Rifftides

Peg And The Panoram

Doug Ramsey — Sat, 26 May 2012 07:30:38 +0000

It’s been too long around here since we’ve heard and seen Peggy Lee. Here she is with her husband Dave Barbour and his quartet in a 1950 Soundie. Soundies used to run on machines called Panorams, coin-operated juke boxes in bars, restaurants, factory break rooms, even some corner service stations. They played short films. In [...]

Weekend Listening Tips (Bi-Coastal)

Doug Ramsey — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:07:28 +0000

Two stalwart jazz broadcasters sent previews of their next appearances. This week on Jazz Northwest, Jim Wilke previews new releases by several Northwest resident jazz artists including Scott Cossu, Pearl Django,and Kareem Kandi as well as sampling some of the musicians featured at next weekend’s Bellevue Jazz Festival. Included are The Clayton Brothers, Hubert Laws, [...]

Other Matters: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012)

Doug Ramsey — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:47:50 +0000

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, a musician whose artistry erased categorical boundaries, died last week at 86. In his appreciation of Fischer-Dieskau, New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini wrote of the great baritone’s “seemingly effortless mix of vocal beauty and verbal directness.” Here is a gem-like example of what Tommasini described—Fischer-Dieskau and Sviatoslav Richter in 1978, having a [...]

Congratulations, Bill Holman

Doug Ramsey — Thu, 24 May 2012 05:26:00 +0000

The great (term used advisedly) arranger and bandleader Bill Holman celebrated his 85th birthday this week. Steve Cerra posted on his Jazz Profiles blog a repeat of the Holman profile he put together on another occasion. It includes a brilliant assessment of Holman’s work by André Previn, photographs, and a selection of liner notes I [...]

A Miles Davis Casting Call

Doug Ramsey — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:46:09 +0000

Miles Davis’s birthplace, Alton, Illinois, has announced that it will honor its famous son by erecting a statue. Here are excerpts from the story by Kathie Bassett in Alton’s newspaper, The Telegraph. Alton Mayor Tom Hoechst unveiled the plan to put a life-sized statue in the heart of Downtown’s entertainment district on Third Street. This [...]

Other Places: On Vibrato

Doug Ramsey — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:47:50 +0000

Steve Provizer (pictured, left) posted on his Brilliant Corners blog a treatise on vibrato. He was inspired to do so by Sidney Bechet (1897-1959), the cantankerous genius who made the soprano saxophone a jazz instrument and was the king of vibrato. Steve includes links to performances by celebrated vibratoists, including Bechet, and one by Wild [...]

Recent Listening: Judi Silvano, Kenny Dorham

Doug Ramsey — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:41:35 +0000

Judi Silvano, Indigo Moods (Jazzed Media) As anyone knows who has heard her in duet with her saxophonist husband Joe Lovano, Judi Silvano is capable of dramatic, even eccentric, uses of pitch, harmonic intervals and time. She calls upon those abilities in this collection of cherished standard songs, but her main point in the album [...]

Weekend Extra: Conte Candoli

Doug Ramsey — Mon, 21 May 2012 01:17:43 +0000

While the real photographer was setting up for the atmospheric shots used in Bud Shank’s 2001 sextet album On The Trail, I snagged this one of Conte Candoli as he entertained the band and bystanders with the theme from The Godfather. In addition to Shank and Candoli, On The Trail features Jay Thomas on tenor [...]

Lagniappe*: Stan Getz

Doug Ramsey — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:47:22 +0000

Stan Getz with Eddy Louis, organ; Renè Thomas, guitar; Bernard Lubat, drums, from a 1971 French television program. The piece is “Dum Dum.” Getz’s tone led John Coltrane to say of him, “We’d all sound like that if we could.” “Dum Dum” is included on Getz’s Dynasty, which Verve Records has dropped from its catalog. [...]

A Rifftides Extra: Wagon Wheels

Doug Ramsey — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:10:06 +0000

I met a grown man the other day who came right out and admitted that he had never heard Sonny Rollins play “Wagon Wheels.” We were in public and I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I took the only civilized option that sprang to mind. I promised him that if I could find it [...]