Frank Foster died today following a long period of ill health. He was 82. Foster was important to the Count Basie band as a tenor saxophonist, composer and arranger for more than a decade beginning in 1953. In the reed section, he and Frank Wess teamed up as one of the best-known tenor sax tandems … [Read more...]

“Evenin',” Jimmy Rushing sang with Basie and Prez in 1936, “every night you come and you find me….” I could hear Rushing in my mind’s ear as we looked out across the deck, the garden shed roof and the neighborhood trees to Ahtanum Ridge reflecting the sun still blazing at 7:30. … [Read more...]

Matthew Shipp, The Art of the Improviser (Thirsty Ear). This album will not show up on the soft jazz and easy listening charts. Shipp is strong medicine. The first disc of the two-CD set has the audacious avant garde pianist with his trio, the second playing alone. They capture concert … [Read more...]

You never know who’s listening. Skipping around in Jeffrey Lyons’ entertaining new book about his father Leonard, the prolific New York Post columnist, I came across this item in the Sophia Loren section: In 1961, she was back in Spain filming El Cid, and after finishing the day’s … [Read more...]

To celebrate his 70th birthday on June 19, President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic hosted a jazz concert at the Prague Castle, the counterpart of the US White House. A respected economist, Klaus is a devoted and knowledgeable jazz listener who plays the piano. He has done much to bring … [Read more...]

Kenny Wheeler, One Of Many (CamJazz). Wheeler, on flugelhorn, penetrates the album’s air of thoughtful melancholy with the pungency of his interval leaps, harmonic adventures and shadings of tone. Seventy-six when this was made (he is now 81), his daring was as undiminished as his rapport with … [Read more...]

It has been known in music circles for some time that pianist, composer and arranger Alan Broadbent is planning a move from Los Angeles to New York. The plan just became public in The Los Angeles Times. Broadbent told writer Kirk Silsbee, “"People are making more out of this than they need to. The … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Don Frese sent the following inquiry: I have always assumed that “Gotta Be This or That:” is a vocal version, slightly altered, of “Jersey Bounce” by Bobby Plater and Tiny Bradshaw, but I see that Sonny Skylar is credited with both words and music. Similarly, I also … [Read more...]

Phil Woods, Bill Mays, Phil & Bill (Palmetto). A couple of years ago, Mays succeeded Bill Charlap as the pianist in Woods’ quintet. He had melded nicely with the alto saxophonist in casual playing encounters over the years. Regular exposure to one another in the working band deepened their … [Read more...]

The Rifftides reader whose reply to a comment included a link to Prince playing something labeled The Greatest Guitar Solo Ever might consider a meeting between Jimmy Raney (1927-1995) and Attila Zoller (1927-1998). I would not claim ultimate greatness for this performance, only mastery of the … [Read more...]

Major metropolitan newspapers seldom turn their editorial page spotlights on matters to do with the arts—even more rarely when the issues concern jazz or jazz musicians. Over the weekend, The New York Times made an exception with an editorial about the fate of John Coltrane’s house in … [Read more...]

I’ve been listening—over and over—to Jean Sibelius’s “Voces Intimae,” his String Quartet in D-minor. The great Finnish composer (1865-1957) wrote it in 1909 when he was 44 years old. He had completed his Third Symphony and was well on his way out of the romanticism that … [Read more...]

Los Angeles Times sportswriter Jerry Crowe's column makes much of the dual careers of Carmen Fanzone. The former Chicgo Cubs utility infielder is also a trumpet player. Here is a section of the column: The Detroit native played in parts of five major league seasons with the Cubs and … [Read more...]

The jazz community has not forgotten the victims of Japan’s disastrous March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Following a flurry of April concerts to benefit the victims, the efforts continue. Vitello’s, the Los Angeles jazz club, hosts its next installment later this month, with Sue Raney, Tom … [Read more...]

Tomorrow, as you marinate your hot dogs and chill your beer in preparation for the Fourth of July, you have the opportunity to be entertained by the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra performing classic Americana. Here is the announcement from the SRJO and Jim Wilke: With Bill Ramsay … [Read more...]

Journalism is an “other matter” (see the subtitle of the blog) that I think about constantly but write about too seldom. The news business has occupied most of my working life. Seeing it change for the worse is more than a matter of professional interest. The freedom and quality of the flow of … [Read more...]