The KCCK Featured CD for February is “Swirl” from Michael Wolff. After a four-year battle with cancer, the pianist came out the other side completely healthy with plenty more life to live and music to make. The new disc, featuring bassist Ben Allison and drummer Allan Mednard, bears out Michael’s newfound appreciation for life’s joys …
The KCCK Featured CD for January is “Humoresque” by the Emil Viklicky Trio. On May 30, 2008, the Czech pianist played the Grand Hall of the National Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids just prior to the epic flood. Ten years to the day, May 30 2018, he returned to perform at the refurbished, …
The KCCK Featured CD for December is “Winter Jazz” from Roots of Rhythm. The trio, featuring Lynne Hart on clarinet, Rich Wagor on bass and Pat Smith on guitar, has been performing jazz for Eastern Iowa audiences for nearly ten years now. They issued their self-titled debut CD in 2014. The follow-up disc features wonderfully …
The KCCK Featured CD for November is “Math Camp” from lyricist and vocalist Lorraine Feather. It’s Ms. Feather’s twelfth album of originals and follows four consecutive Grammy nominated discs. Her inspiration this time around is math and physics, using them as metaphors for modern love. Collaborating again with composers Eddie Arkin and Shelly Berg, Lorraine’s …
KCCK’s Featured CD for October is “Quiet Revolution” from bassist Ben Allison, guitarist Steve Cardenas and saxophonist Ted Nash. The trio honors jazz legends Jim Hall and Jimmy Giuffre and the quieter music they embraced in the 1950s and ’60s that merged elements of free playing with blues-based folk qualities. As Mr. Allison describes it, …
The KCCK Featured CD for September is “Heaven and Earth” from Kamasi Washington, the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2015 set “The Epic.” Once again, the saxophonist utilizes a choir and orchestra to augment his 10-piece band for what the All Music Guide calls “a major dose of Afro-Futurism, establishing Washington as a composer and …
The KCCK Featured CD for August is “Nightconcert” by Erroll Garner. Never before released in the U.S., this midnight performance by the pianist and his classic trio took place in Amsterdam in November of 1964 at one of the premiere concert halls in the world. The packed house witnessed a blistering set featuring the group’s …
The KCCK Featured CD for July is “Both Directions at Once: the Lost Album” from John Coltrane. On March 6th, 1963, Coltrane and his Classic Quartet recorded an entire studio album at the legendary Van Gelder studio. At the end of the day, he took the reference tapes home with him where they sat untouched …
