We suggested that Rifftides readers around the world disclose their current listening. The replies are rolling in, so many that we will have to post them in installments. Here is the first batch. Wherever possible, the Rifftides staff has provided links for those who are interested in pursuing their fellow Rifftiders’ choices.
What We’re Listening To
·A recently arrived shipment of Mosaic Select sets. I’m currently
enjoying the wonderful Bob Brookmeyer “revisited” sessions that I first
fell in love with 40 years ago. Just before that, it was Annie Ross
on the Mulligan set, and before that, the Desmond/Hall Mosaics that
I’ve owned for many years.
Jim Brown
Santa Cruz, California, USA
·I listened last days at :
Warne Marsh – Berlin 1980
Don Fagerquist – Portrait Of a Great Jazz Artist
The Trumpet Artistry of Stu Williams
Leith Stevens scores for The Wild One & Private Hell 36
John Coltrane – Live at the Showboat
axel van looy
antwerp, belgium
·Presently, in the CD player in my car I have a private recording of Warne Marsh with Hank Jones at the Village Vanguard. On my turntable I have a Japanese reissue of Dick Wetmore’s 10″ LP on Bethlehem. In my CD player at home I have the second disc of the recent Gerry Mulligan Mosaic Select
Pete Bainbridge
Lititz, Pennsylvania, USA
·Bob Magnusson Quintet – Liquid Lines
Roger Kellaway Trio – Remembering Bobby Darin
Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival
John Birchard
Washington, DC, USA
·Right now I’m listening to a Han Bennink CD: Nerve Beats (1973), purchased recently on the internet. It is a live recording from Radio Bremen with cover artwork by Han Bennink himself. Listening to rare recordings and discovering something new and exciting is certainly one of the best sides of my job of the last 15 years as a jazz program producer for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (public radio). Thank you for an entertaining website,
Lana Kolbrun Eddudottir
Rykajavik, Iceland
·My latest “find” is Fay Claassen. About the time you mentioned the Two Portraits of Chet Baker album, I was busy looking for a place to buy it. Your recommendation increased my efforts. The two-disk project is beautiful. The band is very impressive, providing the Mulligan-Baker feel perfectly for underpinning the vocals. The singer, whom I had never heard before, does an amazing job of matching Baker’s phrasing and timing. Best of all, the music comes first and she is an interpreter with taste and respect. I would put this tribute album alongside Italian trumpeter Felice Reggio’s I Remember Chet CD on Philology. They both understand what Chet’s music was about.
Jim Wardrop
Whitehall, Pennsylvania, USA
·Phil Woods Unheard Herd. Mind-blowing stuff from senior citizens who should be taking life easy. Thank god they are not.
Doug Stewart
UK
Many more to come in the next posting, possibly tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who responded.