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What’s In A Name: Cuneiform
Curious about the name of a small, imaginative jazz record company called Cuneiform, I asked Joyce Feigenbaum, the company’s publicist, who is married to the owner, how the label’s name came about. This is her reply: I’m actually an art historian by academic training (B.A. & M.A.), not an archeologist, a modernist. BUT I’m not the ...
Monday Recommendation: Tommy Smith On Coltrane
Tommy Smith, Embodying The Light: A Dedication To John Coltrane (Spartacus Records) Fifty years ago in the aftermath of John Coltrane’s death, it would have seemed unlikely that a definitive tribute to the saxophone master would someday come from a Scottish tenor player. Yet, so universal is Coltrane’s presence in jazz and so deeply has Tommy ...
Eclipse Music
There are several jazz pieces called “Eclipse.” Tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri, the Japanese group called Kyoto Jazz Massive, and the Mexican singer Bere Contreras, among others, have performed or recorded compositions with that name. The best known “Eclipse,” though, remains the one that Charles Mingus first recorded in the 1950s and revived for a 1972 concert ...
Joe Fields, 1929-2017
On July 12 we lost Joe Fields. During his long career Fields was the guiding spirit of record labels committed to unalloyed jazz. He started the Cobblestone label and later changed its name to Muse. Among the dozens of musicians he recorded on Muse over three decades were Woody Shaw, Houston Person, Grant Green and Pat ...
The Fourth Of July, 2017
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 are ...
Recent Listening: Broadbent’s Developing Story
Alan Broadbent, Developing Story (Eden River Records) Broadbent’s title composition is in concerto form, although it is not described as a concerto. His piece combines jazz and classical sensibilities in a flow that evolves with logic rarely achieved when genres are blended. Broadbent’s booklet notes identify the orchestral beginning as a “forte introduction.” Robustly, it lives ...
Geri Allen Gone At 60
Geri Allen died today of cancer. She was 60. Ms. Allen was a pianist of uncommon technical achievement and fluency and inspired a generation of younger pianists. Recently a resident of Pittsburgh, Ms. Allen grew up in Detroit, where she began piano lessons at age seven. While at Cass Technical High School she studied with the ...
The More Things Change…(Or Do They?)
The following post appeared on Rifftides nine years ago this spring. What thoughts does it stimulate in readers now? Have there been significant changes in jazz since 2008? Originally posted on March 4, 2008 Rifftides reader George Finch sent this message in reaction to a ten-year-old article in The Atlantic. There has been so little essential ...
Remembering Dave Pell’s Devotion To His Hero
Saxophonist and bandleader Dave Pell, a prominent figure in the west coast jazz of the 1950s and ’60s, died on May 8. He was 92. Pell recorded extensively with his octet and the tribute group Prez Conference. Over the years the collective members of those bands included Art Pepper, Red Mitchell, Harry Edison, Mel Lewis, Benny ...
Ella Fitzgerald At 100
Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) would have turned 100 years old today. She often affected audiences the way she was affecting Dizzy Gillespie when Bill Gottlieb took this celebrated photo. It is impossible to find the perfect performance by which to remember Ella, there were so many. Let’s settle (ha) for this one. She played well with others. ...
