect technique of his fast playing and “Lush Life” for proof that his harshest critics were wrong when they accused him of being without feeling.

As for the pronunciation of Newborn’s first name, it has been solidly established by family and close friends that he preferred “Fín-uhs” (as in “finest”).

Jay Thomas At The Seasons

Jay Thomas flugelAt The Seasons last night, Jay Thomas arrayed his arsenal of reed and brass instruments across the front of the stage, some on stands, others lying at the ready. As in his new album, The Cats (Pony Boy Records), Thomas, pianist John Hansen, bassist Chuck Kistler and drummer Adam Kessler lived up to the CD’s subtitle, “Neo-Boogaloo.” Their tune list is replete with such ‘50s and ‘60s pieces as “The Jody Grind, “Soul Station,” “Nica’s Tempo,” and two fruitful boogaloo standards, Herbie Hancock’s “Canteloupe Island” and Grant Green’s “Canteloupe Woman.”

Thomas disclosed that his quartet’s repertoire has inspired a new name for the band. Henceforth, he announced, they would be known as The Canteloupes. Whether or not that proves to be a marketable handle, he is profitably mining a rhythmic vein of music. Early in the concert, Hank Mobley’s “Soul Station” set the audience to bobbing and weaving in their pews in the elegant performance hall in Yakima, Washington. The Seasons is a converted Christian Science Church noted for its acoustic purity.

The Boogaloo style and designation go back to New York in the early sixties when young Cubans and Puerto Ricans combined guanguancó, guajira, son montuno and other Latin rhythm constructs with elements of soul, funk and R&B in the Nuyorícan mix. Broadly applied, boogaloo seeped into the jazz mainstream, providing strength and seasoning in the work of musicians including Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Mongo Santamaría and Ray Barretto.

Jay Thomas tenorFor all of the boogalooing during the Thomas concert, the high points of passion came with the leader on tenor saxophone in slow pieces—Freddie Redd’s “Just a Ballad For My Baby” and Billy Eckstine’s “I Want to Talk About You.” When he finished the Eckstine song, Thomas told the crowd that when he first heard John Coltrane’s recording, “my hair stood up and I got chills.” His own playing on the piece generated a similar sensation. Johnny Hodges’ 1941 “I Got Rhythm” contrafact “Squatty Roo” didn’t have much to do with boogaloo or balladry, but it gave the quartet an outlet for swing in the spirit of the jam session.

Thomas may be best known as a brass player, but Saturday night he went light on trumpet and flugelhorn,John Hansen piano concentrating on tenor, soprano and alto saxophones. Hansen, a seasoned Seattle jazz veteran, found a productive middle way between his light touch on the keyboard and vigor powered by harmonic depth and an innate sense of swing. Frequent glances and smiles of approval among Hansen, Kistler and Kessler gave visual affirmation of what the audience could hear; the three enjoyed the unity and interaction that develops among a superior rhythm section in a working band.

Whatever you may make of some of the illustrations in the following video, this track from The Cats will let you hear a bright new band and see a few pictures of them.

It’s Django Reinhardt’s Birthday

Django SmilingBorn in 1910, the French Gypsy guitarist became the first European jazz celebrity and an influence on musicians around the world. in 1934, with violinist Stéphane Grappelli, he formed the Quintet of the Hot Club of France and during the thirties made celebrated recordings with visiting Americans including Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins and Rex Stewart. When World War Two broke out, Grappelli went to England. Reinhhardt reformed the quintet with clarinetist Hubert Rostaing. He recorded his composition “Nuages” several times, never more effectively than in this version from December, 1940. Django and Joseph Reinhardt, guitars; Hubert Rostaing and Alix Combelle, clarinets; Tony Rovira, bass.

Shortly after Reinhardt died in 1953, John Lewis helped keep the guitarist’s name alive when he titled a piece that was to become one of the Modern Jazz Quartet’s most celebrated numbers. Sixty years later, “Django” is a staple in the jazz repertoires of players old and young, as pianist Aaron Diehl demonstrated in a performance at Dizzy’s club in New York. His sidemen are Warren Wolf, vibes; David Wong, bass; and Rodney Green, drums.

