Randy Porter Plays Cole Porter, special guest Nancy King (Heavywood)
If Randy Porter played more widely outside the US Pacific Northwest, he would likely be lauded as one of the leading contemporary jazz pianists. This new album of songs composed by his namesake Cole Porter could go a long way toward bringing about wide recognition of an artist with a record of achievement going back more than three decades. Porter has toured extensively in Europe and Asia, traveling with saxophonist Charles McPherson and bassist David Friesen, among others. He is known on the west coast well beyond his home base in the Portland, Oregon, area.
Six of the nine tracks find Nancy King, at 77, as musicianly as ever—individualistic and expressive, one of the few vocalists capable of improvising with harmonic wisdom equal to that of experienced instrumentalists. Her coordination with Porter, bassist John Wiitala and drummer Todd Strait is evident in this Cole Porter classic captured on video at the recording session.
Spurred by its 2018 Grammy nomination, the Porter-Porter album seems bound to further spread Randy Porter’s growing reputation,.
with vibraharpist Milt Jackson, pianist John Lewis, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Kenny Clarke. They first recorded as an entity in 1951 as the Milt Jackson Quartet. After Percy Heath replaced Brown the following year the group changed its name to The Modern Jazz Quartet. When Clarke concentrated on freelancing around New York in 1955 and then moved to Paris, Connie Kay assumed the drum chair.
From his years with Buddy Rich in the 1960s through his long membership in the late bassist Charlie Haden’s Quartet West and for years since, the tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts has had a noteworthy career. One of his longest associations has been with his European quartet and its rhythm section of pianist Christof Saenger, bassist Rudi Engel and drummer Heinrich Koebberling. Their Wheel Of Time has compositions by each of the quartet members plus Joe Henderson’s jazz standard “Inner Urge†and Canadian pianist Adrean Farrugia’s calypsoish “Goose Dance.â€
Sorry to learn of the passing this week of trombonist Roswell Rudd (1935-2017). From his days in the 1950s as a Yale University student, Rudd showed flexibility, a penchant for harmonic subtlety, a big sound and an endearing rough humor. Through the years, he comfortably collaborated with musicians as stylistically varied as the traditionalists Wild Bill Davison, Bud Freeman and Eddie Condon, and modern adventurers like Archie Shepp, Lee Konitz, Albert Ayler and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra. Rudd and the singer Sheila Jordan had a particularly fruitful musical relationship. For a comprehensive obituary, see 
Nashville arrangers wrap the penetrating power of Ms. Watkins’ voice in orchestral settings that include breaks suggesting, but never fully disclosing, the studio musicians’ jazz abilities. The feeling, however, is definitely there, notably in the skilled rhythm section. Ms. Watkins is superb in “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,†and two unusual songs new to me, “Mary Did You Know†and “Christmas In Heaven.†The verse to Martin and Blaine’s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas†has been too seldom performed since Judy Garland first sang it in the film Meet Me In St. Louis in 1944. Ms. Watkins does it beautifully.
Curtis wrote ten new songs for this album and recorded them with a big band of musicians from the Washington, DC, area. The emphasis is on straight-ahead swing. He delivers his vocals in a confident baritone that is cheerful and consistently in tune. Except for a miasma of corniness in some of the lyrics, it’s a rewarding and entertaining collection. I confess to trepidation when I read in the notes that Curtis’s young daughter Isabella would sing with him on two pieces. Not to worry; her intonation is good, too, and her vocal personality is as pleasing as her dad’s. Satisfying instrumental solos in the band come from pianist Jeremy Ragsdale, flugelhornist Ray Caddell, clarinetist Dave Schiff and guitarist Jon Albertson.
