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CD of the Month Archive - 2008Every month KCCK selects a newly released CD as the CD of the Month. Here are the CD's of the Month for 2008. Click here to see 2007 CDs of the Month January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
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  Bob Stewart Wins National Award KCCK Broadcasts I.C. Jazz Festival Jazz Band Camp Finale Concert July 11 Flood of 2008 Jazz Under the Stars Lineup Announced 2008 Bix Festival Bands Announced KCCK Lists Top 88 of 2007 Music Producers Pick 2007 Top 10s "JUTS Stuff" Still Available Jazz Under the Stars Marks Twenty Years Short List Features Vibists, Accordianists, Singers Talking Pictures Reviews: WALL-E, Son of Rambo, Get Smart Rhythm & News - the KCCK Newsletter EEO Annual Report |
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The KCCK Featured CD for January is "Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival" by the Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary All-Stars.
Heralded as a meeting of three generations of jazz masters, the band was assembled with each member's special relationsip with the festival in mind. Saxophonist James Moody first appeared at Monterey in the early Sixties with Dizzy Gillespie, while pianist Benny Green first experienced the festival when he was a member of the MJF all-star high school band in 1978. Trumpeter Terence Blanchard was artistic director of the 2007 Festival and his drummer, Kendrick Scott, was a member of the Berklee-Monterey Quartet from 1999 through 2002. Rounding out the group is vocalist Nnenna Freelon and bassist Derrick Hodge. Taken together, the members of the All-Stars have performed at the festival twenty-eight times. "Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival" is the first non-archival recording released by Monterey Jazz Festival Records.
The KCCK Featured CD for February is "Express" by Metro, now celebrating fourteen years of musical collaboration and exploration. Having crossed paths during their early years in New York City, keyboardist Mitchel Forman and guitarist Chuck Loeb joined forces in 1994 with Passport drummer Wolfgang Haffner and bassist Anthony Jackson to record their first cd as Metro. The music is based on their shared passion for the sonic and musical adventures of the Sixties and Seventies, when artists such as Miles Davis, Weather Report, and John McLaughlin began combining jazz, rock, electronica and world music, thus expanding the boundaries of all improvised music. "Express" is a continuation of this genre, which has come to be know as fusion. Metro's "Express" is on the Marsis Records label.
The KCCK Featured CD for March is "Cannon Re-Loaded: An All-Star Celebration of Cannonball Adderly." Saxophone stalwart Tom Scott and an ensemble of some of today's jazz icons join to celebrate the legendary music made famous by Cannonball and his groups. Scott is joined by trumpeter Terence Blanchard, keyboardists George Duke and Larry Goldings, bassist Marcus Miller and drummer Steve Gadd on brand new reworkings of the Adderly band's most popular compositions. Vocalist Nancy Wilson makes a special appearance reprising two songs from her classic 1961 recording with Adderly. It's a stellar jazz compilation saluting one of the true jazz masters. "Cannon Re-Loaded" is from Concord Records.
The KCCK Featured CD for April is "Little Did I Dream" by Twin-Cities-based vocalist Connie Evingson performing the songs of jazz great Dave Frishberg. With her usual flair for delving deep into a songbook, Evingson vividly inhabits all of the humor, hipster smarts and romanticism that earned Frishberg the title of ASCAP Jazz Living Legend. The disc is a true homecoming for Frishberg, a native of St. Paul who studied at the University of Minnesota, and it is the first major recording project that he's undertaken in his hometown. The composer and pianist is also reunited with saxophonist Dave Karr, an old college pal from the Fifties who has worked with Evingson for years. "Little Did I Dream" is on Evingson's own Minnehaha Records label.
The KCCK Featured CD for May is "A Grand Night for Swinging" a previously unreleased live
recording of Mary Lou Williams and her trio at the Statler Hotel in Buffalo from 1976.
Williams' stature in the jazz world as the most important female jazz musician to emerge in the
first three decades of the art writes an important chapter not only in the history of women
jazz musicians, but also of 20th-century African-American history in a larger context.
Although she had been playing professionally for over fifty years at this point in her career,
this is the only recording yet to have surfaced featuring legendary drummer Roy Haynes as part of
Mary Lou's trio. As the All Music Guide states, "This is a welcome and necessary entry in Williams'
catalog." "A Grand Night for Swinging" is on High Note Records.
The KCCK Featured CD for June is "Esperanza" by bassist, vocalist and composer Esperanza Spalding A child prodigy, Spalding earned her GED at age sixteen and soon after was enrolled at the Berklee College of Music. After three years of accelerated study, Spalding attained her degree and became the youngest faculty member in the history of the College at age twenty. At the same time, she was honing her chops working with several notable artists including Michel Camilo, Stanley Clarke, Pat Metheny and Joe Lovano. The All Music Guide describes the new disc as "wildly diverse and exceptionally well-executed," and that "anyone who encounters this offering will find not only much to delight in, but plenty to be amazed by." "Esperanza" is on Heads Up Records.
The KCCK Featured CD for July is "Present Tense" by reedman James Carter. Described as "one of the brightest stars in jazzdom" by the Detroit News, and a "modern sax god" by Hi-Fi UK, Carter is one of the most admired saxophonists of his generation. Legendary producer Michael Cuscuna sensed a challenge to capture the sheer range of Carter's enormous talent and his mastery of the jazz idiom, which Cuscuna felt had not been adequately represented on earlier releases. That challenge has been met as Carter's critically acclaimed virtuosity on flute, bass clarinet, soprano, tenor, and baritone saxophones has never been better highlighted. A powerful force on today's jazz scene, James Carter shines on "Present Tense" on EmArcy Records.
