Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. While every great jazz musician knows the value of spontaneity, few understand the true value of being in the moment quite like Johnny O’Neal. A rising star in the early 1980s, O’Neal left New York after a mugging in 1986. Performing and recording in Atlanta, St. Louis, Montreal and …
The Short List with host Bob Naujoks Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM Ramsey Lewis had a monster hit in the 1960’s with “The In-Crowd.” It shouldered aside both the Beatles and Barbra Streisand from the charts. The Gospel-Funk groove launched Lewis into a long, successful career that …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. With his Caribbean heritage, classical training and a unique rhythmic and melodic approach to jazz improvisation, Nestor Torres’ talkative and mellifluous flute sound remains in a class all by itself. Now, with his 15th album release, “Jazz Flute Traditions,” the Latin Grammy Award-winner shows his deep respect and …
The Short List with host Bob Naujoks Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM Cats On The Keys 4 Featured this week is the somewhat forgotten, but brilliant technician Dorothy Donegan. Critics ignored her because of her flamboyant performance style. Some said her antics got in the way of …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. Drummer Mark Giuliana has been in the vanguard of drummers creating a new vernacular on the instrument, blending virtuosity on acoustic drums with artfully deployed electronic beats and processing. He was chosen as Best Jazz Drummer in Modern Drummer magazine’s Readers Poll this year, while DownBeat dubbed him a …
The Short List with host Bob Naujoks Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM Cats On The Keys 4 A new “Cats On The Keys” series begins with week, featuring Fred Hersch. One of the leading influences on young players today, his playing is what one reviewer calls “borderless, …
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify. The Bill Charlap Trio is the pinnacle of jazz piano trio playing and has been a New York City staple since 1997. The Grammy Award-winning pianist and his longtime trio partners, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, celebrate their twentieth anniversary together with “Uptown Downtown,” a new collection …
The Short List with host Bob Naujoks Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM Jazz In The Pacific Northwest Featured this week is a survey of clubs in the Pacific Northwest. Portland had an active jazz scene, but the bassist Leroy Vinnegar’s move to that city in the mid-80s, …