Saxophonist Gary Foster recently asked if I remembered the liner notes that Bill Evans wrote for the 1963 Ben Webster-Joe Zawinul album Soulmates. Gary’s question led to the discovery that my LP of that treasure had somehow migrated off the shelves. I immediately ordered a CD replacement. Evans wrote infrequently, but when he did—unsurprisingly—his way with words had much in common with the evocativeness and intellectual rigor of his piano inventions. The most famous of Evans’s regrettably few ventures into written language was for the Miles Davis Sextet’s 
When Ornette Coleman (1930-2015) became prominent in the late 1950s, critics almost invariably described him as “iconoclastic.†In his invaluable history and appreciation of the alto saxophonist, Michael Stephans reminds us that Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie made departures as dramatic as Coleman’s and each was charged by the establishment of his time with violating tradition. It may be too early to judge whether Coleman’s evolutionary role will ultimately prove as important as those examples but sixty years on, his free jazz pioneering continues to propel innovation. Stephans approaches the Coleman story with the appreciation of a working drummer, the analytical skill of a university professor and clear writing about complex musical matters. Whatever deep academic analysis of Coleman may emerge in years to come, with this eminently readable volume Stephans lays the groundwork.
In a piece that lasts less than two minutes, the purity of Jane Ira Bloom’s unaccompanied soprano saxophone in a piece titled, “Nearly (For Kenny Wheeler)†all but steals Early Americans. That is quite a feat, since in most of the album her colleagues are also master musicians—bassist Marc Helias and drummer Bobby Previte. The three call upon familiarity bred in a long history of collaboration and rhythmic like-mindedness. “Hips & Sticks,†“Rhyme Or Rhythm,†“Coronets Of Paradise” and “Big Bill†are prime examples of the trio’s ability to generate grooves and manipulate them in terms of tempo, density and coloration without sacrificing consistency of swing. In that regard. “Gateway To Progress†is notable. Helias, Previte, Ms. Bloom and engineer Jim Anderson manage to lighten the atmosphere as Ms. Bloom’s saxophone swings around the sonic spectrum. Then, amid the relative hush, they deepen the time-feel. All of the compositions in the album are Ms. Bloom’s except for Bernstein’s and Sondheim’s “Somewhere†from West Side Story. Like the piece dedicated to the late Wheeler, it presents her without accompaniment. It is—no other word for it—gorgeous in its presentation of the melody.
What would the Rifftides staff do without readers who keep us informed and on track? The always-alert Svetlana Ilicheva sent a note from Moscow about 
Mostly Other People Do The Killing has been a septet, a quintet and a quartet. For Paint , now that saxophonist Jon Irabagon, has left, the band is a trio. Whatever its size, whatever its project, MOPDTK’s bassist and leader Moppa Elliott, sees that all of its original tunes are named after towns in Pennsylvania. In this case, the towns’ names also contain the names of colors, hence the album title. Yes, there is a place in Pennsylvania called Black Horse and a farm called Blue Goose, which —coincidentally—is the name of a piece that Duke Ellington recorded twice in 1940. In his book 
Tenor saxophonist and composer Preminger timed the release of this album for the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of The United States. In the months since, it has attracted considerable attention as a protest statement. Preminger’s covers of classic songs from the Civil Rights era by Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke and others achieve his goal, as do new Preminger pieces with titles llike “We Have A Dream†and “The 99 Percent.†The album is a dramatic political and cultural document. Of equal importance: Preminger, trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Kim Cass and drummer Ian Froman make it a musical success. Preminger and Palmer solo over the spare accompaniment with passion that intensifies in moments of mutual improvisation. The instrumentation may raise thoughts of Mulligan, Giuffre and a simple past, but the music’s thoroughly 21st Century zeitgeist is rooted in our edgy times.
The New York bassist Mary Ann McSweeney may not be the first American musician to combine these sympathetic forms, but her album of chamber music effectively covers their common ground and emphasizes the poignancy of both genres. Her group, varied in size and personnel from track to track, includes veteran classical and jazz musicians. Among them are guitarist John Hart, drummers Tim Horner and Willard Dyson and the expressive violinist Sara Caswell. In their solos, saxophonists Marc Mommas and Sam Marlieri capture various aspects of the idiosyncratic Fado warmth of feeling. Ms. McSweeney’s bass, muscular and incisive, is at the beating heart of the project. Her bowing is laden with emotional power, notably so on the title track. A highlight is Nana Simopoulos’s vocal on “Esquina Do Pecado,†composed by the late singer Amália Rodrigues, a Portuguese cultural icon. Another is Margret Grebowicz vocalizing in duet with Ms. McSweeney’s arco bass on the leader’s “Portrait of Fado.†A listener spending time with this collection is likely to come away inspired to learn more about Fado and the growing inclination of musicians to explore its spiritual connection to jazz.
