Results for "Rifftides by Doug Ramsey"

Christmas CDs: Matt Wilson, Matassa/Anderson

December 20, 2010

The other day a man who acted on last year's Rifftides recommendation of Carla Bley's Carla's Christmas Carols let me know that he was disappointed in the album. Indeed, he was offended by it. In the review, I described the “tenderness, wit, harmonic brilliance, wide dynamic range and wry sense of nostalgia" in Bley's arrangements of ...

Clark Terry is 90

December 15, 2010

Today is Clark Terry's 90th birthday. Admired for his trumpet, flugelhorn, singing and blues mumbling, Terry has been an idol of trumpet players since the teenaged Miles Davis took him for a role model in St. Louis in the 1940s. From his days with Charlie Barnet, Count Basie and Duke Ellington through his national prominence in ...

How Moody Became Famous

December 13, 2010

I thought that we had come to the end of the current Rifftides series of James Moody entries until I heard from a reader who wondered why she had never heard Moody's “I'm in the Mood for Love." That is a puzzle, given the record's ubiquity, but if even one person has the pleasure of hearing ...

Don't Let It Bother You

December 9, 2010

Extracurricular assignments will keep me busy for a while. The Rifftides staff will supply items to inform or entertain you. There's not much information in this one, but it may lift your spirits if, say, snow collapsed your roof or Julian Assange leaked one of your cables. Fats Waller ...

James Moody, 1925-2010

December 10, 2010

We knew it was coming. That doesn't make it easier. James Moody died this afternoon of the pancreatic cancer he had known about for nearly a year but did not make public untilNovember. He was 85. Moody was in hospice in San Diego, his hometown for many years. His wife Linda was by his side, as ...

Take 90: Brubeck at the Blackhawk

December 7, 2010

Dave Brubeck is spending his 90th birthday in the midst of his sizeable family and many close friends. Chances are that they will take time out to watch the documentary about his life. As they reminisce, it's almost certain that Dave will tell a Blackhawk story or two. The club in San Francisco's Tenderloin district was ...

...With a Beard On

December 8, 2010

Weekend Extra: "Blue in Green" in Blue and Green

December 5, 2010

Someone went overboard matching the color scheme of this video to the name of the tune, and the sound is distorted, but here is an exquisite 1962 version of “Blue in Green" by Bill Evans with Chuck Israels and Paul Motian. Be patient while the YouTube poster gets his commercial out of the way.

The New Brubeck Documentary

December 4, 2010

Dave Brubeck is getting a lot of attention. With his 90th birthday three days away, he is the subject of performance reviews, articles and editorials in dozens of newspapers from The New York Times to Britain's Guardian. His music is being played over theair to a degree unprecedented since the early 1960s, when “Take Five" was ...

Recent Listening: Randy Weston, McNeil/McHenry Quartet

December 3, 2010

Randy Weston, The Storyteller (Motéma). This is the latest chapter in the 84-year-old pianist's long-running love story about Africa. Weston's African Rhythms Sextet includes the greattrombonist Benny Powell in one of his last recordings, alto saxophonist T.K. Blue, bassist Alex Blake, drummer Lewis Nash and conga specialist Neil Clarke. He made the album almost exactly a ...