“Jazz From The Archives” Is On Notice

Over the past several years, I have occasionally alerted Rifftides readers to Jazz From the Archives radio programs created and hosted by Bill Kirchner. Exploring the work of important jazz artists, Bill brings to the shows his skills as a writer and producer and his insights as a big-league saxophonist, arranger and composer with intimate knowledge of the music and its makers. Now, for what appear to be slight financial reasons, the Newark jazz station WBGO is making it impossible for Kirchner to continue his contribution, which he has performed as a public service. In an e-mail message with the salutation, “Dear Friends,” he explains:

As most of you know, since 2002 I’ve been one of the hosts of “Jazz From the Archives,” which is produced by the Institute of Jazz Studies and airs every Sunday on Kirchner, sopranoWBGO-FM from 11 p.m. to midnight ET. To date, I’ve done 117 shows, most of them devoted to artists-many living, some deceased-who deserve wider recognition. In nearly all cases, the music that airs on these shows would not otherwise be heard on the radio, on WBGO or anywhere else.

This past fall, for reasons related to my health, my wife and I moved from New Jersey to NYC. Thus, it’s no longer possible for me to commute to WBGO’s Newark studios to record these shows. I therefore have asked Thurston Briscoe, the station’s Program Director, if the money paid to a WBGO engineer to record my shows can be reallocated to pay another engineer closer to my home. This amounts to a mere 18 hours a year for 12 one-hour shows-I’m fast, efficient, and low-maintenance.

I should add that I do these shows without any financial compensation, and that WBGO’s only cost is to pay an engineer to record the shows and do light editing. The station essentially gets these shows for next-to-nothing.

Thurston BriscoeMr. Briscoe has made it clear that he’s not interested in making accommodations so that I can continue as a host. I therefore regret to inform you that I must cease doing “Jazz From the Archives.” I’d like to thank my fellow co-hosts for their good vibes, and the many worldwide listeners to my shows who have been so kind with positive feedback over the past eleven years.

If you find this state-of-affairs unsatisfactory, you might consider sending an e-mail to Thurston Briscoe: tbriscoe@wbgo.org. If you do, please cc me at kirch@mindspring.com.

Kirchner’s increasing physical limitations make it impossible for him to negotiate several public and private transit transfers to get from Manhattan to the station in Newark. WGBO has limitations, too, the fiscal crunch faced by all public radio operations. Still, perhaps a bit of creative budgeting and fund-raising could take the station past this minor roadblock and save a valuable program.

Other Places: Coltrane On “Jazz Profiles”

Readers of jazz web logs know that one of the most consistently informative and satisfying blogs is Steve Cerra’s Jazz Profiles. Steve specializes in pieces about important John Coltrane = Prestige Jazz Profiles -01musicians from all eras and styles. He complements them with sidebar features and bolsters them with inventive videos combining music with graphics that tell a story. His current feature is about John Coltrane’s recordings for the Prestige label. He chose to make my essay in the massive Prestige Coltrane box set the primary text of the piece.

The accompanying sidebar is an interview from several months ago in which Steve’s skillful questions got me to talking about people and events from my past. He even persuaded me to name “favorites,” something I thought I had sworn long ago to avoid.

But the Coltrane essay is the main event, and Steve includes an illustrated video whose sound track is Trane’s lovely ballad performance of “Time After Time.” To see and hear Steve Cerra’s Coltrane Jazz Profile, go here.

When Harry James Met Nancy Ames

Scouring the web in search of something unrelated, I came across a clip from a 1967 Ed Sullivan show that brought to mind—as if a reminder were needed—Harry James’s Harry Jamesstunning musicianship. The trumpeter teamed up with Nancy Ames in a performance of one of Ethel Merman’s signature songs from Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. A couple of his licks in the piece emphasize James’s ability as a blues player, an attribute often ignored by critics who downgraded him for his sugary playing in hits like “Sleepy Lagoon.” On the Sullivan broadcast, he showed his jazz side.

