The KCCK Featured Album for May is “Don’t Stop Now” from the Sean Nelson New London Big Band. The great composer and arranger Thad Jones was commissioned to write twenty five arrangements and compositions exclusively for the Harry James Band in the late ’50s that were largely unknown or forgotten until recently. Most of the …
The KCCK Featured Album for April is KCCK’s Corridor Jazz Project Volume 18, featuring the outstanding students from a record twenty-one Eastern Iowa high school jazz bands. Each band is paired up with a professional guest artist who mentors the students during rehearsals and professional recording sessions. The experience culminates with concerts featuring the bands …
The KCCK Featured Album for March is KCCK’s Corridor Jazz Project Volume 18, featuring the outstanding students from a record twenty-one Eastern Iowa high school jazz bands. Each band is paired up with a professional guest artist who mentors the students during rehearsals and professional recording sessions. The experience culminates with concerts featuring the bands …
The KCCK Featured Album for February is “Jazz Club Montmarte” from the Michel Petrucciani Trio. Michel was one of the most brilliant pianists to emerge on the European jazz scene in the 1970s, rising to international acclaim performing with the likes of Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, and Charles Lloyd. The previously unreleased set was recorded …
The KCCK Featured Album for January is “Across the Field” by the Visions Jazz Ensemble. In the summer of 2023, the band was approached with the idea of incorporating two great American traditions: jazz and improvised music together with traditional college fight songs .The group settled on a set of twelve of the most well-known …
The KCCK Featured Album for December is “This Year at Christmas” from the supergroup Band of Other Brothers. In the spring of this year, acclaimed pianist Jeff Babko received a text from veteran bassist Will Lee that simply read “Band of Other Brothers needs to do a holiday record.” Babko immediately wrote a new piece …
The KCCK Featured Album for November is “A Little Taste” from Rebecca Kilgore. The celebrated vocalist honors her good friend and colleague Dave Frishberg, who passed away in 2021, focusing on a program of his songs along with his collaborations with Johnny Hodges, Johnny Mandel and Alan Broadbent. Sadly, Ms. Kilgore was diagnosed with dementia …
The KCCK Featured Album for October is “Vol. 7: The Lost Tapes, 1959” from the Terry Gibbs Dream Band. After six volumes of Dream Band recordings were released in the ’80s and ’90s, a seventh volume was discovered just last year, when the famed vibraphonist’s son Gerry stumbled across a file marked ‘Party 1959’ on …
