Well, actually, we were never gone. However, for several hours, the Rifftides comment mechanism was broken. If you tried to use the “Speak Your Mind” box at the end of an item, or found that it had disappeared, we would like you to know that the feedback function is back in business. Provided that they are pertinent and civil, reader comments are always welcome. They give us some of our best stuff.

Thanks to the artsjournal.com technical team for the restoration work.

LATER: No sooner had I posted this item (notice the part about pertinence) than the following “comment” on the Ravi And Igor item arrived.

If you don’t want to spend a fortune on a large, elaborate wedding then you probably are considering eloping. If this is the case, then finding the best places to elope should be on your agenda. You want to make this task as stress-free as possible so that it will be something that you truly look forward to. You want to keep all the “fuss” to a minimum and find something that is romantic but at the same time affordable.

Oh, I get it; the commenter thought that Ravi and Igor are a couple.

For all of the excitement with modes that McCoy Tyner generated with John Coltrane and still achieves in long his post-Coltrane career, I have always been partial to Tyner’s way with standard songs and jazz originals with standard changes in albums like this and this.

That aspect of his playing is brilliant in this video from the 1987 Mount Fuji Festival in Japan. Ron Carter is the bassist, Joe Chambers the drummer.

Ethan Iverson featured that video recently in his Do The Math blog. Jim Harrod, moderator of the Jazz West Coast listserve, found it through Ethan. I found it through Jim. Thanks, guys. Networking works.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

National Public Radio’s series “Mom And Dad’s Record Collection” recently featured Ravi Coltrane, who has followed his father as a tenor and soprano saxophonist. John died when Ravi was two years old. Most of his son’s early musical memories stem from records his pianist and harpist mother Alice played when he and his siblings were children. He told NPR’s Robert Siegel:

I remember my mother playing lots of symphonic music. Specifically, my mom was a great admirer of Igor Stravinsky. Her favorite pieces were The Rite of Spring and, more so, the Firebird Suite.

To hear Siegel’s five minutes with Ravi Coltrane, go here and click on “Listen Now.”

To see and hear Stravinsky, at 82, conduct the thrilling final moments of The Firebird, click on the arrow:

On today’s cycling expedition during rush hour, I saw an amazing sight. A motorist pulled to the side of the road and stopped to use her phone. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true.

On the other hand, a man in Naples, Florida, was reaching for his cell phone just as a fire truck arrived in the intersection.

Boy, was he embarrassed.

I cannot recall having previously posted a promotional video, and I may never post one again. But the video about the Branford Marsalis CD recommended in the new batch of Doug’s Picks has helpful insights into the philosophy of the band’s approach to its work. In addition, it is a nice little piece of documentary film-making.

Bruno Leicht of Cologne, Germany—trumpeter, composer, teacher, and frequent commenter to this blog—has dedicated a four-part suite to Rifftides. The work is based on George Gershwin’s “Oh, Lady Be Good” and played by a band of Bruno’s students. On his web log, Brew Lite’s Jazz Tales, he explains the suite’s gensis and makeup, and links to the band’s performance at a festival earlier this month. The Rifftides staff is, to say the least, flattered. Thank you, Bruno. To go to Brew Lite’s Jazz Tales, click here.

The latest listening, viewing and reading suggestions are posted immediately below and in the right column with the heading Doug’s Picks (scroll down). They include CDs with the music of a forthright quartet, a great 20th century composer-arranger, and the satisfying second volume of a piano trio’s club engagement. We also recommend a DVD by a quartet that changed jazz and the biography of a pianist whose musical partnership with cartoon characters endeared him to generations.

An outfit called Find The Best has established an online guide to jazz clubs. It could be useful to Rifftides readers planning to travel or, for that matter, who are looking for places to listen in their hometowns. The site lists location, meal policy and cover charges, which range from second-mortgage territory to zero—$85 cover for The Fox in Tampa, Florida; nothing for Vibrato in L.A.’s exclusive Bel Air section—go figure. At any rate (heh, heh), they include clubs as far-flung as Brattleboro, Vermont; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Tirana, Albania. For now, at least, we’ll add the site’s url to the blogroll in the right column as “Jazz Clubs.” Let the staff know if you find it useful. To do so, click on “Contact” on the blue strip at the top of the page or use the “Speak Your Mind” box below.

Monarch butterflies are passing through on their migration south. This morning, one rested on a maple leaf outside our window.

His or her majesty was no object of pity, but it seemed to call for a performance of that most famous of all butterfly tunes (are there others?). Here’s the late Dave McKenna.

Alternate version for two pianos, Count Basie and Oscar Peterson.

If you live in or near Portland, Oregon, this is your lucky week. I am not at all reluctant to plug Ivories Jazz Lounge or this group of elite Portland players. Here’s the announcement from Ivories.

Thursday July 12
The Two Tenors & Dave Frishberg play the music of Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, with David Evans, Lee Wuthenow, tenor saxophones; Dave Frishberg, piano; Tom Wakeling, bass; Charlie Doggett, drums.
Ivories Jazz Lounge
1435 NW Flanders, Portland, OR 97219
http://www.ivoriesjazz.com
Reservations: 503-241-6514
8PM – 11PM
$10 Cover

Al and Zoot in Utica NY – Autumn 1967: Afternoon concert at a college auditorium. L to R: Dave Frishberg, Al Cohn, Victor Sproles, Zoot Sims, Steve Schaeffer. Later we dined lavishly at Grimaldi’s Restaurant. (Photo and caption stolen from Frishberg’s website. Rifftides defense lawyers are standing by)

During his New York period, Frishberg worked extensively with Cohn and Sims, often at the old Half Note. The three were together on The You And Me That Used To Be (1971), the finest recording of Jimmy Rushing’s last years, with arrangements by Frishberg. In addition to Cohn, Sims and Frishberg, the players are Budd Johnson, soprano sax; Ray Nance, cornet and violin; Milt Hinton, bass; and Mel Lewis, drums. Do not ask me to explain the relevance of the video added to this track from the album. Let’s just be glad that the YouTube contributor uploaded the music.

