Latest Posts – Page 118 – Jazz 88.3 KCCK

This Week’s Shows June 24 thru June 30

Jazz Corner of the World (Encore)

Mondays at 6:00pm

Prestige’s ‘Soul Jazz Years’

Craig continues his commemoration of Prestige Records’ 75^th anniversary with classic soul jazz from Gene Ammons, Charles Earland, Don Patterson, Jack McDuff, and George Benson.

The Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00pm

Cory Wong on the Main Stage

With one week to go before the 2024 Iowa City Jazz Festival, we’re taking one more listen back to main stage acts from Jazz Fests past. This week, we jam to Cory Wong, one of the hottest guitarists on the scene.

Jazz Night in America

Thursdays at 11:00pm

Endea Owens Giving Back

Christian McBride hangs with bassist Endea Owens at a Community Cookout. We’ll hear the bassist with Wynton Marsalis, Jon Batiste, and trace her Detroit roots to learn how she’s giving back to her community with free meals and free concerts on the street.

Jazz Corner of the World

Saturdays from 12:00 noon to 4:00pm

The Easy Going Side of Black & Blue

Craig spins some laid back fare from the French jazz and blues label Black & Blue. We’ll hear from great musicians like Arnett Cobb, Lockjaw Davis, Lloyd Glenn, Illinois Jacquet, Don Byas, Milt Buckner, and many others.

KCCK’s Midnight CD

Every Night at Midnight Each night, KCCK lets you hear a new CD played start-to-finish.

BEATitude by David Bixler on Monday; Suite for Africa by Amina Figarova on Tuesday; The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner by Conrad Herwig on Wednesday; Soul Jazz by Something Else! on Thursday; Brown Eyed Blues by Jeff Pitchell on Friday; Down at the Juke Joint by Gerald McClendon on Saturday; Blackwater Sessions by Lenny Marcus Washington on Sunday.

Big Mo Pod Show 015 – “Absorbing Influences”

In another weekly installment of the Big Mo Pod Show Noah and John both enjoy and discuss some select tracks from Friday’s show. They take a particular interest in the different influences blues artists draw from, and delve a little into the artistic process of finding and building upon one’s influences as a creator. Songs featured in the episode:

Eric Bibb – “Blues Funky Like Dat”
Miller and The Other Sinners – “Black Water Fishin”
Ana Popovic – “Fencewalk”
Memphis Slim – “Mother Earth”
Gov’t Mule – “Shake Our Way Out”

Listen to ‘da Friday Blues with Big Mo each week at 6pm, and catch the podcast for a behind the scenes look at the show!

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Culture Crawl 933 “This Weird Encounter”

Classmates turned collaborators Akwi Nji and L.D. Kidd have teamed up to breathe new life into “enuf,” a poetry album released last year by Akwi. This one of a kind live performance will feature vocalist Alicia Strong and percussionist EJ Swavv, as well as Akwi and L.D., as they invite you to explore what it truly means to be “enough.” The event is hosted at the Mirrorbox Theatre in Cedar Rapids on June 22, 7:30pm. Tickets are going fast, so get yours now at www.mirrorboxtheatre.com.

Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast player. Listen Live at 10:30am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or kcck.org/listen.

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Talking Pictures 6-19-24

“Hit Man” (Netflix 2023) and “Under Paris” (Netflix 2024) with Hollis Monroe, Phil Brown and Denny Lynch.

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Culture Crawl 932 “Unsung Heroes”

This week the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band features its Horn section, performing a piece that Steve Shanley describes as “flashy” to highlight a section of the band that doesn’t always get an opportunity to shine. Also on the program is young artist competition winner Emma Bennett performing the Artie Shaw Concerto for Clarinet, and music from Star Wars.
 Wednesday at McGrath Amphitheater and Sunday at Bever Park. All shows at 7:0pm. Livestream at facebook.com/crmuniband.

More information at crmuniband.org.

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New Music Monday for June 17, 2024

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify

Azerbaijani-born, New York-based pianist and composer Amina Figarova was inspired to write her new “Suite for Africa” by her experience traveling to meet students in South Africa. A travel mishap placed her on the same flight as the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, an ensemble of orphaned and at-risk children from war-ravaged Liberia. The masterpiece that ensued forms the core of Amina’s new album. The three-movement suite is bracketed by five complementary Figarova originals inspired by African rhythms and the folk music traditions of her native country. An addition to the 24-voice choir, Amina is joined by her longtime band featuring saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, flutist Bart Platteau, trumpeter Alex Pope Norris, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and drummer Rudy Royston.

