Nelson Riddle redux. In my original post on Friday, I said
that while Nelson Riddle composed Cross Country Suite, Bill Jones wrote the orchestrations. That information came from online research using the Nelson Riddle Collection at the University of Arizona here. Yet something sounded a little fishy. Why would Riddle subcontract a project he had composed and had personally agreed to handle for clarinetist Buddy DeFranco?
So after my post went up, I emailed Rosemary Acerra, Nelson's daughter, to ask if the information that the university had was accurate.
Rosemary took a look and reported back that the University of Arizona was in error, that her Dad arranged Cross Country Suite's compositions, and that she was contacting the university to rectify the oversight. The university stands by its original claim that Bill Jones, one of Nelson's three ghostwriters at the time, orchestrated the suite's compositions.
Slim Gaillard. Doug Ramsey of Rifftides fame has posted a fabulous clip of puckish bopster Slim Gaillard playing piano and guitar in the 1940s. Go here to read Doug's post and see the clip.
Return to Forever. Jazz author and blogger Howard Mandel 
posted an insightful appraisal of Return to Forever at Jazz Beyond Jazz. "Fusion was promoted as the melding of heightened skills (if not always sophisticated tastes) with mind-bending new sonic possibilities, in pursuit of vast popularity," writes Howard. Go here to read on.
Copyright fight. At Jazz.com, resident curmudgeon 
Alan Kurtz has a
provocative post on how twisted
copyright laws are preventing crucial
recordings from being reissued. He also writes that a growing list of artists today are hijacking older, classic
works by renaming them and locking down the rights. Go here.
Marian and Bill. Jan Stevens of the Bill Evans
Web Pages sent 
along an email alerting me to NPR's posting of Marian McPartland's famous 1978 interview with a gracious and humble Bill Evans. You can read about the radio interview at Jan's site here and listen to a podcast of the interview here.
Clifton Anderson. Video documentarian Bret Primack has posted a fascinating interview clip featuring trombonist Clifton Anderson, Sonny Rollins' nephew. Anderson talks about his childhood recollections of Uncle Sonny and playing with the great tenor saxophonist over the past 20 years. Go here.
City Island. Raymond De Felitta, director of the harrowing documentary 'Tis Autumn:
The Search for Jackie Paris, is in New York this summer shooting the comedy City Island. Raymond wrote the screenplay, and the film stars Andy Garcia, Emily Mortimer and Alan Arkin. City Island has nothing to do with jazz, but Raymond will be doing quite a bit of improvising in the coming weeks online. The director vows to blog regularly at Movies 'Til Dawn about the new film, allowing you to follow the on-set progress and keep up with the dish. Think of the installments as literary rushes. Go here. PS: Raymond says the DVD of 'Tis Autumn will be released in the late fall or early winter.
Whitney Balliett. If you're unfamiliar with the blog Jazz Lives, have a look. This week, Michael Steinman has a fine essay on the late jazz writer and author Whitney Balliett [pictured]. Steinman writes: "Like the best improvisations, his writing is both surprising and inevitable; he listens with great subtlety and makes shadings and nuances accessible to readers." Go here for more.
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