When I arrived home after a post-concert hang late Saturday night, I found this message from a musician friend: Has there ever been a better concert at the Seasons than the Ingrid Jensen one this evening? No. I have attended most of the jazz and classical events at The Seasons in its nearly two … [Read more...]

For two years, the Doug's Books section of the right-hand column has ended with this forecast: His next book is a novel that has almost nothing to do with music. That is about to change. The target date for publication is next month. Am I relieved, breathing easier? Yes. Am I excited? You bet. … [Read more...]

Singular They By way of suggesting that I was misguided when I railed against the use of "they" with singular antecedents, Rifftides reader David Seidman directed me to a web log called Language Log. Language Log summons up the Bible and Shakespeare to make the case that "everyone" and "themselves" … [Read more...]

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae. --Kurt Vonnegut Jr One should not be too severe on English novels; they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed. --Oscar … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Marc Myers writes: Among the most underrated and barely celebrated pianists from the 1950s has to be Lorraine Geller, the late wife of alto saxophonist Herb Geller, who today lives in Germany. Stylistically, Lorraine was a funky bop cross between Bud Powell and Horace Silver. She … [Read more...]

In the steady dumbing-down of the English language, there is little dumber than the convoluting fandango that began about twenty years ago to achieve political correctness by avoiding gender. Today's Wall Street Journal story about efforts to protect the pre-publication sanctity of the new Harry … [Read more...]

He has been gone for fifteen years, but interest in the American Indian tenor saxophonist Jim Pepper seems to be building. Pepper's music, full of vigor and allusions to his cultural background, has received attention akin to cultism in parts of Europe and seems headed toward at least a modest … [Read more...]

The artsjournal.com family of blogs becomes richer by one today. Howard Mandel (accent on the first syllable) debuts his Jazz Beyond Jazz with a manifesto that begins: What if there's more to jazz than you suppose? What if jazz demolishes suppositions and breaks all bounds? What if jazz - and the … [Read more...]

John Coltrane Not long after John Coltrane died forty years ago this week, Cannonball Adderley was the guest on Jazz Review, a radio program I did in New Orleans. He and Coltrane had forged a bond in the late 1950s as members of the Miles Davis Sextet. I wrote about their relationsip in a profile of … [Read more...]

From San Francisco comes word that Earl Watkins died early this month at the age of eighty-seven. Elegant, softspoken and full of knowledge, Watkins was a key figure in Bay Area jazz as a drummer and a historian of the music. He played with bands as varied as Bob Scobey's traditional revival outfit … [Read more...]

If you are holding on to your turntable and LPs, you may be encouraged by what Katie Allen reports in The Guardian, especially if you are in the United Kingdom. The format was supposed to have been badly wounded by the introduction of CDs and killed off completely by the ipod-generation that bought … [Read more...]

Sue Raney, Heart's Desire: A Tribute To Doris Day (Fresh Sound). Sue Raney is hardly without a following, but it is a puzzle why a singer of her gifts never achieved widespread fame. For far too long, general audiences have been unaware of Raney's sublime work. Happily, EMI recently reissued All By … [Read more...]

There are undoubtedly pairs of CDs farther apart in spirit than these; say, New Orleans Rhythm Kings 1922-1925 and The Art of Mabel Mercer. Well, I like both of those together under my roof. Weber and Salim are welcome to join them. Eberhard Weber, Stages Of A Long Journey (ECM). In 2005 Weber's … [Read more...]

In response to the John Frigo item in the next exhibit, Rifftides reader Jim Brown writes: In later years, I heard Johnny say of "Detour" that "it was all mine, words and music." He explained that The Soft Winds was a co-op group, and they had an agreement that all of their names would go on … [Read more...]

If John Frigo's only contribution to good music had been his co-authorship of "Detour Ahead" and "I Told You I Loved You, Now Get Out," he would have deserved admiration and gratitude. He wrote those songs in the late 1940s with Herb Ellis and Lou Carter, his partners in the elegant Soft Winds trio. … [Read more...]

Vladimir Godar, Mater (ECM). In the course of writing the notes for George Mraz's forthcoming CD Moravian Gems, I made the aural acquaintance of the Czech singer, violinist and actress Iva Bittová and was enchanted by her. Mraz informed me that the composer Vladimír Godár, inspired by Bittová's … [Read more...]

Remember our series of Rifftides riffs and exchanges about applause? It started like this. Then it went here and here In the past year and a half, the issue has not gone away. San Diego Union-Tribune classical music critic Valerie Scher's Sunday, July 8 column bore the headline, "Think Before You … [Read more...]

If you enjoyed the video montage of women in painting a few weeks ago, click here for act two; women in film. The cello accompanist is the same. I wonder who it is. … [Read more...]

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body.--Oliver Wendell Holmes You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow.--Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket My … [Read more...]