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Clarinets At Grace Cathedral
Over the years, Grace Cathedral on San Francisco’s Nob Hill has hosted countless concerts of importance. Among them, both in 1965, were Duke Ellington’s magnificent Second Sacred Concert and pianist Vince Guaraldi’s Grace Cathedral Concert with his trio and an 86-voice choir. Rifftides reader and veteran audio expert Jim Brown attended last week’s more secular concert ...
Johnny Costa
The recent Rifftides review of pianist Sullivan Fortner’s new album mentions Johnny Costa as an influence. The influence came early. Like millions of other American children, Fortner grew up watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. He was captivated by the music Costa played with his trio on the television show. Costa was Rogers’ musical director from the birth ...
Mark Murphy, 1932-1915
Mark Murphy died last night in his sleep following a long illness. He was 83. Murphy’s eagerness to take artistic chances combined with his innate musicianship to make him one of the most interesting singers in jazz. He died at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey. Born in Fulton, New York, in 1932, ...
Sullivan Fortner
This may come a tad late as news but not too late—I trust—for enjoyment. Last spring, Sullivan Fortner won the Cole Porter Fellow In Jazz award of the American Pianists Association. Fortner is a 28-year-old New Orleanian who attracted favorable notice as the pianist in trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s quintet and for his work with other jazz ...
Weekend Extra: Fuse Plays Brubeck
On Yahoo’s Dave Brubeck listserve, John Bolger called attention to an usual version of Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo ala Turk.” It is by the Dutch ensemble Fuse—five string players and a percussionist. According to the group’s website, like many young bands today they play in a variety of genres including pop, rock, classical and jazz. Among composers ...
Ethan Hawke As “Chet Baker”
This seems to be the season for a new round of films based, more or less, on the lives of jazz trumpet players. See the October 11 Rifftides post about Don Cheadle as Miles Davis. The latest entry in the category is Born To Be Blue, which was screened yesterday and today in special presentations at ...
Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis Biopic
Miles Ahead, the movie, opened today at the New York Film Festival. Veteran actor Don Cheadle directed the film, which stars him in the title role. Since it became known months ago that the motion picture was in the works, speculation has been rampant about its faithfulness to Davis’s character and, particularly, about musical accuracy. An ...
Recent Listening: Bill Kirchner
Bill Kirchner, An Evening Of Indigos (JazzHeads) Soprano saxophonist and composer Kirchner’s concert in New York a year ago has appeared in its entirety as an album. Kirchner overcame daunting physical problems to be able to play the concert—indeed, to be able to play at all. Throughout the jazz community it is known that removal of ...
Mays & Company Revisit The Seasons
This weekend, The Seasons Performance Hall in Yakima, Washington, marks its 10th anniversary with two concerts by pianist Bill Mays, the hall’s first performer. In its early years the decommissioned Christian Science Church, an acoustic marvel, was dedicated to presenting classical music and jazz. Its policy then broadened to encompass other styles of music including blue ...
Phil Woods, 1931-2015
Phil Woods died today, less than a month after he announced his retirement from playing. He was 83. Woods’ longtime drummer Bill Goodwin told me this afternoon that the veteran alto saxophonist “went out on his own terms,” electing to stop treatment for the emphysema that for years slowed—but did not stop—his career as a performer ...