Ames seemed omnipresent on television for a few years. She came to fame on a programNancy Ames called Hootnenanny, something of a sensation in the early 1960s. She also sang the introductory news summary on the US version of the satirical This Was The Week That Was. Ames was typecast as a folk singer, but her stylistic range was wide. Part of her appeal came from relaxation and naturalness reminiscent of Peggy Lee. When bossa nova was still making modest waves in popular music, Nancy Ames showed that she had a nice touch with Brazilian songs. Her duet on “So Nice” (“Summer Samba”) with Andy Williams in a 1967 episode of his television show is an example. YouTube doesn’t allow us to embed the clip. To see it, click here.

As for Harry James’s blues authenticity, he established it convincingly on record in 1938 when he was a 22-year-old making his name as a sideman with Benny Goodman. He validated his credentials on two sides of a 78 with the boogie woogie piano giants Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons, drummer Eddie Dougherty and bassist Johnny Williams. Here are both takes, “Boo Woo” and “Woo Woo.” Video of the original 78s is presented on YouTube by Emile Dumur, who takes pains to show you the labels with personnel listings before he plays the records.

Less than a year later, in January, 1939, James left Goodman to form his own band. A string of hits lay ahead of him.

George Gruntz Remembered

Gruntz 2The death of George Gruntz last Thursday brought responses from dozens of the musicians who played in his Concert Jazz Band over the past 40 years. The Swiss pianist, composer and arranger hired an international who’s-who of players for his annual tours in Europe, the United States and South America, among other places around the globe. To name a few, his sidemen or guest soloists included established stars like Elvin Jones, Jimmy Knepper, Dexter Gordon, Sheila Jordan and Herb Geller.

Bassist Bill Crow did not appear with the CJB, but he was impressed with the pianist long before Gruntz organized his big band. Bill sent this recollection:

Dave Bailey and I met young George Grunz at a jam session in Switzerland whileBill Crow 1 touring with the Gerry Mulligan quartet in the fifties. We liked the way he played, and later, in Milano, when we were hired for a record session with Lars Gullin, we recommended George, and they flew him down for the date. We thought the music turned out well, but for some reason the recording was never released, as far as I know. RIP, George.

The Jepsen discography shows that the session Bill mentions was recorded by a label called General Jazz on June 13, 1959 with Gruntz, Crow on bass and Bailey on drums. It lists two blues and six standard tunes as “unissued.” I have been unable to find any other trace of the date.

Tom VarnerTom Varner, the French horn virtuoso, toured six times with Gruntz. He sent this message:

Here is a great link that shows all the incredible players in all of George’s many varied big bands. Sad day. I played in the band in ’83, ’84, ’87, ’88, ’89, and 91. What great times. An amazing variety of players. Somehow, GG made it work. Thank you George.

Marvin Stamm became a key member of the Gruntz organization, playing lead trumpet and frequently assigned crucial solo spots. At my request, Marvin wrote for Rifftides about his Gruntz experience.

My Friend George
By Marvin Stamm

George formed relationships with many great musicians over his career. I know that I am not alone feeling bereft of a dear friend.

I didn’t realize in 1987, when I first went to Switzerland to work with George and the CJB that it would lead me to change the course of my life. That tour and the ones that followed made me realize that I wanted to leave the studio scene in NYC to return to the life of a jazz artist, the life I loved, my reason to be a musician. Since I made thatStamm flugel change in 1990, the subsequent years have been most fulfilling for me both musically and personally. I owe much to George for my decision to make this life-changing move.

But just as important and rewarding has been the friendship that accompanied the musical relationship. Over our time together, George, his wife Lilly, and his daughter Philine also became friends with my wife and daughters. And I have become close to George’s son Felix and his wife Valentina. All these personal ties meant a lot to me and my family, and we value so much all the times spent together and all the experiences we shared over all the years.

I joined the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band (CJB) in 1987 and was with George steadily for twenty-one years, the exceptions being a two-year hiatus in the mid-1990’s and my missing a couple of tours because of previous bookings. During that time, I was George’s lead trumpet player, beginning in 1987 through the 2008 tour to Russia.

