I don’t often post video of people talking. The best way to understand music is to listen—often—intensively—with concentration—without preconceptions. Today, we have a departure from " the Rifftides policy of letting the music speak for itself. Hal Galper is a pianist known to many of you … [Read more...]

Jim Wilke sent details about the program he has prepared for his next Jazz Northwest broadcast. The program will be a broadcast of the complete concert "Celebrating George Cables" from McCurdy Pavilion during Centrum's Jazz Port Townsend the last weekend of July. Pianist Cables has been a … [Read more...]

Charlie Haden & Brad Mehldau, Long Ago and Far Away (Impulse!) Charlie Haden (1937-2014) combined the solid tonal qualities of his bass playing with an audacious sense of harmonic adventure. Those qualities were ideal for the departures of Ornette Coleman’s quintet in the late 1950s. After … [Read more...]

Thanks to all of the Rifftides readers who sent comments on Roy Hargrove’s passing. In response, here is a video that may provide a bit of consolation. The European production company Zycopolis provides neither a date nor a location of this performance, and no identification of the musicians. The … [Read more...]

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove died of a heart attack in New York yesterday at the age of 49. Hargrove was one of a coterie of young musicians who came to prominence following the sudden superstardom of fellow trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in the 1990s. Record companies scrambled to find their own Marsalises. … [Read more...]

Kenny Werner, The Space (Pirouet) Rifftides listeners are not likely to need instruction about how to hear Werner’s music, but it may be helpful to keep in mind the liner-note quote he takes from his 2013 book Effortless Mastery. We do things from our conscious mind or we do them from the … [Read more...]

Well, sometimes recordings arrive, sit on the shelves a while and then start calling to the reviewer to pay attention. Randy Waldman, Superheroes (BFM Jazz) Along with his Los Angeles studio work, the veteran arranger and pianist Waldman has for years been Barbara Streisand’s arranger and … [Read more...]

Every fall season, it’s the same problem; whose version of “Autumn Leaves” to use with this year’s photograph. Perhaps it’s not surprising how often the winner turns out to be Bill Evans with Scott LaFaro, bass, and Paul Motian, drums, in this 1959 recording. That's from the Bill … [Read more...]

Rudy Royston, Flatbed Buggy (Greenleaf Music) Blends of accordion, cello, reeds and bowed bass sometimes swell the music of drummer Royston’s album nearly to orchestral proportions. But the collection also has simple qualities akin to cowboy songs and folk music, except when it’s more or less … [Read more...]

Recent Listening In Brief Annie Chen Octet, Secret Treetop (Shanghai Audio&Video Ltd) Chen is a singer and composer born in China who lives in New York and has an eclectic musical palette with colors from sources as disparate as Turkey, Taiwan and Mongolia. With a rhythm section augmented by … [Read more...]

Jon De Lucia Octet + Ted Brown Live At The Drawing Room (Gut String Records) Alto saxophonist De Lucia is committed to music that springs from Lennie Tristano. He also draws on the examples of Lee Konitz, Jimmy Giuffre, Gerry Mulligan and other musicians who became important in the late 1940s … [Read more...]

It’s a bit late in the day, but not too late to say happy birthday to Dizzy Gillespie fans and millions of listeners who may not be aware that much of their favorite music would not exist if John Birks Gillespie hadn’t helped bring it out of the swing era. His spirit and example, and his … [Read more...]

Bruno RÃ¥berg Trio, Tailwind (Red Piano Records) RÃ¥berg’s bass—at once relaxed and penetrating—is at the heart of a collection of his compositions. The sole piece written by someone else is Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Here’s That Rainy Day,” a feature for the leader’s seductive bowing. … [Read more...]

Michael Stephans, David Liebman, Marc Copland, Drew Gress: Quartette Oblique (Sunnyside) Opening the album, Liebman launches the familiar opening phrases of “Nardis” from his tenor saxophone, toying with them, letting each note fall away. The rhythm section soon joins him. Within seconds the … [Read more...]

The Rifftides computer has escaped days of incarceration by digital gremlins and is back at work. Thanks to the readers who sent expressions of concern. … [Read more...]