Home » Search Center » Results: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Results for "Rifftides by Doug Ramsey"
Winter Jazzfest 2014
New York’s Winter Jazzfest opens a five-day run tomorrow, celebrating its tenth year featuring musicians who operate on the leading edge of the music. The atmosphere of adventurism does not necessarily indicate that the artists are all young revolutionaries. Among the dozens of seasoned players appearing in clubs and concert halls throughout Manhattan will be Gary ...
Saul Zaentz
The passing of Saul Zaentz yesterday at 92 brings to mind the crucial part he played in expanding Fantasy Records from a vital, colorful, but minor independent label into a pop hit-maker and a major repository of jazz recordings from the late 1940s on. He is being remembered in obituaries around the world as the producer ...
Farewell, Al Porcino
Al Porcino, a powerful lead trumpeter for several big bands, died on New Years Eve in Munich, Germany. He was 88. Porcino had lived in Germany since the late 1970s, frequently augmenting American bands touring in Europe, as well as leading his own large ensemble. A family member who reported his passing offered no information about ...
Young Coleman Hawkins Speaks and Plays
After Coleman Hawkins left Fletcher Henderson in 1934, he spent nearly five years touring in Europe. Having established the saxophone as a serious jazz instrument, he provided significant inspiration among European musicians as jazz took a solid foothold on the continent and in the British Isles. Hawkins appeared with bands in England, Switzerland, France and Holland, ...
A Bill Evans Rehearsal
Rifftides reader Mike Harris (more about him later) alerts us to a little-known piece of video catching Bill Evans in rehearsal for a 1966 Danish television broadcast. The 21-minute sequence lets us see and hear Evans and his trio preparing pieces he frequently included in his playlists: “Very Early,” “Who Can I Turn To,” “If You ...
No Christmas is Complete Without Bird
Sixty-five years ago today in the early hours of the morning, Charlie Parker and his quintet were close to wrapping up their broadcast from the Royal Roost in New York City when someone requested a Christmas song. Parker obliged. Christmas 1948 with Charlie Parker, Kenny Dorham, Al Haig, Tommy Potter and Max Roach. I hope that ...
Yusef Lateef, R.I.P.
The roll call of distinguished jazz artists leaving us seems to grow longer by the day. Now comes news of the passing of Yusef Lateef, who died today in Detroit. He was 93. As a youngster in Detroit, Lateefmastered several reed instruments and early in his career became a respected performer, composer and educator. He was ...
Herb Geller, 1928-2013
We have word from Herb Geller’s family that the venerable alto saxophonist died on Thursday in a Hamburg, Germany, hospital. He succumbed to pneumonia. Geller had been under treatment for the past couple of years for a form of lymphoma. He turned 85 in November. As noted in this Rifftides post lastJune, Geller remained not merely ...
Snyder on Hall
John Snyder, who produced some of Jim Hall's best albums, sent a comment on Hall’s passing. It appears with the dozens of other observations sent by readers following the Rifftides remembrance posted on December 10, but the staff decided that the poetic eloquence of Mr. Snyder’s tribute stands on its own. We reproduce it here, followed ...
The Critics' Choices
Try as I might to ignore requests to vote in polls, I don’t seem to be able to say no to Francis Davis. This year, the eminent critic persuaded 136 people to take part in his annual critics poll, which he has moved to the website of National Public Radio. He asked writers, broadcasters, bloggers and ...