As is true of all the players on the band, I was also a soloist with the group. Every player on the band was a soloist, and George’s policy was that the book he wrote for each tour must include two solos for every player, something that showed his great respect for the musicians he asked to tour with the CJB. There were many of them. Over the years, George had a Who’s Who of players in the CJB, and if you might be interested to see who these musicians were, go to the link Tom Varner provides above.

George was a restless soul, and he was never idle. He was a prolific composer, arranger, and musician and was always creating. When he finished one tour or project, either writing or playing, he was on to the next. George was an eclectic musician, very sincere and serious about his writing. Over the years, I experienced a great many musical sides of George, the many shifts in style, texture and colors in his writing. Each tour of the CJB featured a number of George’s original pieces, but also several arrangements of compositions of the then current members of the CJB. I was highly complimented that in the later years of my tenure on the band, George arranged, performed, and recorded three of my pieces. Moreover, the two soloists featured on those arrangements were always George and me.

Stamm And Gruntz

Marvin Stamm and George Gruntz, Lugano, Switzerland, 2007

 

George and I shared many one-on-one times, all great fun, wonderful moments. Staying at his the cottage in the Bernese Oberlands between tours in the early years, on the road sharing meals together, and the occasional special wines shared with his boyhood friend and manager of many years, Gerard Lüll. So many special moments together, and, for sure, I will miss them all.

George had a great sense of humor. I will share one of many stories with you. During one of the last tours I played, he and I decided to walk back to our hotel from whatever after-concert function we attended. It was dark. George suddenly tripped and fell from a high curb, scratching his face rather badly and leaving him looking as if he had been in a fight. The next day, I jokingly said to him, “George, let’s tell everyone that we came upon a pair of hoodlums harassing two women, and we jumped in to rescue the ladies.”

George laughed. He said that was a splendid idea. I thought he might only joke about it with the musicians, nothing more. Instead, each night of the remaining three or four dates of the tour, George explained to the audiences why his face was so banged up – that he and I had gotten into a scuffle with a couple of hoods and rescued two damsels in distress. The audience loved it. George and I got a big kick out of it too.

George was generous. He loved good food and wine, as did most of the members of the CJB. The group shared many excellent meals together. We would pay for our food, but many times George would pick up the bill for our wine and drinks.

Though I have not toured with the CJB since the 2008 tour, our friendship was not affected. Our relationship was not built only on working together. Our friendship was stronger and deeper than that.

I was taken aback and quite sad when I heard that George became seriously ill this past fall. I knew he had dealt with various health issues over the past few years, but never imagined things to be this serious. Regardless, George journeyed to the U.S. last December to record again with the CJB. I was not involved, but Howard Johnson told me that the music was very good and George’s spirits were fine although he wasn’t as physically strong as before his illness. I don’t think anyone expected what happened last week. I’m sure that all who knew George are deeply saddened by his passing.

George had a great impact on my life, and I will always keep him in my thoughts. I will always carry a picture in my mind of George onstage at the piano, the image that represents who he was to me during all the times we performed together. He will always be an important and living presence to me.

Rest in peace, my friend.

To see and hear an hour-and-a-half concert by the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, with Marvin Stamm as a soloist, go here.

George Gruntz, 1932-2013

George GruntzIn the wake of the death of Claude Nobs (see yesterday’s post), we learn of the passing of George Gruntz, another major Swiss jazz figure. The family of the 80-year-old pianist and bandleader reports that he died on Thursday in Basel. Felix Gruntz said that his father had suffered a long illness. A prolific composer and arranger, Gruntz led the George Gruntz Concert Band, which toured extensively and often featured as sidemen star soloists from continental Europe, Britain and the United States. Among them were Tom Harrell, Marvin Stamm, Howard Johnson, Charlie Mariano, Seamus Blake, Franco Ambrosetti and Daniel Humair.

