Those unfamiliar with The Wall Street Journal, might be surprised to learn of its cultural component. The newspaper's Personal Journal section has frequent profiles, reviews and backgrounders involving painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, dance--the whole range of cultural interests. The most recent piece of particular interest to jazz listeners is Tom Nolan's update on Orrin Keepnew...
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The Portland Jazz Festival is no more. Word went out that next year's edition has been scrubbed and the festival will not be revived. Here is part of the official announcement.Operations and planning for the 2009 February event could not continue because of a decline in funding and sponsorship support. Shortfalls accumulated to a total need of over $100,000 that could not be met by ticket sale ...
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Rifftides postings have been seldom lately because I'm working on a magazine piece about the resuscitation of Lester Young's tenor saxophone and the consequent revival of a band devoted to his music. More about that later. In the meantime, here's a set of thoughts from and about Prez.Well, the way I play, I try not to be a 'repeater pencil', ya dig? Originality's the thing. You can have tone ...
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The list of veterans of the glory days of modern jazz in Sweden grew significantly shorter on Tuesday with the death of Arne Domnérus at the age of eighty-three. The alto saxophonist and clarinetist came to popular attention in the late 1940s and early 1950s as one of the most adroit disciples of Charlie Parker and Lee Konitz. Within a few years, his own personality emerged and he distinguished..
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The list of veterans of the glory days of modern jazz in Sweden grew significanty shorter on Tuesday with the death of Arne Domnérus at the age of eighty-three. The alto saxophonist and clarinetist came to popular attention in the late 1940s and early 1950s as one of the most adroit disciples of Charlie Parker and Lee Konitz. Within a few years, his own personality emerged and he distinguished ..
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Despite his ability early in his career to approximate Charlie Parker, throughout Arne Domnérus's life, Benny Carter remained a primary inspiration. In this 2000 performance in Paris with pianist Claes Crona, Domnérus thoroughly explores Carter's "When Lights Are Low." ~~
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The Bix Beiderbecke discussion that began here last week has spread to other precincts of the internet, most recently in an entry on Marc Myers's JazzWax . Marc builds on what he points out is an absurd trumped-up competition, Beiderbecke vs. Louis Armstrong; as if music was boxing, a track event or a beauty contest. To read it, and hear the recording of Bix's "Sorry," go here .And don't miss t...
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The Detroit Jazz Festival is playing this Labor Day Weekend. One reason the four-day event is subtitled "A Love Supreme: The Detroit-Philly Connection" is the powerful legacy of bassists from those cities. In a sidebar piece leading up to the festival, Mark Stryker of The Detroit Free Press writes about their importance.If it weren't for Detroit and Philadelphia, the history of modern jazz woul...
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One of the things I like about jazz, kid, is I don't know what's going to happen next. Do you? -- Bix BeiderbeckeFinally Beiderbecke took out a silver cornet. He put it to his lips and blew a phrase. The sound came out like a girl saying 'yes'. -- Eddie Condon...and all of a sudden Bix stood up and took a solo and I'm telling you those pretty notes went all through me.-- Louis Armstrong~~
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Rifftides reader David Peterkofsky inquired about modern-day jazz marimba players. In the course searching, I ran across a 1940s soundie with marimbists galore. This has little to do with jazz, but it's an opportunity to see a bass player who makes Chubby Jackson seem catatonic. As for Mr. Peterkofsky's question, Bobby Hutcherson, Stefon Harris, Dave Samuels, Cal Tjader, Mike Mainieri, Emil R...
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Michael Weiss, Soul Journey (Sintra). Michael Weiss has been a pianist to follow since his impressive 1986 debut recording, Presenting Michael Weiss . As his career rolled out in work with Art Farmer, Johnny Griffin, Lou Donaldson, Tom Harrell and other major leaguers, Weiss's talent as a composer became increasingly apparent. His writing received high-profile recognition when he won the 2...
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The recent Rifftides item about the continuing medical needs of Bix Beiderbecke biographer Richard M. Sudhalter brought interesting comments about both men. You can read it and the comments here . The piece stimulated a correspondence with Paul Paolicelli, blog reader, fellow survivor of the news business and former lead trumpet player. Leaving out parts concerning unproved and unprovable alleg...
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The recent Rifftides item about the continuing medical needs of Bix Beiderbecke biographer Richard M. Sudhalter brought interesting comments about both men. You can read it and the comments here . The piece stimulated a correspondence with Paul Paolicelli, blog reader, fellow survivor of the news business and former lead trumpet player. Leaving out parts concerning unproved and unprovable alleg...
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...Fellow artsjournal.com blogger Terry Teachout has the kind of news every author welcomes. To share it, go here ...and be sure to watch the celebratory video of Terry's subject in glorious action.Congratulations, TT. I know how good it feels.~~
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John Coltrane In the August 21 Wall Street Journal , Nat Hentoff tells of a New York second grade teacher, Christine Pasarella, who uses John Coltrane as a classroom role model in her work of drawing out the intelligence of her students. He reports Mrs. Pasarella saying that when she played Coltrane's recordings..."...the children were drawn to the range of feelings in the songs as I gave the...
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Film animation married to jazz improvisation goes back to the 1930s and the advent of sound films. This collaboration of the cartoon figure Betty Boop and the real Louis Armstrong is one of the most famous early examples. Social sensitivity was not a consideration.In 1949, the art advanced--or at least changed--dramatically when two Canadians, painter Norman McLaren and pianist Oscar Peterson, ...
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Film animation married to jazz improvisation goes back to the 1930s and the advent of sound films. This collaboration of the cartoon figure Betty Boop and the real Louis Armstrong is one of the most famous early examples. Social sensitivity was not a consideration. In 1949, the art advanced--or at least changed--dramatically when two Canadians, painter Norman McLaren and pianist Oscar Peterson,...
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Last month, Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, named pianist Paul Bley a member of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. The official announcement cited him for "his contributions as a pioneering figure in avant-garde and free jazz, and for his influence on younger jazz pianists." Bley was at the center of changes in jazz in the late l950s. The Canadian pianist ha..
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Miles From India (Times Square). Producer Bob Belden wound up a monumental series of Miles Davis reissue box sets for Sony/Columbia, then he and fellow arranger Louiz Banks turned to interpreting the trumpeter's immense output of recordings after 1959. This two-CD set considers the intersection of Indian music with Davis's adventures in scales and modes from Kind of Blue forward. Belden laid do...
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Norma Winstone, Distances (ECM). The British singer places the purity of her voice, intonation and phrasing in the spare setting of Glauco Venier's piano and Klaus Gesing's soprano sax. Winstone's songs include that rarity, a successful vocal version of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps," and pieces by Cole Porter, Eric Satie, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Peter Gabriel. She uses her artistic range to br...
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