This morning's cycling expedition took me through a part of the countryside I don't often explore. Now that I've found attractions like this, I'll head out there more often. … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="uh2QN8YyqF5K8OZH50amMC1jDyYxelP4"] Eight years ago, when Rifftides was young, I posted this item from New York following one of the last conventions of the lamented International Association of Jazz Educators. January 19, 2006 It is impossible to predict the course … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="G2j0F1vak8QIY9AV7SshvsCy3myq4GTV"] The" Oregon Coast Jazz Party titled one segment “Saturday Morning Chamber Jazz.” In the event, most of the" weekend celebration had the character and intimacy of a chamber music festival. The proceedings began with flutist Holly … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="zYpf3EzuT61f0H275OzbnjIZYh0VCA2d"] For those in or planning to be in New York City next week, here’s a live listening tip from soprano saxophonist, arranger, composer, bandleader and jazz educator Bill Kirchner. He writes, On Tuesday, October 7, at 8 p.m., I'll … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="rmQFoeCk1UYWMOTOOr0OStdMXM9xcikV"] In a few hours, the Rifftides staff will be hitting the road—a lot of roads—to the Oregon shore of the Pacific Ocean. The occasion is our first visit in a couple of years to the Oregon Coast Jazz Party. The compact weekend … [Read more...]

Charles Llloyd, Arrows Into Infinity (ECM) Charles Lloyd, Manhattan Stories (Resonance) The steadfastly independent saxophonist and flutist Charles Lloyd stepped out of the limelight more than once, but even when he was inactive his recordings remained in demand. Lloyd is drawing renewed … [Read more...]

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.—John Donne, The Autumnal But then fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have … [Read more...]

In most of the Northern Hemisphere, this is officially the first day of fall. In a weblog devoted primarily to jazz, it seems fitting to welcome the advent of the new season with music. The pleasant problem is that there are so many wonderful recordings of songs with autumn themes, it’s impossible … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="4dY9MWCUJx2hVkKp17XAOLYbCLBq7Rf5"] Anne Braithwaite alerted me to Kenny Wheeler’s account of how he prepared when he was searching for inspiration. The trumpeter and composer died this week. See yesterday’s Rifftides post for details. The story came from Ken … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="3h16qsoi29nhGo0KHDo5c6BrUrZd2qlK"] Kenny Wheeler, a Canadian who became a towering figure in British music and an icon of jazz musicians around the world, has succumbed to a long illness. He was in a London nursing home for several months and was moved recently to the … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="qLx8WNFCTupNSc9FZVw6VR4dnH1CUSPQ"] Rifftides reader Svetlana Ilyicheva (pictured right) brings us up to date from time to time on musical events in and around Moscow. Her latest report concerns an organization founded by and for jazz listeners, and one of its concerts … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="kgkKxndiGsEr4q2r1Bj00SwKi8H0TICH"] Following a long illness, Jackie Cain died Monday afternoon in her New Jersey home. She was 86. She and Roy Kral combined their talents in 1946. They incorporated the spirit of bebop in their work with Charlie Ventura’s sextet, … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="wYWxo88Vzu1jpr9Z28eIwV3ORzVulWvV"] Tip 1. Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest program on Sunday will broadcast the tribute given pianist and composer George Cables at this summer’s Centrum Jazz Port Townsend festival on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Mr. Wilke recorded … [Read more...]

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ZVuNAz4PuZiWnW61NbrwhdQMptuPXFbX"] In the September 8 Rifftides post about this week’s passing of Gerald Wilson, I mentioned his enhanced harmonic palette and its importance to modern jazz arranging (Photo courtesy of Gordon Sapsed). It is one aspect of the Wilson … [Read more...]

Word has come that Gerald Wilson died today in Los Angeles. A swing era trumpeter, he became the pioneering leader, composer and arranger of a modern big band that was a significant presence for more than sixty years. Wilson enriched the language of large ensembles by employing expanded harmonic … [Read more...]