Immediately outside the west wall of Rifftides world headquarters is a magnificent Sunset Maple. Each fall, the tree puts on a show. The show is in its final act. With luck, we have a week before the curtain of leaves falls. In the meantime, this is what we wake up to. You probably suspect … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="tBJwE78l3acFbjEN1JEO4pGW1xb90H4x"] The governing principle of the Dayna Stephens album recommended in the post below brought to mind the philosophy of Red Mitchell (1927-1992). “Simple isn’t easy,” the great bassist often said. He wrote a song and made an album … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="aw9JrVNw1v2v6y475ZLmYuSHz2pV7Fbo"] Billie Holiday’s recording of “Strange Fruit,” shocked listeners in 1939. Seventy-five years later, the song’s portrayal of racist lynching retains its disturbing power as commentary on a shameful part of the American past. … [Read more...]

Queries still arrive about where to buy Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. As hardened Rifftides readers know, but newcomers may not, new clothbound copies are history, unless you are lucky enough to spot one on the shelf of your corner bookstore. And if your town still has a … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="QJHEEjwGfK9BD1xwmUs4vs23hvuTE4Uz"] Conventional wisdom in jazz is that the harmonies in the bridge section of Rogers and Hart’s “Have You Met Miss Jones?” inspired John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.” Recently Mark Gilbert, the editor of the British magazine Jazz … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="8JqqMr36LVbCNZI0yEJPAuePVvUr9BCl"] The clock says it’s still the weekend (barely) way out west. John Marshall, the American expatriate who is the longtime principal trumpet of the WDR Big Band in Germany, sent links to performances from his recent quintet tour in … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="628fOEJJ2F4uG9Ykhb4UjCFCajpJJp5V"] Kristin Korb, Finding Home (Double K) Korb, whose singing matches the high quality of her bass playing, releases Finding Home after previewing some of its pieces this summer at the Ystad Jazz Festival in Sweden. The nine songs she … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="WVclwNI4VXqxwLh6vYkG48kpYvPaKAD7"] Joshua Redman, Trios Live (Nonesuch) Redman opens with an unaccompanied tenor saxophone introduction to “Mack the Knife.” The fluidity, power and quixotic imagination of his playing prepare his listeners for the album’s hour … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="FNodHY2VybSrXw8qt6LdYGX13rZ8flGk"] Of the dozens of young tenor saxophonists inspired by Lester Young (see the previous post), Zoot Sims (1925-1985) may have reached prominence at the youngest age. His 19th birthday was five months ahead of him when he recorded with … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="N3eGTU2upG3WofFktMzNoHEsmFl43ZeT"] Michael Cuscuna alerted us to a video on the Mosaic Records site in which Wayne Shorter tells about his only meeting with Lester Young. It was in the late 1950s, most likely 1958. Shorter had played briefly with Horace Silver before … [Read more...]

Fats Waller, piano and vocal; Gene Sedric, tenor saxophone; Heman Autrey, trumpet; Al Casey, guitar; Charles Turner, bass; Yank Porter, drums. April 8, 1936. RCA Records. … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="wnRQ87WQFi6XlaR36IExVoEtZmHhb1fc"] Greg Curtis, author, former editor of Texas Monthly, former TIME magazine special correspondent, knowledgeable jazz listener and occasional Rifftides reader, writes about meeting Dexter Gordon. He encountered Gordon at a used record … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="bjLng2oAKY7tnPmLMXjbRsWIpNah37ve"] If you were not one of the four- or five-hundred people who attended pianist Benny Green’s concert at the Oregon Coast Jazz Party last weekend—or perhaps especially if you were—here’s a Rifftides listening tip. Jim … [Read more...]