The new supergroup Something Else brings together a superb septet that matches impeccable virtuosity with a bottomless feel for the music on the band’s debut release, “Soul Jazz.” Spearheaded by alto sax great Vincent Herring, the band includes trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, guitarist Paul Bollenback, pianist David Kikoski, drummer Otis Brown III and bassist Essiet Essiet. As Herring explains, “Everybody in the band grew up on soul jazz. The music of the day was soul and R&B…I think it’s a feeling that we were all craving in our own music.”

Also this week, trombonist and arranger Conrad Herwig offers up the newest in his Latin Side series with “The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner”; pianist Lenny Marcus and his trio were inspired by working in a wonderful studio located in a magnificent setting in Southwestern Virginia, right off Smith Mountain Lake, for their new album, “Blackwater Sessions”; and saxophonist and composer David Bixler, who cut his teeth working in the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Toshiko Akioshi and Chico O’Farrill’s Afro-Cuban Big Band, drops a new quartet release, “Beatitude.”

This Week in Jazz June 16 thru June 22

Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of saxman Joe Thomas, reedman Eric Dolphy, bassist Jamil Nasser, songwriter Sammy Kahn, pianist/composer Lalo Schifrin, guitarist Ernest Ranglin, pianist Eric Reed and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of “The Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis Cookbook, vol. 1” (1958), Hank Mobley’s “Straight No Filter” (1966), George Benson’s “Bad Benson” (1974), Jimmy Ponder’s “Mean Streets – No Bridges” (1987), Cecil Brooks III’s “Smokin’ Jazz” (1993), Roy Hargrove Big Band’s “Emergence” (2008) and many others, Mondays thru Fridays at noon on JAZZ MASTERS on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.

This Week’s Shows June 17 thru June 23

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler Mondays at 6:00pm

Italy’s Horo Records

Craig introduces us to Horo Records, the highly-respected Italian jazz label. We’ll hear a variety of spins from the 1970s, from Gil Evans, Sun Ra, Sam Rivers, Ran Blake, Lee Konitz, Martial Solal, Billy Harper, and others.

The Wednesday Night Special Wednesdays at 6:00pm

Vincent Herring on the Main Stage

We’re just two weeks away from the 2024 Iowa City Jazz Fest, so to get us in the mood for the summer’s hottest jazz, we’re listening back to some of the outstanding talent who’ve taken the main stage in Festival’s past. This week we hear saxophonist Vincent Herring and his band and their great set of originals and classics.

Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride Thursdays at 11:00pm

Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life

Behind the music, Billy Strayhorn led a complex and often vice-driven life. While composing some of the most harmonically rich jazz of its time, often in the shadow of Duke Ellington, Strayhorn was an outlier in that he led an openly gay life as a black man in the homophobic 1940s. Hear interviews with Strayhorn family members and biographer, and rare archival tape of Strayhorn himself. You’ll also hear Strayhorn’s music performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, featuring pianist Johnny O’Neal.

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler Saturdays from 12 noon to 4:00pm

Prestige’s ‘Soul Jazz Years’

Craig continues his commemoration of Prestige Records’ 75^th anniversary with classic soul jazz featuring cuts from Gene Ammons, Charles Earland, Don Patterson, Jack McDuff, George Benson, and many others. These choice sides all feature groove music from the top guitar, tenor, and organ groups of the late 1950s thru the early 1970s.

KCCK’s Midnight CD

Every Night at Midnight Each night, KCCK lets you hear a new CD played start-to-finish.

A Kiss for Brazil by Karrin Allyson on Monday; No Words Needed by Oscar Hernandez & Alma Libre on Tuesday; Time Has Changed by Zaccai Curtis on Wednesday; Creole Orchestra by Etienne Charles on Thursday; Tulsa Custom by Seth Lee Jones on Friday; Human Decency by Sugaray Rayford on Saturday; Fearless Movement (Disc 1) by Kamasi Washington on Sunday.