“Four” is one of the best-known jazz tunes attributed to Miles Davis. He may actually have written it, although a substantial number of musicians maintain that the composer was the alto saxophonist and blues singer Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. It is all but certain that Vinson also wrote … [Read more...]

Classic Savoy BeBop Sessions 1945-49 Just a quick run-through of the names involved in this ten- CD set might be enough to whet the curiosity of the uninitiated and the appetites of devotees of the music that changed jazz in the 1940s. A few of them: Bud Powell, Allen Eager, Milt Jackson, Fats … [Read more...]

Coleman Hawkins made the tenor saxophone a jazz instrument. Bud Freeman (1906-1991), two years younger than Hawkins, followed as another of the horn’s early masters. Freeman (pictured) started on C-melody saxophone and was a member of Chicago’s Austin High Gang, which also included Frank … [Read more...]

Rifftides reader Arthur Hill writes from somewhere in Oregon: Yes, Virginia—there is a jazz club in Salem, Oregon, called Christo's, a restaurant and lounge. They recently announced that with the closure of Jimmy Mak’s in Portland, "We have been asked to host, for a continual run of second … [Read more...]

The press of Art Pepper business distracted Rifftides from noting that yesterday was the birthday of Gerry Mulligan. He would have been 90. On the occasion, Franca Mulligan sent news about an event in her husband’s honor that is sponsored by their foundation as a means of aiding young musicians. … [Read more...]

The Monday concert that paid tribute to the 2017 National Endowment For The Arts Jazz Masters is now online, all three hours of it. In addition to new Jazz Masters Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ira Gitler, Dave Holland, Dick Hyman and Dr. Lonnie Smith, the three-hour concert includes performances by a … [Read more...]

At the invitation of the Rifftides staff, reader Michael Phillips sent a report about the NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert last night at the Kennedy Center. Mr. Philips (pictured left) lives near Washington, DC. He " is a clean-energy consultant who “used to play guitar in swing and jump blues … [Read more...]

Funding for the arts in The United States may be eliminated or drastically reduced if the Trump administration has its way, but an established arts showcase will be presented this evening, we hope not for the last time. The 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters will be honored at the … [Read more...]

The award-winning broadcaster Jim Wilke is presenting two groups on his Jazz Northwest program Sunday afternoon. He recorded them at last summer’s Centrum Port Townsend Jazz Festival on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Here is Jim’s illustrated description of the proceedings. Highlights from … [Read more...]

Rifftides is on the back burner for a few days. The proprietor is immersed in annotating an extensive project involving Art Pepper’s early recordings for the Contemporary label. Details will follow—eventually. For now, here’s the alto saxophonist from a 1960 session. Pepper (1925-1982) once … [Read more...]

The Rifftides staff almost let March 26 go by without acknowledging that this is James Moody’s birthday. The master of several saxophones and the flute was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1925. At 21, following his tour with the US Air Force, Moody joined Dizzy Gillespie’s trailblazing 1946 big … [Read more...]

You must have been wondering—haven’t we all?—what happened to Mr. P.C.’s Guide To Jazz Etiquette And Bandstand Decorum. The jazz world’s indispensible source of advice has become harder to find, but not impossible. His latest installment has to do with CDs, their ubiquity or the … [Read more...]

Pianist Steve Kuhn, born in 1938, is celebrating his birthday. Let’s celebrate with him as he, bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Billy Drummond play Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation.” Kuhn’s unaccompanied introduction explores a harmonic relationship between the Parker piece and the 1940s … [Read more...]

This evening, pianists Roger Kellaway (US) and Peter Beets (Netherlands) are collaborating at New York City’s Sheen Center. It’s part of the Jazz On Bleecker Street series. Their concert is scheduled to include a medley of pieces written by the British nobleman Paul McCartney. Here is an … [Read more...]

Cuneiform is an independent label recording music that is out of the mainstream. The Claudia Quartet, Wadada Leo Smith and Thinking Plague are on the Cuneiform roster, and it has groups with even wider orbits—Bent Knee from Boston, for instance, the Norwegian quintet I.P.A., the British jazz-punk … [Read more...]

In the northern hemisphere, it is the first day of spring. In our corner of the Pacific Northwest, the season dawned grey, cloudy and looking as if any minute the sky might open up with rain rather than sunshine. We’re compensating with a photograph that expresses hope. Coming out of a … [Read more...]

At the Jazz At Porquerolles Festival on the French Riviera in 2011, Charles Lloyd and his remarkable quartet of the period turned their attention to one of Brian Wilson’s songs. Wilson first recorded the piece as a single in 1966 and later used it in the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. Lloyd … [Read more...]

McGhee, one of the essential bop trumpeters, plays “Lover Man,” accompanied by Richard Davis, bass; Ted Dunbar, guitar; and Roy Haynes, drums; at Jack Kleinsinger’s “Highlights In Jazz” tribute to Charlie Parker in April, 1973, in New York. McGhee makes the introduction. … [Read more...]

Bob Porter, Soul Jazz: Jazz In The Black Community, 1945-1975, Xlibris Sometimes it’s good to get back to the basics. Bob Porter’s new book guides you there. For decades, Porter has disseminated the jazz basics by way of records he has produced, liner notes he has written, and radio programs … [Read more...]