Labor Day Weekend's Detroit International Jazz Festival is looming, and Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press is profiling some of its headliners. In today's column, pianist Herbie Hancock tells Stryker about his early experience with Miles Davis. "After a couple of months of trying to play what I … [Read more...]

The Rifftides piece about Charles Mingus brought a response from pianist and composer Jill McManus in New York. Jill McManus I knew Mingus! I was introduced to him one night when I took my mother, in from England, to the old Half Note in the '70s. I seem to remember it was pouring. We were waiting … [Read more...]

Here's a video clip of an unlikely collaboration, complete with a little refresher course in jazz history. … [Read more...]

The Chicago pianist and self-described bon vivant Jeremy Kahn writes: I was lucky enough to have crossed paths with Max Roach on a couple of different occasions: Once was for a workshop of an Amiri Baraka play about Bumpy Johnson, the black gangster in the twenties. It was performed by NYU … [Read more...]

2007 is turning out to be a bonanza year for a Charles Mingus sextet that existed for a few months forty-three years ago. All of the band's members are dead. Its music is gloriously alive. The high point so far is a remarkable two-CD set capturing a performance that might have been forgotten except … [Read more...]

Coming soon: meditations on Charles Mingus, who is proliferating posthumously this year. I had hoped to finish the piece tonight, but it is demanding more than I had intended to give it and night is rapidly heading toward morning. To borrow Dave Frishberg's line, I gotta get me some Zzzzs. Stay … [Read more...]

Al Haig and Gene DiNovi came out of their teens into the excitement of bebop as the music was discovering itself in the early 1940s. They played piano with some of the most important musicians of the era, had periods of relative obscurity, then re-emerged -- Haig briefly. DiNovi is still enjoying a … [Read more...]

Record producer, writer and all-'round musician Bill Kirchner writes: In 1995, I programmed and did the liner notes for Harry James: Verve Jazz Masters 55, a CD compilation of James' MGM recordings from 1959 to '64. These recordings are among James' best from a jazz standpoint; the CD is still … [Read more...]

In case you've forgotten or never knew, Harry James was a terrific leader who had some great bands. If that seems obvious to you, then you are a better listener than many of the critics who knocked James for what they decided was showy trumpet playing without much musical merit. There are many … [Read more...]

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world -- Albert Einstein The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can … [Read more...]

Curiosity overtook me today about Carl Payne, the San Francisco cable car bell-ringer who collaborated with the great drummer Max Roach. I found Payne by telephone and added the story of what he's been up to since he sat in with Max in 1981. To read it at the end of the original posting, go here. … [Read more...]

The passing of Herb Pomeroy on August 11 leaves jazz education in New England without one of its most skilled teachers and the music absent an improviser and bandleader of rare originality. Pomeroy was a trumpeter who grew into a major arranger, leader and inspiration to hundreds of students at the … [Read more...]

Max Roach died early this morning at the age of eighty-three. Phone calls and e-mail messages announcing his passing and commenting on his importance have been pouring in all day. Max Roach As a teenager, Roach began developing a way of drumming that grew out of the bop pioneer Kenny Clarke and … [Read more...]

It may seem that jazz gets less coverage in the general press than it deserves, but don't blame the Associated Press or the San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle frequently runs substantial AP stories and pieces by its own staffers about major musicians and important developments in jazz. Bassist … [Read more...]

The Rifftides Lead Of The Week Award goes to Steve Greenlee of the Boston Globe for this entry: NEWPORT, R.I. -- News bulletin: Major theft this weekend at Fort Adams State Park during the JVC Jazz Festival. Description of subject: Elderly gentleman, white hair, thick glasses, walks and speaks … [Read more...]

In response to last week's Rifftides posting on free press issues, DevraDowrite brings up the Bush administration's relationship to press freedom and journalistic responsibility, particularly in regard to the Joseph Wilson-Valerie Plame episode. As I would have if I'd had the presence of mind to … [Read more...]

Speaking--er, writing--of Benny Carter, as we did in this Rifftides posting and others that followed, there's a lot of Carter in the air this year of his centennial. The polymath saxophonist, arranger composer, bandleader, author and broacaster (whew) Bill Kirchner joins the celebration. Here's his … [Read more...]

A year and a half ago, Rifftides reported to you about an extraordinary concert the Maria Schneider Orchestra played at Jazz Alley in Seattle. Schneider was two days away from her Los Angeles premier of a new work commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, so in Seattle she kept … [Read more...]

No, this isn't about Lester Young. It's about journalism and, ultimately, your right to know. In her blog, Christine Tatum, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, kindly links to Rifftides. The Rifftides staff is happy to reciprocate. Tatum tackles free press issues. Her present … [Read more...]