Rifftides reader Don Emanuel scanned this listing in the “What’s On” section of a recent edition of his local newspaper, The Medway Messenger in Kent, UK.

A long-running discussion (or argument) about the authorship of a major jazz tune may have been resolved once and for all. The tune is “Solar,” copyrighted in 1963 with the name of Miles Davis as composer, nearly a decade after he recorded it. It is a 12-bar minor blues based, with certain departures, on aspects of the harmonic structure of “How High The Moon.” Here, from the compilation album Walkin’, is the trumpeter’s 1954 recording with Davey Schildkraudt, alto saxophone; Horace Silver, piano; Percy Heath, bass; and Kenny Clarke, drums.

Keep that melody and its harmonies in mind. Among musicians and jazz insiders it has long been alleged that “Solar” is in fact a piece called “Sonny” written in the mid-1940s by guitarist Chuck Wayne (1923-1997) and later lifted by or credited to Davis. What has been missing until now is aural evidence of Wayne’s claim that he wrote the tune. Larry Appelbaum, the Library of Congress jazz maven, and Wayne’s widow have posted on the Library’s website a recording of Wayne, trumpeter Sonny Berman and unidentified others playing Sonny. At the time of the recording Wayne (pictured) and Berman were members of Woody Herman’s First Herd. The MP3 is only one chorus of melody and a few bars of Wayne improvising, but it leaves no doubt of a similarity to “Solar” that it is all but impossible to credit to coincidence.

To see Appelbaum’s story of the discovery, pictures of him, Mrs. Wayne, the acetate recording, the Davis copyright claim and—most important— to hear the 1946 “Sonny,” go to this Library of Congress page.

It will be disappointing if Appelbaum does not release the complete performance of “Sonny.” This discovery has stirred up anew claims and counter-claims about other compositions that Davis allegedly appropriated from others, among them “Four,” “Tune Up,” and “Blue in Green.”

As for Chuck Wayne the guitarist’s guitarist, here he is with George Shearing in the late 1940s in one of the pianist’s most successful quintets. The other players are Don Elliott, vibes; John Levy, bass; and Denzil Best, drums.

After he heard the Eddie Higgins solo on “America The Beautiful” (one exhibit below), Rifftides reader Terence Smith wrote to suggest:

Sometime on the 4th let’s all listen to the Ray Charles version.

That’s a fine idea. There are several versions of the song by Charles, some more musically successful than others, none more touching than this performance at the 2001 World Series, less than three years before he died.

To all Americans at home and abroad, and to all friends of America, Happy 4th of July.

Two years ago on July 4, we presented this performance by the late Eddie Higgins. When it didn’t appear in 2011, we heard from disappointed Rifftides readers. Perhaps we should establish it as an Independence Day tradition. We’ll make up for last year’s oversight by bringing on Mr. Higgins a day early.

Happy birthday, United States of America.

Late notice—apologies—but this will be worth hearing:

Monday, July 2nd On the Noontime Jamboree

Record collector/musician/record producer Tony Baldwin visits the show.

Tony is bringing in a mixed sample from his extensive collection of 78s.

Join me, host Retta Christie, from Noon until 2 pm PDT

On KBOO-FM, Portland 90.7 fm

Baldwin specializes in vintage recordings restored to remarkable fidelity.

Fats Waller, composer, pianist, 1941, New York.

Aaron Diehl, piano; Dominick Farinacci, trumpet; 2009, St. Joseph of the Holy Family Church, New York.

Steve Cerra’s Jazz Profiles remembers Tom Talbert, the under-recognized composer and bandleader who died nearly eight years ago in his early eighties. Steve incorporates a passage in which Talbert wrote about his postwar debut.

Worked with several bands and met arranger-bandleader Johnny Richards in Boston. Moved to Los Angeles the winter of 1946 and was soon living at the Harvey Hotel…a musician’s hangout fondly referred to as the Hot Harvey.

Before long Richards appeared and, in his generous manner, started looking for things I could do. He soon encouraged me to start a band and that seemed a logical move for an out-of-work twenty-one year old arranger. We started with a group of guys who wanted to play and as we rehearsed some were changed and others just left for a real job.

Some of those guys who wanted to play were Dodo Marmarosa, Art Pepper, Lucky Thompson and Warne Marsh. Not bad for a young bandleader just out of the Army.

Cerra dresses up the piece with his customary resourceful graphics and an imaginative recording from later in Talbert’s career. Click here to see and hear it.

For a Rifftides post on Talbert’s career shortly after he passed on, go here.

The Vancouver Sun’s Marke Andrews caught up with Wayne Shorter, whom the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has commissioned to compose a new piece. “When you write for us, make it hard,” Shorter said they told him. “Show us no mercy.” Go here to read Andrews’ article.

Thanks to the many Rifftides readers who are weighing in on the discussion of jazz on public radio in the US. The comments—some from inside the medium—include reasons for the decline, analysis of its nature, reports of a few bright spots, and a good deal of frustration. It seems to be an open question whether there is a future for informed radio hosts serving as companions who can help listeners get inside the traditions and culture of the music. To read the discussion so far and contribute to it, scroll down two exhibits or click here.