Rifftides plans to have more soon about Gruntz and his career. In the meantime, here is his Concert Band with soloists Harrell and Joe Henderson featured at the 1994 Berlin Jazz Festival in Henderson’s modern classic “Black Narcissus.” Gruntz is at the piano. Adam Nussbaum is the drummer.

George Gruntz, RIP

(Update, 1/17/13) Tom Harrell just sent the following message. Notice his use of the present tense.

George Gruntz is a great musician and a great person
Thank you
Tom Harrell

Montreux’s Claude Nobs, RIP

Claude NobsClaude Nobs, who made the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland one of the world’s premier performing arts events, died yesterday in Geneva. He was injured Christmas Eve while skiing in Caux-sur-Montreux near his home. Taken to a hospital, Nobs fell into a coma from which he never awoke. He was 76.

Nobs was born in Montreux, apprenticed as a cook, then worked in the Montreux tourism office. As tourism director, in 1967 he organized his first jazz festival. It included the newly popular Charles Lloyd Quartet with Keith Jarrett, Ron McClure and Jack DeJohnette. The festival was a success and quickly gave Montreux status among European festivals equal to George Wein’s Newport in the United States. The following year, Bill Evans brought theEvans Montreux festival added exposure through the release of At The Montreux Jazz Festival, preserving one of the pianist’s most powerful trio performances.

In addition to a panoply of jazz stars, over the years Nobs and the Montreux festival also presented pop, blues and rock performers, among them Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Deep Purple, Prince, Ray Charles and Frank Zappa. In 1971, he was lauded as a hero for rescuing several youngsters caught in the Montreux Casino after it caught fire during a Zappa concert.

In an interview with the Swiss video magazine NVP3d, Nobs demonstrated that his love of music went beyond presenting others.

In later years, Nobs shared directorship of the Montreux festival with Quincy Jones, who conducted Miles Davis’s 1993 revival of Davis’s collaborations with Gil Evans. Jones returns each year to present new artists. In addition to the 1968 Bill Evans recording, the dozens of albums made at the Montreux festival when it was under Nobs’ direction included Evans’ 1970 and 1991 return engagements and memorable appearances by Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and a 1977 summit meeting of players as disparate as Dexter Gordon, Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Bob James and Woody Shaw.

Viklický And Robinson Meet Again

Here is a listening tip for Rifftides readers in or near New York City.

On one of his periodic visits to the United States, the Czech pianist Emil Viklický will Viklicky & Robinsonhave a return engagement this week with the multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson. (In the photo, Robinson is on the right.) They will play on Wednesday evening at the Bohemian National Hall of the Czech Center in Manhattan. The occasion will be a program of music in memory of Josef Škvorecký (1924-2012), the writer known for Dvorák in Love, The Bass Saxophone and The Engineer of Human Souls, among other novels. Martin Wind will be on bass, the Finnish drummer Klaus Suonsaari on drums. For concert details, go here.

The center’s announcement did not say which of his dozens of horns Robinson will import from his New Jersey instrument farm. They could include anything from the sopranino saxophone to the contrabass sax, the trumpet to the tuba to the theremin. Given the Škvorecký connection, the bass saxophone would make sense. Almost certainly, he will bring the tenor sax, on which he has been doing some of his most expressive work. In this video from their Czech Center concert in a 2010 encounter, Viklický and Robinson play “Touha” (Desire) from Viklický’s 2009 album Sinfonietta.

Viklický’s involvement in a program honoring Škvorecký makes sense. The two were friends, fellow survivors of the Soviet occupation of their country. See this Rifftides archive post for the story.

At Last: New Picks

ApprovedFollowing a long dry spell, we return with new recommendations of three CDs, a DVD and a book. They cover music for a sci-fi adventure champion, the release of a legendary Gerry Mulligan concert in its entirety, the further adventures of a saxophonist who combines power with economy, a film about the ultimate road father, and the life story of a pianist who balances her famous charm and musicianship with understated toughness that has made for a long career.

For a while, you’ll see the recommendations immediately below in the main column. For much longer than that, they will be posted in the right column under Doug’s Picks. To find the item, click on the title.