several years in Los Angeles gigging and recording with large and small groups including those of Billy May, Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Bill Holman Frank Strazzeri, Andy Simpkins and Jack Sheldon. He has been back in New York for several years. In the Encyclopedia of Jazz, critic Leonard Feather called Fahn “one of the few genuine virtuosos†on his instrument. Ms. McSweeney is the bassist on  
Dave Lisik and Eric Allen tell the story of The Vanguard Orchestra and its predecessors. In a huge book illustrated with hundreds of images, they trace the orchestra from its creation by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis through decades of music that has set standards to which big jazz bands everywhere aspire. Laced with commentary and comments by current and former band members and written with admirable continuity, the book illuminates how, years after their deaths, the personalities and convictions of Jones and Lewis continue to guide the orchestra’s collective musical philosophy—even while jazz at large often seems to be shooting off in all directions. Experienced composers and performers, Lisik and Allen have put their academic talents to use in creating a well-organized and eminently readable book. It is a must for anyone interested in the Jones-Lewis mystique.
Jon Hendricks, Dave Lambert and Annie Ross formed the vocal group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross for their album 
work of aging, free-living Chicago-style musicians should be preserved before it was too late. The result was a multi-disc collection that is often described as the first jazz album. Shortly, he also produced for the Columbia label anthologies of recordings by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. Following his Army service in World War Two, Avakian was hired by Columbia and eventually brought to the label Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis. For Columbia, Warner Bros., RCA Victor and other labels, over the years he produced album by artists as diverse as his stable of jazz musicians plus the French singer Edith Piaf and the comic Bob Newhart. Later, as a free lance producer and manager, he boosted the careers of Charles Lloyd and Keith Jarrett. The recordings of Paul Desmond and Sonny Rollins that he produced for RCA Victor captured some of those artists’ finest work. For more on Mr. Avakian, you may again turn to a 
Mobley (1930-1986) personified what was right with the music and wrong with the culture in jazz in the 1950s. The resonance of his tenor saxophone sound and his gifts of melodic inventiveness and harmonic acuity made him a consistently rewarding improviser. Heroin addiction undoubtedly spurred his early death. From his  beginnings with Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie through his brilliant series of Blue Note albums in the 1960s, Mobley was an ideal collaborator with Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Milt Jackson, Miles Davis and other stars. Davis’s belittling of Mobley in his autobiography may have sprung from irritation with Mobley’s heroin problem. Regardless, in the six-CD album at hand Mobley plays brilliantly. Among the tracks with Silver, Blakey, bassist Doug Watkins and trumpeter Art Farmer are two takes of the Mobley classic “Funk in Deep Freeze.†The set abounds with such treasures.
Those who follow developments in the jazz community are accustomed to seeing occasional announcements about educational grants to musicians. Sonny Rollins this week reversed the order. He is becoming a donor. Oberlin College announced that the tenor saxophonist is giving the Oberlin Conservatory what the college describes as “a generous gift to establish and maintain the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble Fund.†Beginning next spring, jazz studies majors at Oberlin will be allowed to audition for what will be known as The Sonny Ensemble. From the announcement:
Over the next day or two, maybe more, Rifftides will attempt the impossible—we will “review†a significant number of the albums that fill the music room’s overloaded shelves of incoming albums. “Review†in the previous sentence is in quotation marks because the only practical (practical, not easy) way to tackle this is to write tweet-length acknowledgements, with whatever pithy remarks we can devise that may indicate the albums’ worth. Twitter just doubled to 280 the allowable number of characters in a tweet. Adopting their standard, I will try to observe that maximum length. Here we go.
The energetic Canadian drummer brings together four of his countrymen and the formidable American tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm. Cervini’s arrangements include the demanding counterpoint of the title tune. He gives “Pennies From Heaven†a stimulating paraphrase melody and booting big band spirit.
Mark Whitfield, 