Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. “It’s taken me thirty years of analyzing my own identity as an artistic black man to finally fit all of this into my interpretation of Black American Music,” explains Theo Croker of his newest album, “Star People.” As the grandson of the late trumpeter Doc Cheatham, former …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Justly famous for his gorgeous compositions and arrangements for a long list of singers including Natalie Cole, Diana Krall and Paul McCartney, Alan Broadbent is also a pianist’s pianist: possessed of fierce technique; exquisitely emotional, when the moment calls for it; and as hard-swinging as they come. …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. The Guardian has called Joshua Redman “one of the 21st century’s finest jazz improvisers,” and the New York Times says, “Mr. Redman’s place is secure as one of the most effusive and engaging tenor saxophonists in straight-ahead jazz.” The new release for the Joshua Redman Quartet, “Come What …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Brittany Anjou has explored everything from Ahmad Jamal to Bikini Kill at the piano on three continents, between roiling original compositions inspired by Bartok, Stravinsky, Red Garland and McCoy Tyner. It makes great artistic sense that the title of her first major piano trio album and the …
As a part of April Jazz Appreciation Month, KCCK welcomed students from area high schools to be guest DJs, to play some of their favorite tunes from jazz band, talk about music and their future plans. Listen to the Wednesday Special re-broadcasts, each week at 6pm: May 8 – Kennedy & Prairie May 15 – …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Buddy Bolden ranks among the most influential yet obscure figures in the pantheon of American music and is widely credited by musicians of the era as being the first jazz musician and bandleader in history. A forthcoming film imagines the compelling, powerful, and tragic journey of the …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. When pianist Bill Charlap featured Tom Harrell at a recent gig with his trio at New York’s Jazz Standard, he summarized the trumpeter’s genius as concisely as anyone could. “It is our honor and privilege,” he announced, “to share the bandstand with a man who is a …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. The long-running debate over what defines a jazz singer simply dissolves when Betty Carter’s name comes up. She transcended the entire category and took her place in the music pantheon as one of jazz’s most profound and game-changing innovators. Her impact was pervasive: not only did she …
