Category: KCCK Blog

Special Programs: Week of December 4 – December 9

Short List with host Bob Naujoks     Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM   Cats On The Keys 4: John Hicks Pianist John Hicks is The Short List subject this week. His resume includes stints with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, singer Betty Carter and the 1970s Woody Herman Herd. His …

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New Music Monday for December 4, 2017

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.    While the recording studio offers an ideal, controlled environment for audio fidelity and perfectionist tinkering, the bandstand is where any musician’s mettle is tested—live in the moment, under the scrutinizing gaze of a rapt audience. On the new CD, “Kalamazoo,” trombonist/composer Delfeayo Marsalis places his gift for entertaining …

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Special Programs: Week of November 27 – December 2

Short List with host Bob Naujoks     Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM   Cats On The Keys 4: Jaki Byard This week’s Short List features the long-overlooked but excellent pianist Jaki Byard.  He has a legacy of 35 solo recordings and another 50 as a sideman. Byard played with …

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New Music Monday for November 27, 2017

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.        Nothing gets music lovers in a celebrating mood like listening to their favorite Christmas carols, and a new CD, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” from trumpeter Chris Pasin delivers a whopping dose of holiday cheer. Pasin has proved himself among the most versatile of musicians. Besides fronting …

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Special Programs: Week of November 20 – November 25

Short List with host Bob Naujoks     Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM   Cats On The Keys 4: Mulgrew Miller Pianist Mulgrew Miller is the subject of this week’s Short List. Miller started poking at the piano when he was six, and began formal lessons two years later. As …

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Commons Collective Tops Jazz Under the Stars Poll

Jazz Under the Stars 2014

A group of UNI graduates, most of whom hail from Cedar Rapids, nabbed the top spot on KCCK’s Best of Jazz Under The Stars poll. Commons Collective played Jazz Under the Stars in 2014, and have also been one of the most popular groups to play at First Friday Jazz. Congratulations to Brian, Nolan, Jon, …

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New Music Monday for November 20, 2017

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.      With his career spanning almost three decades, Willie Jones III has become one of the jazz world’s most respected and highly accomplished modern jazz drummers of our time. His associations with legendary artists such as Cedar Walton, Milt Jackson, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins and Roy Hargrove speak …

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Special Programs: Week of November 13 – November 18

Short List with host Bob Naujoks     Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM   Cats On The Keys 4: Cyrus Chestnut Cyrus Chestnut’s accessible mix of gospel, blues and bop-tinged piano jazz has emerged as a strong voice in just the last decade. Though he started his career with such …

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