Marc Myers is doing good things on his new blog JazzWax. His most recent posting is about a listening session with fellow blogger Terry Teachout. Before that, he and Danny Bank tell the sad story of Billie Holiday's last recording session. To read both pieces, go here. … [Read more...]

Recent Rifftides visitors are from all sectors of the United States, including most major cities, and smaller places with wonderful names like Blooming Glenn and Avondale, both in Pennsylvania; Bloomington, Indiana; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Newton, Lower Falls, Massachusetts; and Morro Bay, Camarillo … [Read more...]

Gap Mangione sent this message: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUh1SlrtEG0 http://youtube.com/watch?v=W-8CNslGOPc I've never been able to listen to this second one with dry eyes; especially the final 58 seconds. May he rest in peace... Gap … [Read more...]

Rifftides Washington, DC, correspondent John Birchard alerts us to a tribute concert by an international quintet of major jazz musicians who were affected by the Voice of America's Willis Conover. If you live in the DC area, make your reservation early. Willis Conover The Voice of America and the … [Read more...]

News from the publisher: less than two weeks off the press, Poodie James has gone into a second printing. Many thanks to Rifftides readers who have helped to make that possible. As an excerpt from the novel posted on Rifftides makes clear, Poodie is deaf and mostly mute. After she read that passage, … [Read more...]

A message from Sue Mingus, widow of Charles: I believe it was in Rifftides that someone recently quoted one of Charles Mingus's sons talking about his father telling him to jump off a shed and then not catching him. That was an old joke I heard about 50 years ago in Paris-- not very funny-- about a … [Read more...]

Several major jazz bassists - including Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown, Sam Jones, and Percy Heath - also played the cello. Ron Carter doubles on cello. For the most part, Carter employs it as a midget replica of his main instrument, soloing by plucking the strings, as did his predecessors. Indeed, … [Read more...]

Two of the leading pianists in modern jazz are now man and wife. Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes were married last week. For details go to this New York Times story. The Rifftides staff offers hearty congratulations. … [Read more...]

Announcing the publication of Poodie James the other day, I included an excerpt from the only episode in the novel in which Poodie reacts to music. To read it, go here and you will see that the music, at a dance, is "Caldonia," played by Woody Herman's band. After it became a hit in 1945, Herman … [Read more...]

Mr. JazzWax, aka Marc Myers, tracked down the venerable baritone saxophonist Danny Bank, one of the few Charlie Parker sidemen still with us, to talk about Bird. Among Bank's anecdotes: "One morning, sometime in 1951, I think, I took out one of the Sonatas for Woodwind by Hindemith and used it to … [Read more...]

For a long time, the Doug's Books section on the right side of your screen ended with: His next book is a novel that has nothing to do with music. The section now begins (bells, whistles, horns, raucous whoops and shouts, please): Doug's most recent book is Poodie James, a novel published in … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Wade Nelson of River Forest, Illinois, writes: After reading a piece about George Russell, I hauled out a 1957 LP by Hal McKusick called Jazz Workshop that I hadn't listened to in many years. Arrangements by Russell, Giuffre, Evans, Mandel, Albam and Cohn. Very fine music. I … [Read more...]

The Rifftides staff directs your attention to the right-hand column and the exhibit entitled Doug's Picks. All the picks are new. We invite your comments, as always. … [Read more...]