[contextly_auto_sidebar id="QB7unMhULzJRqZGJtIxG8oEfTtjZAkaq"] Pianist Spike Wilner, the proprietor of Smalls and Mezzrow’s in New York’s Greenwich Village, sends occasional email newsletters about who is playing at his clubs. Now and then he includes sidebar items about things that interest … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="UVgREQ9ulr6Z58oK6mJtAtDNQUqL2uRn"] Billy Strayhorn was born 99 years ago today. He wrote the music and the wan, world-weary lyric of “Lush Life” when he was a sixteen-year-old in his native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Having arranged to meet Duke Ellington backstage … [Read more...]

Three cheers, five stars and a slap on the back for Sony. I was trapped interminably in the electronics company's voice mail system. Sony made up for it when I finally got a robot voice that said, Due to an unusually high volume of calls, all of our associates are busy with other customers. … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="TVJkPaiRMT3p8zMzY0XaAFwQX51qzktS"] Into his waking hours Denny Zeitlin manages to work fly fishing, mountain biking, master-level wine connoisseurship, the practice of psychiatry and—let’s see, there was something else. Oh yes, he plays the piano. In his … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="3u8LbIdk98f1o1E2CNQK6UWPNKZHu0fR"] Nearly two months ago, I alerted you to a concert that the soprano saxophonist Bill Kirchner was going to play on October 7 at the New School in New York City. I regretted that it was 3,000 miles away. Now, my regret is that I … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="iJ8ouub6CTEjx41JgShheYvkIWbZjiSl"] ...The mailman and the UPS and Fedex folks bring bills, the junk mail that metastasizes around holidays, and—if you're in the reviewing game—recordings, lots of recordings. This was the start of unpacking two weeks' … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="dEI9e4AmGxrtE7EoV2vBl4FsFKOAMwGM"] Today is Paul Desmond's 90th birthday. Years after Paul's death, his guitar companion and good friend Jim Hall (1930-2013) said, "He would have been a great old man." The last birthday Desmond celebrated, his fifty-second, fell on … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="vPPh301BxHEVykpqHd37rUSKB9qENIrs"] Near the windup of our visit to southern California, we took a walk along the beach in Santa Barbara. Not far from our host's house, we stood for a long time admiring the ocean and the sky's patches of blue expanding and contracting … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="DGqQQNMNmeEsA8C1xylNj8jcMGRYAhUA"] The Rifftides staff's vacation visit to California coincided with an appearance by Kristin Korb on her US tour. The bassist and singer appeared at a Santa Barbara Jazz Society concert at the downtown restaurant called Soho. Korb, … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="CWkrW3rjIkAwQiTg1mP7hiJEiWG5idH5"] This news is five days old, but perhaps I’m not the only one who has been on the road and out of touch. The young Chicago trumpeter Marquis Hill won the Thelonious Monk Institute’s big award. Charles Gans of the Associated Press … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="IBoAjGyNOw12pZwIpH5CJc67FpTFHqsQ"] I was saddened to learn on the road that Buddy Catlett died yesterday. I remember him looking as he does in this photograph made around the time we were both involved in Seattle’s vibrant jazz community in the early-to-mid 1950s. He … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="AZfGhwbs23yPC4YB5LdO3VV84fu4cESN"] On the way south, we spent a couple of nights in Fort Bragg on the northern California coast. In addition to admiring the bird pictured in the post below, we took time to visit with Mark Ruedrich and Doug Moody. They are the president … [Read more...]

You never know who you'll run into when you're on vacation. This morning, this guy was on the balcony railing outside our room in Fort Bragg on Northern California's Mendocino coast. He's a Pacific Gull, I believe. He was good at looking hungry. We had nothing to contribute to his breakfast. … [Read more...]

Sorry about the headline. While I waited in line at the supermarket, I was infected by tabloid newspapers. Jenner didn't play trumpet or sing. Baker is not known for decathlon victories. What he is famous for is captured in a video made in Laren, The Netherlands, in 1975, 13 years before his … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="SD3KHPtxY5qYi6fKn89MIBBWFcTETgOp"] Not terribly sorry, actually. The Rifftides staff needs a vacation, so we're taking one. There may be occasional blogging through the magic of digital delays, so please check in once in a while. There's a Chet Baker piece coming up … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="98XJeTej1PQP3Wm71vQUl0e4GZQq3B0T"] The weather around here has been what meteorologists call, for lack of a more scientific term, variable. That means warm, cold, cloudy, sunny, rainy and—while all that is going on—fierce wind gusts blowing the beautiful fall … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="hlJ89ZKNJ4hnbNGoHZb9OgJ3BqDlvyA6"] On Steve Cerra's Jazz Profiles blog, today's subject is Paul Desmond's Complete RCA Victor Recordings featuring Jim Hall, a fine companion to your morning coffee. Steve put together one of his celebrated videos incorporating … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="YvpaP6tOwudsHlyiCFvVv9mKQw6UKTX9"] From 1960 to 1972 in Hollywood, drummer Shelly Manne operated Shelly’s Manne Hole, one of the great jazz clubs in the world. It was headquarters for his quintet known as Shelly Manne And His Men, which over the years included many … [Read more...]