Riff is a correct and usable word in written English.
You can use it as a noun to refer to a short, improvised musical phrase, or as a verb to refer to improvising a musical phrase. For example: "The jazz musician had the audience captivated with their riffs."
The latest effort: his "it takes two" riff at the end (as soon as I heard him say that, I knew what the closing song would be).
Frank Sidebottom, resplendent in a fibreglass head, shuffled onto the 80s pop scene like a postmodern riff on George Formby or Norman Wisdom, full of guileless chatter and novelty tunes.
Instead, that riff was the only good thing about it.
Patrick was our skipper, and he constructed a wonderful extended riff on what might happen when he went to do the toss with Stoppard.
It's also a pitch-perfect riff on what Lindsay-Abaire does in Good People: writes lines dripping with sarcasm for those who made it, modulated with the speaker's heartrending realisation that they never will.
Your ability to riff on a particular theme with variations, repetition, dynamics and pace reminds me of a modern jazz soloist: Parker, Coltrane, Roger Whittaker.
(Carlyle starred in Loach's 1990 film Riff-Raff).
People of above average ability want to show that they are a cut above the riff-raff, and are willing to pay for it.So far, so simple.
His was an extraordinary achievement given the riff-raff he had to work with.
But instead, the assembled riff-raff quickly dropped the boring business of political protest in favour of smashing windows, looting shops, destroying "fascist bus shelters" and revelling in other acts of hooliganism.
It also innovated with new levels of service, including "Upper Class", a first-class section at business-class prices, and sophisticated in-flight entertainment, even in the economy section, which Sir Richard, as he became, was persuaded not to call "riff-raff".