Darius On Dave

Darius, DaveSince his death on December 5, the tributes to Dave Brubeck keep appearing all over the world in print, on the air and through the internet. His oldest son Darius, who was with his father at the end, sent us a link to the article he wrote at the request of South Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspaper. This excerpt touches on the social consciousness that guided Brubeck from the earliest days of his career:

I lived in South Africa from 1983 to 2005, teaching jazz at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, and my wife, Cathy, is South African, so sometimes people assume Dave must have had a South African connection too. Actually there is no ancestral or other background connection, but through us, South Africa became important to him.

The New Brubeck Quartet (Dave, Chris, Dan and I) toured South Africa in 1976, of all years, albeit before the declaration of the UN cultural boycott. Dave had been an outspoken campaigner for civil rights in the American South in the 1960s and it didn’t take long for him to see that while coming to South Africa may have been a mistake, he could also make demands that might do some good.

He insisted on a local opening act, Malombo, and hired Victor Ntoni to play acoustic bass with us. Even though we were self-contained with my brother Chris playing electric bass, this was a way to ‘integrate’ our group.

To read all of Darius Brubeck’s remembrance, go here.

In this video from the tribute to Brubeck, Sr. at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, his sons—Darius, Chris, Danny and Matthew—surprised their dad as part of an all-star tribute. It was December 6, 2009, his 89th birthday.

Since Brubeck’s death, that clip has been seen on YouTube more than a quarter of a million times.

Toward 2013

Cascade Winter

Winding through the Cascade Mountains today on the way to the new year.

Have a happy one.

From The Archive: Ciao, Chow

This bit of Rifftides revisited is from an earlier encounter with the mortality of someone close. When I posted it, I was executor of the estate of a lifelong friend and influence, the pianist Jack Brownlow, recently profiled by Steve Cerra.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Respite
Seattle, Washington
November 10, 2007

Preoccupied with death and its aftermath for two weeks, I decided to seek out life, so I went to Serafina.

SerafinaSerafina is not a girl friend. It’s a restaurant. Arriving at 7:15, I asked the hostess for a table for one. Her eyes sparkled with amusement, but she refrained from saying, “In your dreams.”

“Maybe by 9:30,” she said, “but if you’d like to wait for something to open up at the bar, you can eat there. Full menu.” It was like being back in New York, even unto the fashionably hip, mostly young, crowd.

The bar has maybe ten stools. They were all occupied, and there was a phalanx three deep trying to find enough elbow room to hoist their aperitifs. Fat chance, I thought, but I ordered a glass of wine and stood chatting with a woman who lives in the neighborhood. She asked what I do. I told her. She asked what I’d written lately. “Ah,” she politely responded, and asked me to spell Poodie. “I read a lot,” she said. “Mysteries. Can’t get enough of them. Lately, it’s been James Lee Burke. I knew I should have come earlier. It’s like this on Saturdays.” She disappeared into the Eastlake Avenue night.

A man yielded his stool. The heftier bartender with the grey beard waved me forward. I indicated the rest of the waiting crowd. He shrugged. We shook hands and exchanged names. He was Matthew. His colleague, tall and lean, was Matthias. “Matt and Matt,” he said. There is little more satisfying than the pleasure of watching people do what they do well and enjoying it. These guys were craftsmen. Matthew’s creation of a chocolate martini, something I can’t imagine drinking, was bartender ballet.

I ordered the Trota al Tortufo, roasted trout stuffed with artichokes and truffles finished with a black truffle-butter sauce, served with sautéed spinach. Matthias suggested an Italian white wine, Vermentino Sardegna Pala Crabilis. It was an inspired pairing. For dessert, he recommended a pumpkin something or other, but I had a double espresso and the chocolate tort, or Torta di Cioccolata e Mandorla, as such things are called when they cost a lot.

“The pastry chef shows up every afternoon and does these incredible things,” Matthew said, “then she disappears. Her name is Mei.” With Mei’s tort and the espresso, I hit my second daily double of the meal.

