Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

DVD: Erroll Garner

by

Erroll Garner Live in ’63 & ’64 (Jazz Icons). Garner’s lingering image is of an imp, an elf who smiled and bounced his way into the public’s hearts at the end of an era when “jazz” and “popular” still appeared in the same sentences in Billboard and Variety. Lest we forget: he was a … [Read more...]

Book: Telegraph Style Guide

by

Simon Heffer, Philip Reynolds, The Telegraph Style Guide (Aurum). Whenever Rifftides has posted an Other Matters entry about language, our readers, a literate lot, have responded. This book, designed to keep the staff of the UK’s Telegraph newspapers on their toes, will appeal to those interested … [Read more...]

CD: Tamir Hendelman

by

Tamir Hendelman, Destinations (Resonance). The pianist’s second album as a leader is a gem. With drummer Lewis Nash and the Italian-born bassist Marco Panascia, he fashions exquisite versions of a dozen pieces. He is exhilarating in his lightning exploration of Makoto Ozone’s “BQE,” tender … [Read more...]

CD: Jeremy Pelt

by

Jeremy Pelt, The Talented Mr. Pelt (High Note). There is more here than meets the ear accustomed to quintets that knock off Blue Note bands of the 1960s. From his record debut in 2002—and notably since he established this group in 2007—the trumpeter has manifested originality as soloist … [Read more...]

CD: Rick Trolsen

by

Neslort, Mystical Scam (Lort/Threadhead). Most reviews and articles about the leader of Neslort (spell it backward) begin, “Eccentric New Orleans trombonist Rick Trolsen…” The reasons for that are apparent in this CD. Equally evident is Trolsen’s and the sextet’s musicianship, which merges … [Read more...]

DVD: Stan Kenton

by

Stan Kenton, Artistry in Rhythm (Jazzed Media). This is the story of Kenton’s development of a big band unlike any of its contemporaries. Photographs, film, video tape, audio recordings and interviews trace the band from its early days through its many incarnations—Artistry in Rhythm, … [Read more...]

Book: Jimmy Heath

by

Jimmy Heath and Joseph McLaren, I Walked With Giants (Temple). Younger brother of bassist Percy, older brother of drummer Albert (Tootie), saxophonist, composer and arranger Jimmy Heath tells his life story with forthrightness, humor and no trace of self-delusion. A brilliant youngster who succumbed … [Read more...]

CD: Alan Broadbent

by

Alan Broadbent Trio Live At Giannelli Square: Volume 1 (Chilly Bin). No outer space explorer, Broadbent finds in the song form all that he needs for freedom earned through discipline. The technique he has intensified in recent years is evident in the precision and relaxation of his counterpoint in … [Read more...]

CD: Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green

by

Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green, Apex (Pi). Mahanthappa, aged 39, is one of the most visible alto saxophonists of the 21st century; Green, aged 75 one of the least. As a result of this album, Green is gaining the prominence he might have achieved in the 1960s had he not left Charles Mingus for … [Read more...]

CD: Harold Danko, Dick Oatts, Rich Perry

by

Harold Danko, Oatts & Perry II (SteepleChase). Pianist Danko was a colleague of alto saxophonist Dick Oatts and tenor saxophonist Rich Perry in the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band and never got over them—with good reason. This successor album to Oats & Perry (2006) again teams the three with bassist … [Read more...]

DVD: Dave Brubeck

by

Dave Brubeck, Brubeck Returns to Moscow (Koch Vision). This 2005 film about Brubeck's 1997 visit to Russia for a performance of his mass To Hope is a beautifully crafted documentary. It incorporates Brubeck's quartet with a symphony orchestra and chorus performing the mass and a rousing "Blue Rondo … [Read more...]

Book: Laurie Verchomin On Bill Evans

by

Laurie Verchomin, The Big Love: Life & Death With Bill Evans (Verchomin). The "Laurie" of the pianist's song by that name spares nothing in her account of their romance or of the drug use that hastened Evans' death at 51. Love between the pianist and the young woman flared in the year-and-a-half … [Read more...]

CD: Chet Baker

by

Chet Baker, The Sesjun Radio Shows (T2). The trumpeter and singer soars in two CDs compiled from 1970s and '80s concerts on the Dutch radio program Tros Sesjun. Baker's fleetness, lyricism, hard swing and vocal improvisations put this among the best work of his later years. Of the sidemen, pianists … [Read more...]

CD: Mike Barone

by

Mike Barone, Live 2005! Redux (Rhubarb). Barone is one of the most accomplished big band arrangers never to become famous. For this reissue, he remixed to improve the sound, pruned overlong solos and added a track. Why "Grand Central" hit the editing room floor the first time around is a mystery. … [Read more...]

DVD: Steinway

by

Ben Niles, Note By Note: The Making Of Steinway L1037 (docuramafilms). This gem of the documentarian's art follows a 9-foot concert grand for a year, from its beginning as lumber to its arrival at the Steinway showroom in New York. Director Ben Niles and his crew equal the love, knowledge and skill … [Read more...]

Book: Maynard Ferguson

by

Ralph Jungheim, Maynard! (Buster Ann). Jungheim's book is a collection of 30 transcribed reminiscences about the trumpeter and bandleader. Most of them are by musicians, but Ferguson's valet, bus driver and instrument maker also contribute. Some of the anecdotes are amusing, some interesting, some … [Read more...]

CD: Miles Davis

by

Miles Davis, Bitches Brew 40th Anniversary (Columbia). Here is everything you are likely to want to hear, know, ask or think about Davis' full-fledged leap into the rock ethic that informed his music in the 1970s. It is a lavish boxed package of two LPs, three CDs, a DVD, a book and a packet of … [Read more...]

CD: Irene Kral

by

Irene Kral, Second Chance (Jazzed Media). Kral's stock in trade was perfection—of intonation, time, feeling, diction and lyric interpretation. She sang with little movement, no show biz mannerisms, nothing resembling schtick. She was so good at 25 that in 1957 Maynard Ferguson hired her on the … [Read more...]