{"id":21,"date":"2005-06-17T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-17T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/?p=21"},"modified":"2005-06-17T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-17T08:05:00","slug":"correspondence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2005\/06\/correspondence\/","title":{"rendered":"Correspondence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leo Boucher in Houston sent a message about my comments Wednesday on Ben Ratliff’s New York Times<\/em> piece predicting a boring concert at the JVC Festival.<\/p>\n

I read it differently. I don’t think he meant that those players are boring or that the concert would be boring. I think he meant that it is an example of boring, uninspired programming. My guess is that that’s why he didn’t name the pianists; he wasn’t dissing them, but the festival programmers. I look forward to reading your blog. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nate Dorward<\/a>, a Canadian reviewer and blogger, wrote much the same, and added:<\/p>\n

I think a better word would have been “unimaginative” or “safe”: heartfelt tributes originated by the musicians themselves are one thing, but the way festival programmers (and record labels) constantly turn jazz into unimaginatively packaged tributes to a pantheon of past greats is frustrating for many jazz fans. It would be far more respectful of the individual geniuses of Weston, Allen, Barron and Caine to give them each a concert to themselves and let them play whatever music struck their fancy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how far I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to go with the Food section under Doug\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Picks, but Jack Wright of Boston responded to the first entry.<\/p>\n

For your asparagus recipe, allow me to recommend a favorite pinot gris of mine. The label is Big Fire, the winemaker is R. Stuart & Co of McMinnville, OR<\/a>. That’s what I’ll be drinking when I make your recipe. I look forward to reading Rifftides fervently.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ah, those Oregon pinots\u00e2\u20ac\u201dgris and noir. Salud.
\nAnother Bostonian, the respected critic Bob Blumenthal, had a thought about Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Am I the only one who has said that your Desmond book reminds me of nothing so much as the recent Albert Ayler “spirit box”<\/a>? And I mean that in a good way, but these are two saxophonists who don’t normally share the same thought.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can hear Desmond giving his conspiratorial chuckle at the thought. He rather liked Ornette Coleman, even if he did say that listening to Ornette was like living in a house where everything was painted red.
\nThe master trumpeter Marvin Stamm <\/a>writes concerning my evening at the Garage Restaurant in Greenwich Village:<\/p>\n

I am glad you had the opportunity of hearing Virginia Mayhew play while on your recent NYC sojourn. I have been doing several gigs with her these past few months and am enjoying her playing immensely. She’s a beautiful player and a lovely person to work with. She’s an excellent musician who knows what she wants, yet allows each player plenty of latitude for their own musical input. She’s certainly showing me a thing or two about playing in odd meters!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leo Boucher in Houston sent a message about my comments Wednesday on Ben Ratliff’s New York Times piece predicting a boring concert at the JVC Festival. I read it differently. I don’t think he meant that those players are boring or that the concert would be boring. I think he meant that it is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}