Serafina was beyond crowded, pulsing with life, noise and happiness. Just what I needed.

This is quite likely the only restaurant review I will ever write. Grazie, Serafina.

From The Archive

As the year winds down and we attempt to catch up after a rough patch, Rifftides is revisiting posts from the past.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

THE POWER OF MUSIC
Posted December 22, 2005

Plato

Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful—Plato

Any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole state, and ought to be prohibited . . . when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them—Aristotlearistotle3

From The Archive

Screen shot 2012-12-29 at 12.17.53 PMWhile the Rifftides staff regroups and copes with family matters, we shall revisit a few posts from the past. This one appeared almost exactly four years ago. It concerns a recording that received far less general attention that it warranted.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

December 30, 2008

THE FILM MUSIC OF RALPH RAINGER

The release of a new CD, The Film Music Of Ralph Rainger, is the occasion for my piece in today’s Wall Street Journal. Coupled with an article about the contemporary motion picture composer A.B. Rahman, it is headlined, Another Who Has Been Unjustly Forgotten and begins: 

For years, Jack Benny opened his CBS radio and television broadcasts with “Love in Bloom.” The comedian’s violin butchery of his theme song became a running coast-to-coast Sunday night gag. As a result, the piece became even more famous than Bing Crosby had made it with his hit record in 1934. Generations of listeners and viewers heard Bob Hope close his NBC shows with “Thanks for the Memory,” which he introduced in a movie, “The Big Broadcast of 1938.” The song was inseparable from Hope’s career. 

Ralph Rainger, the man who wrote those songs, was a pianist and recovering lawyer from Newark, N.J., who also composed such standards as “Easy Living,” “If I Should Lose You,” “Here Lies Love,” “Moanin’ Low,” “June in January,” “Please” and “Blue Hawaii,” most often with lyricist Leo Robin. Rainger and Robin turned out dozens of songs for Hollywood movies. They were frequently on the hit parade with Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter and the Gershwins. George Gershwin died at age 38, Rainger at 41. But while Gershwin’s fame increased after his death, Rainger’s name faded. With their beguiling melodies and challenging chord progressions, Rainger’s works are frequent vehicles for improvisation. Yet, in my experience, most musicians who play those songs respond with puzzled looks when asked who wrote them. That might have been the case with bassist Chuck Berghofer, pianist Jan Lundgren, drummer Joe La Barbera and the incomparable vocalist Sue Raney until producer Dick Bank recruited them to record the CD “The Film Music of Ralph Rainger” (Fresh Sound). 

To read the whole thing, run out and buy a copy of the Journal or click here for the online version. The article praises the CD, but it concentrates on Rainger’s successful, grotesquely terminated career. The album demands greater attention, and gets it here. 

The Chuck Berghofer Trio: Thanks For The Memory, The Film Music Of Ralph Rainger (Fresh Sound).

Producer Dick Bank swears that this is his last project. If that proves to be true, he is retiring a champion. He provides Berghofer with a classy repertoire, two superb sidemen and the first leader assignment in the bassist’s distinguished career. Berghofer gets the music underway by playing the melody of “Miss Brown to You.” The stentorian sound of his bass is beautifully captured by engineers Talley Sherwood and Bernie Grundman. La Barbera and Lundgren gently escort Berghofer into a chorus of improvisation. Lundgren follows with his first solo in a CD full of work that makes this the best recording so far by a remarkable pianist. In the Journal piece, I wrote:

…it is the first all-Rainger album since pianist Jack Fina managed to reduce Rainger’s tunes to dreary cocktail music in a 1950s LP. Mr. Lundgren, a brilliant Swedish pianist, plumbs the songs’ harmonic souls. He illuminates even the prosaic “Blue Hawaii,” which — to Rainger’s horror — became a huge hit in 1937. “It will disgrace us,” he told Robin. “It’s a cheap melody . . . a piece of c—-.” 

(In a touch of irony that Rainger must have come to appreciate, sheet music sales of “Blue Hawaii” barely exceeded 40,000, but sales of Crosby’s recording of the song skyrocketed and it was on Your Hit Parade for six weeks.) 

