Cecil Taylor, a pianist who fashioned his music from myriad styles and sources, died yesterday in New York. He was 89. From his earliest recordings in the mid-1950s with bassist Buell Nieidlinger, drummer Dennis Charles and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, Taylor pursued daring and swam upstream … [Read more...]

Composer, saxophonist, bandleader and author Bill Kirchner is the subject of two new articles that recognize his decades of creativity. One piece is in the new issue of Allegro, the magazine of New York’s American Federation of Musicians local 802. The other is in the Canadian bassist Steve … [Read more...]

The Jazz West Coast list serve often begins its posts with the names of jazz people born on the current date. The April 3 list is a profusion of such names. • Paul Abler, guitar, 1957 (d. March 3, 2017) • Jamie Davis, vocal • Doris Day, vocal, 1922 • Terry Deane, tenor sax, 1972 (d. … [Read more...]

Recent Listening In Brief Edward Simon, Sorrows & Triumphs (Sunnyside) Pianist-composer-arranger Simon is engrossed in jazz, his heritage in Latin-American music and his studies of Buddhism. Sorrows & Triumphs blends those and other aspects of his preoccupations, and Simon refines the … [Read more...]

Today, Rifftides offers the second installment of scholar, teacher and historian Jeff Sultanof’s essay on pleasures and challenges in the craft of correcting arrangements. " Exploring Buried Treasure in Plain Sight, Part 2 By Jeff Sultanof A tangent: I was fortunate to have Jerome Graff … [Read more...]

Technical difficulties are delaying the posting of part 2 of Jeff Sultanof's guest article on arrangers and arranging. We think that help is on the way but, after all, this is a holiday weekend. Watch this space. In the meantime, however long that may turn out to be," Rifftides wishes you and … [Read more...]

Rifftides is delighted that Jeff Sultanof has agreed to contribute another piece. A distinguished expert on arrangers and arranging," Mr. Sultanof is the author of the invaluable book Experiencing Big Band Jazz: A Listener’s Companion. One of the book’s running themes is the essential role of … [Read more...]

Chummy MacGregor was born on this day in 1903 and died on March 9, 1973. It’s the rare listener to modern jazz who doesn’t know of the MacGregor composition “Moon Dreams,” which he wrote when he was a pianist and arranger with his longtime boss Glenn Miller. “Moon Dreams” is one of the … [Read more...]

The John Coltrane project described in this post is completed and awaiting release by Concord Jazz. However—I am happy to report—other free lance assignments have developed. Rifftides progress slows a bit while I work on them, but in the next few posts we’ll call your attention to recent … [Read more...]

Their recording histories encompass dozens of collaborations, but in their new albums two of the most prolific recording artists in modern music go it alone.   Bill Frisell, Music Is (Okeh) Guitarist Bill Frisell reaches into his storehouse of compositions to revisit several that he … [Read more...]

(This post originally ran in 2014, but a record company or an agent or a publicist or fate removed the videos. The Rifftides staff has patiently reassembled the piece and restored the music. If Youtube or the previous culprit strikes again, we give up. But please note the link to an invaluable Bird … [Read more...]

Reader comments have converted what began a couple of weeks ago as a <em>Rifftides</em> post about Claude Thornhill’s version of ”Robbins’ Nest” into a seminar on keys, pitch, “Cornet Chop Suey,” Fletcher Henderson, “Stardust” and Glenn Miller, among other matters. It … [Read more...]

This Sunday, March 11, Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest broadcast will present highlights of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra’s recent concert of music composed by Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond. Jim reports that the SRJO will play “Take Five,” “In Your Own Sweet Way, “The Duke,” … [Read more...]

A few weeks ago the Rifftides Monday Recommendation was Jeff Sultanof’s new book Experiencing Big Band Jazz. You can read the recommendation here. Sultanof (pictured right) was recently the guest on Michael Fitzgerald’s Jazz Forum program. Discussing his motivation to write the book, he told … [Read more...]

The Coltrane project (two items down) is progressing to the extent that I was able to get out the office for a short bicycle excursion. Tooling around the neighbohood, I saw these harbingers of spring thriving near the trunk of a venerable birch tree. The calendar says that spring is … [Read more...]

Research on yet another extracurricular (i.e., non-Rifftides) project involving John Coltrane has led me into several byways that the great tenor saxophonist took in his pre-“Giant Steps” days of the 1950s. One of those paths branched off from the association with Miles Davis that formed a … [Read more...]