Good things go around and come around, if we’re lucky. Many good things having to do with jazz show up on the Daily Jazz Gazette of the Mosaic Records website. Michael Cuscuna and the Mosaic staff post stories and performances of lasting value. Their latest alert concerns—for … [Read more...]

Bassist Bill Crow’s column “The Band Room” is an event New York musicians look forward to each month. It appears in Allegro, the newspaper of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians. As readers of Bill’s books know, he is a superb anecdotist who tells stories about jazz artists … [Read more...]

The generations move on. It’s a sad part of an observer’s task to acknowledge the deaths of musicians who made important contributions. Pianist Don Friedman died of pancreatic cancer at home in New York City on June 30. He was 81. Friedman was treasured by fellow musicians for the subtlety … [Read more...]

An annual Rifftides reminder Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.—Benjamin Franklin America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed … [Read more...]

Whatever your Fourth Of July weekend plans, the"  understated perfection in the late Clare Fischer’s arrangement of “America Beautiful” will help you to a calm beginning of what can be a raucous, joyous holiday. It’s from Fischer’s classic 1967 album Songs For Rainy Day … [Read more...]

Not to bore Rifftides readers with internet trivia, but two more days of extended conversations with Apple technicians seem to have led us out of the digital black hole that captured us for a few days. I never had these hassles with my Royal Standard typewriter. Of course, the Royal refused to go … [Read more...]

Although the engineering department is still working on a permanent fix, the Rifftides computer problem is mostly solved and we seem to be back in full operation (knock on wood). Let’s hope—and celebrate with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. Here is the tenor saxophone master (1921-1986) at the … [Read more...]

The notorious Apple spinning rainbow disc has invaded the Rifftides mainframe computer, also known as a MacBook Pro. Several hours of the entire staff's concerted technical efforts have failed to regain control. We can't even illustrate the problem with a representation of the spinning disc because … [Read more...]

In the new issue of The Village Voice, Michael J. Agovino wraps three years of observing the bassist Linda Oh into a 4,000-word article about what it takes these days for a leading musician to practice the profession in the world’s jazz capital. Here’s an excerpt: Exposure is great, and … [Read more...]

I once wrote about the Roland Kirk of the days—”long before he added 'Rahsaan' to his name, before he became famous, when he was a tornado roaring out of the Midwest, totally blind and full of insight, playing three saxophones at once, whistles, flute and siren at the ready on a chain around his … [Read more...]

Jam sessions are not exclusive to jazz. They happen in virtually every genre of music—folk, bluegrass, rock, Indian, Afro-Cuban, freestyle rap, sometimes even among highly trained and disciplined classical musicians, when they think they won’t get caught. In classical music, attitudes toward … [Read more...]

Spotify, iTunes and other companies streaming music did not exist when the following Rifftides piece appeared. If anything, there has been an escalation of the ability of singers, and of musicians in general, to make themselves ubiquitous. From the Rifftides archive: first posted on April 17, … [Read more...]

Iris Bergcrantz, Different Universe (Vanguard Music Boulevard) In an impressive display of her talent as a singer and songwriter, the daughter of prominent Swedish musicians Anders Bergcrantz and Anna-Lena Laurin debuts as a leader, with her parents as members of the band. Iris Bergcrantz’s … [Read more...]

Saxophonist Bill Kirchner writes: For several years In the 1980s I used to sub on occasion in the saxophone section of drummer Mel Lewis's Jazz Orchestra—originally the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra. When I wasn't playing, I would often stop in to hear their weekly Monday-night gigs at NYC's … [Read more...]

This morning’s cycling expedition took me across a freeway overpass whose height allowed a perfect view of Mount Adams sixty miles to the southwest. When I decided to share it with you, I wondered what music might best go with the picture. A quick staff meeting came up with the answer. All right, … [Read more...]