{"id":8454,"date":"2017-07-02T22:59:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T05:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8454"},"modified":"2017-07-02T22:59:23","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T05:59:23","slug":"the-fourth-of-july-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2017\/07\/the-fourth-of-july-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fourth Of July, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8455\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/2017-Flag.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/2017-Flag.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/2017-Flag-300x172.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><br \/>\nIt is always a challenge to decide how <em>Rifftides<\/em> should celebrate the anniversary of the independence of The United States Of America. In 2017, we are observing it with pieces by artists whose careers began on the west coast of the US before their names and their music became familiar around the world. Both works are short traditional songs that express feelings of profound importance to millions of Americans.<\/p>\n<p>The first piece, &#8220;America The Beautiful,&#8221; is from Clare Fischer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1967 album <em>Songs For Rainy Day Lovers<\/em>. Published in 1910, the song had a lyric by Katharine Lee Bates. Fischer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elegant writing combines strings and his piano in a classic version of a song that has become, for many jazz musicians, a standard part of the repertoire.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zODmeH8T6IM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Using the music from the abolitionist song \u00e2\u20ac\u0153John Brown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Body,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 1861 Julia Ward Howe wrote \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Battle Hymn of the Republic,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which became strongly identified with the Union cause in the American Civil War. Cal Tjader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1956 recording captures the spirit of the piece. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always been impressed by his vibes work here, and intrigued by the combination of sensitivity, strength and harmonic wisdom in Gerald Wiggins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s short piano solo. The <em>YouTube<\/em> audio may not be pristine and you may need to tweak it, but the video has the advantage of &#8221;\u00a0showing the original Fantasy red vinyl LP. Eugene Wright is the bassist, Bill Douglass the drummer.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o2LRFQKqfFI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2uAEg1t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fischer<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2tAvljz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tjader<\/a> recordings are difficult to find but\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhappily\u00e2\u20ac\u201d are available. Click on the names at the beginning of the previous sentence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Whether you are observing the Fourth at home or abroad, we wish you a happy\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand safe\u00e2\u20ac\u201dIndependence Day<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is always a challenge to decide how Rifftides should celebrate the anniversary of the independence of The United States Of America. In 2017, we are observing it with pieces by artists whose careers began on the west coast of the US before their names and their music became familiar around the world. Both works [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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-8454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8454","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=8454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}