It is not only Lundgren’s harmonic ear and gift for chord voicings that elevate his work here, but also his unforced swing and an easy keyboard touch that puts him in a class with Jimmy Jones, Ellis Larkins, Tommy Flanagan and his countryman Bengt Hallberg. His tag ending on “Sweet is the Word for You,” with Berghofer walking him home and La Barbera nudging every fourth beat, is exhilarating. Lundgren’s wry interpolations are a significant part of the fun. They show deep familiarity with, among other sources, Lester Young, as In two quite different uses of a phrase from Young’s 1943 recording of “Sometimes I’m Happy.” 

Throughout, La Barbera reminds listeners why, from his days with Bill Evans, he has been one of the most respected drummers in jazz. His touch with brushes equates to Lundgren’s at the piano, and he employs it to construct a full-chorus solo on “Blue Hawaii” proving that a drum set can be a melody instrument.

Sue Raney is the guest artist for two of Rainger’s best-known songs, “If I Should Lose You” and “Thanks for the Memory.” They are perfectly served by the richness of her voice and interpretations. The performances are among her best on record.

With his unaccompanied “Love in Bloom,” Lundgren banishes recollections of Jack Benny’s violin clowning. He finds harmonic treasure beneath the surface of that abused melody, as he does in another solo piece, “Faithful Forever.” Hugely popular in the 1930s, those songs are less known today than many of Rainger’s others. The jaunty “Havin’ Myself a Time,” which Lundgren and Berghofer perform as a duo, is nearly forgotten, but the harmonic possibilities Lundgren finds in it show that it is worthy of revival. 

In addition to the trio music, the CD has a ten-minute final track that amounts to a little documentary. Lundgren introduces a 1937 interview with Rainger. Bank, the producer, introduces a segment of a1940 ceremony of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in which Rainger plays the piano and his partner Leo Robin sings “Love in Bloom.” The 32-page CD booklet is packed with information and photographs. If I make all of this sound like an exercise in nostalgia, do not be misled. The musical material may be standard songs from the 1930s, but Lundgren, Berghofer and La Barbera constitute one of the hippest trios of our time. This album is on my top-ten list for 2008 and will be permanently installed in my CD player for a long time.

Other Places: Wilke To The World

It seemed for a few years that jazz on the radio was doomed to isolation on niche FM stations with weak signals and short wavelengths. As rock, pop, rap and hip-hop shouldered aside the attraction of jazz for mass audiences, the music all but disappeared from AM radio.

Then, the internet made it possible for radio stations to stream their programming around the globe. Jim Wilke, whose Jazz Northwest programs we sometimes tell you about Jim Wilkein advance, is a veteran jazz broadcaster who long ago took to the air via satellite and reaches a huge international audience with Jazz After Hours. Erik Lacitis of The Seattle Times recently profiled Wilke. His story includes a little about Wilke’s modus operandi and a lot about the impact of his work on listeners in all parts of the US as well as in Tunis, Ankara and Paris, among other places. Lacitis takes us on a visit to the studio in Wilke’s house.

It is in this basement that Wilke — in a voice variously described as “butter smooth” and “sonorous” — records shows that run Friday and Saturday nights around the country on 70 radio stations, and with the Internet, throughout the world.

To read the whole thing, go here. For more about Wilke, including links to many of the stations that carry his show, visit the Jazz After Hours website.

Aftermath

Dave obit photoProfound thanks to the dozens upon dozens of Rifftides readers who sent messages and comments following the death of my brother Dave. Your words are a great comfort. Please understand my failure to respond to you individually.

In the photograph, Dave is arriving at our house for Christmas a few years ago. His obituary is in the hometown newspaper. If you care to read it, click here. Again, thank you all.

Dave Ramsey, 3/28/38-12/23/12

The best of all brothers

Dave 2006

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, … [MORE]

Subscribe to RiffTides by Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Rob D on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • W. Royal Stokes on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • Larry on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • Lucille Dolab on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • Donna Birchard on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside