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Results for "Rifftides by Doug Ramsey"
Jo Stafford
Jo Stafford, a perfect singer, died on Wednesday. She was ninety years old. There will be obituaries this morning in newspapers all over the world. Web sites have them already. Many people who read them will be hearing of her for the first time because in the 1960s, at the top of her game, she walked ...
Goodbye, Gerald Wiggins
DevraDoWrite reports that Gerald Wiggins died this morning in Los Angeles at the age of eighty-six. Encouraged when he was a youngster by Art Tatum, for decades Wiggins was revered by listeners and musicians--particularly by other pianists. Anyone familiar with his playing could recognize him immediately by his harmonic acuity, touch, use of space and wry ...
Correspondence: On Slim Gaillard
Rifftides reader Ries Niemi reflects on the Slim Gaillard performance in the clip from Hellzapoppin'. It's interesting to contrast this with one of the very last Slim Gaillard clips I have seen, in the movie Absolute Beginners, from 1986. Gaillard was in real life what he plays in that movie- one of the midwives of the ...
Book: Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton, Culture Counts (Brief Encounters). If you're concerned that the bad in culture is driving out the good, this little book by the British philosopher and polymath may make you feel better. Scruton writes not only about music, but about architecture, painting, literature and the high-water marks of Western culture. He offers hope that lowlife ...
DVD: Hank Jones
Hank Jones, Jazz Master Class (Artists House). The pianist will be ninety at the end of this month. He was only eighty-six when he taught this class. Jones plays a solo concert, coaches and evaluates student pianists, charms his audience, chats with critic Gary Giddins and, in general, defies time. Together, the two DVDs in this ...
Hellzapoppin'
Looking for the earliest Slim Gaillard clip I could find, I came across a sequence from Olsen and Johnson's manic 1941 hit movie Hellzapoppin'. Gaillard plays piano and guitar, with his constant companion of the period, the great Slam Stewart, on bass. Among the several dozen uncredited musicians and dancers is the Duke Ellington cornetist Rex ...
Hiatus...And a Taste of Miguel Zenon
The Rifftides staff is going to take a couple of days off and trek across the mountains to watch the Mariners play the Tigers. The links are for the benefit of those in, say, Casablanca or Tarnow who may not be familiar with the quaint US sporting culture. In the meantime, enjoy this video of Miguel Zenon ...
George and Satch
A few years ago, research disclosed that Louis Armstrong was not born on the Fourth of July, 1900, but a little more than a year later. No matter; Armstrong believed that Independence Day was his birthday and identified himself with the United States of America. As his career and popularity developed and the magnitude of his ...
Aid for Ernestine Anderson
It appears that Ernestine Anderson is going to be able to stay in her house--at least for now. News of the seventy-nine-year-old singer's impending eviction traveled quickly around the world last week, and people responded. Help came from fans, old friends--including Quincy Jones--and just plain folks who sympathized. Here are the most recent essential facts from ...
Passings: Dave Carpenter, Ronnie Matthews
Last week, jazz lost two journeyman artists valued for their dependability, versatility and swing. On the west coast, bassist Dave Carpenter died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of forty-eight. Most recently, Carpenter had been in drummer Peter Erskine's trio, which also included pianist Alan Pasqua. A veteran of the Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, ...
