This week, I'll be reporting from the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho and the Portland Jazz Festival in Oregon. It will be the first Hampton festival completely under the direction of its new major domo, John Clayton. Because the events overlap, I'll be getting to Portland for only the … [Read more...]

The artsjournal.com technical team has restored the Rifftides comments section. The staff thanks them profusely. You will find a comments link at the end of each post. You are welcome to also comment directly by e-mail. Please do. … [Read more...]

To read a Rifftides post about bassist Dennis Irwin's predicament, click here. Mike Quinn of Jazz Times writes: I've built and posted a website for Dennis Irwin, my old high school buddy. Will be adding more material this coming week since I'm heading to NYC for three weeks to attend both benefits. … [Read more...]

There is a baritone saxophonist in Spain who sounds amazingly like Gerry Mulligan. Rifftides reader Tyler Newcomb sent the alert: Man, that Joan Chamorro plays so much like Gerry, if you closed your eyes you'd swear it was him. Plays just behind the beat like Mulligan, improvises the same type of … [Read more...]

You Tube may have removed all of its Chet Baker videos, but it turns out that there is still Baker to be seen and heard on the web. Two days late, we are able to link you, after all, to a Japanese site that has Chet singing and playing "My Funny Valentine" in a superior performance from late in his … [Read more...]

First Published July 8, 2005 A reader of Rifftides or Take Five (both, I hope) has been listening to Jim Hall's 1974 Concierto CD in which Hall's sidemen are Paul Desmond, Chet Baker, Roland Hanna, Ron Carter and Steve Gadd. She sent a message asking a question at which musicians tend to guffaw when … [Read more...]

"My Funny Valentine" was one of Chet Baker's signature songs, and I'd love to give you a link to a clip of him singing or playing it. Sorry, that's not possible. A few days ago You Tube removed all of its Baker videos because of a copyright wrangle, so I looked to see who else they have performing … [Read more...]

If you live in or plan to visit the Washington, DC, area, you may be interested in this communique from a Rifftides reader: There is a fabulous exhibit titled "Jam Session: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World" coming up at the Meridian International Center in Washington, DC. Aside from … [Read more...]

Whether sponsored by the State Department or off to see the world on their own, the Dave Brubeck Quartet practiced their share of cultural diplomacy in the 1950s and '60s. You Tube, that never-ending source of surprises and occasional frustrations, has come up with video of the DBQ on a 1962 … [Read more...]

Dave Frishberg asks in one of his songs, Do You Miss New York? Yes, I do, every day. So it was a pleasure to get a small New York fix from an unexpected source, an e-mail ad from a clothing store. The tour through a favorite part of lower Manhattan made me homesick for one of my many former … [Read more...]

Several years ago, I quit the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in frustration over the academy's treatment of jazz. I returned my dues statement with the notation that I needed the $75 more than Celine Dione did. If anything, jazz has been shoved further down the ladder since then. … [Read more...]

The artsjournal.com shop foreman tells me there is a good chance that the Rifftides comment section will be repaired and back in action by the end of the week. In the meantime, please use e-mail (that's a link) to send your comments. … [Read more...]

While the Rifftides comment capability is being repaired, we are relying on e-mail to receive your comments. Jim Brown writes from Santa Cruz, California: From my rather distant perspective as a Baker fan, this very real spat seems to be the result of a big corporate entity (You Tube) being … [Read more...]

I'm curious about how you determined that Al Porcino was playing lead on the clips in question. He is sitting on the left side of the section (looking at the band) and thus not in the lead chair. I agree with you that Al is formidable -- in fact I think he's probably my all time favorite lead … [Read more...]

I wanted to add this to the last comment posted about Sue Raney: Joe Morello told me Paul Desmond did not like chick singers. I wonder if Sue Raney could have been an exception. Joe does enjoy her singing. If Sue happens to read this, I' m very eager for another newly recorded CD. And, maybe even … [Read more...]

Back in the antediluvian era of jazz blogging (early 2005), there weren't many of us. Terry Teachout thinks that when Rifftides debuted, it was the first jazz blog. Maybe so. At any rate, now there are jazz blogs galore. Some are promotional vehicles for musicians, record companies, magazines, … [Read more...]

When the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra flourished, one of the complaints by the guys in the band was that Jones didn't assign himself enough solos. They loved to hear him play. Who wouldn't? A video has just surfaced in which at a 1970s concert in Germany the band plays "Cherry Juice" and Thad … [Read more...]

It is a pleasure to find Poodie James mentioned with fellow artsjournal.com blogger Alex Ross's landmark book The Rest Is Noise. Richard Kamins of the Hartford Courant managed to put my little novel and Alex's study of twentieth century music under the same roof in his column "See! Hear!" … [Read more...]