The regular meeting of the Kirkwood Board of Trustees will take place November 10, 2022. Time, place, and meeting agenda can be found at this link.
KCCK’s Featured Album for November 2022
The KCCK Featured Album for November is “Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite” by pianist Jason Yeager. While Vonnegut found his true calling as an author, he once speculated about becoming a jazz pianist. He also was a faculty member of the Iowa Writers Workshop for several years. On the 100th anniversary of the great satirist’s birth, Yeager has composed a suite of tunes inspired by Vonnegut’s writings, vibrantly capturing the incisive wit and skewed vision of one the 20th century’s most inventive and celebrated novelists. “Unstuck in Time” is from Sunnyside Records. Purchase. .
Culture Crawl 770 “The World is Full of Knuckleheads”
Family Folk Machine, Iowa City’s non-auditioned, intergenerational folk choir presents “Carry On: Songs for Living,” Nov.13 , 3pm at the Englert Theatre.
Jean Littlejohn and Jon Ranard say the program consists of tunes ranging from They Might Be Giants to Robert Plant, sharing a theme of inclusiveness and offering each other our support during tough times.
Admission is free, donations accepted at the concert. Details at www.familyfolkmachine.org.
Taped on Halloween! Capt. Dennis says “Hit it.”
Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at www.kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast app. Listen Live at 10:30am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or www.kcck.org/listen.
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Clean Up Your Act 11-22-22
Iowa State University engineers look to help small rural communities reclaim wastewater and put it to good use.
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The Week’s Shows October 31 thru November 5
Jazz Corner of the World Encore
Mondays from 6:00pm to 10:00pm
The Compositions of Carla Bley, Part 2
Host Craig Kessler spins a fresh mix of Carla Bley charts. We’ll hear Carla’s own recordings of her remarkable material, as well as interpretations from other artists.
The Wednesday Night Special
Wednesdays at 6:00 PM
Blake Shaw’s Big(ish) Band at Jazz Under the Stars
Bassist Blake Shaw and his Big(ish) Band took the Noelridge Park stage for 2022’s final Jazz Under the Stars. Blake treated the crowd to his arrangements of standards, soulful originals, and up-on-your-feet classics. Opening the night was Joe Perea and the Kirkwood Jazz Combo.
Jazz Night in America
Thursday at 11:00 PM
Jamaaladeen Tacuma’s Roots
Host Christian McBride follows bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma on an exploration of his North Carolina heritage. We’ll also hear the incredible music inspired by his home and family.
Jazz Corner of the World
Saturdays at 12:00 Noon
Miles On Columbia – 1982-1985
Craig Kessler celebrates Columbia Record’s latest in their Miles Davis Bootleg series, featuring some surprising unreleased music from 1982 through 1985. We’ll also hear some unusual live sets from the period. It’s an excellent sound picture of Mile’s creative output in his later years.
KCCK’s Midnight CD
Every Night at Midnight
Each night, KCCK lets you hear a new CD played start-to-finish.
Bridges by Ana Nelson on Monday; Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite by Jason Yeager on Tuesday; Joy by Ernesto Cervini on Wednesday; Rhythm & Soul by Arturo Sandoval on Thursday; Alphabetical Blues Bash Volume 1 by the Wayne Riker Gathering on Friday; Revelation by Joanne Lediger & Robert Hill on Saturday; Linger Awhile by Samara Joy on Sunday
This Week In Jazz October 30 thru November 5
Hey Jazz fans, tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of audio engineer Rudy Van Gelder, saxmen Illinois Jacquet, Herb Geller, and Booker Ervin, singers Carmen Lundy and Lyle Lovett, percussionist Carlos “Potato” Valdez and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of Art Blakey’s “Moanin'” (1958), Horace Silver’s “Song For My Father” (1964), Erroll Garner’s “Magician” (1970), Ronnie Cuber “Live At The Blue Note” (1986), The Clark Terry Quintet w/Red Holloway’s “Top & Bottom” (1995), Jim Snidero “Live At The Deer Head Inn” (2020) and others M-F at noon on JAZZ MASTERS on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.
The Killer and Our Piano
Jerry Lee Lewis was not a jazz artist, but we have a unique connection to him here at KCCK.
We house the historic piano which was used for many years at Cedar Rapids’ Danceland Ballroom. The ballroom was the concert nerve center of town for decades, in business from 1926-1968.
Throughout the Swing Era, nearly all the major stars stopped at Danceland, including Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra (with Tommy Dorsey,), Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, and Louis Armstrong, to name a few. We like to think that some of them played the piano that now lives in our studios.
In the Fifties and under new management, Danceland became a home for live rock and roll, beginning with Bill Haley and The Comets in 1955, the dawn of the rock and roll era, and continuing for the rest of the hall’s life, hosting performances from Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Brenda Lee, Johnny Cash, The Four Seasons, The Yardbirds, The Beach Boys…
And Jerry Lee Lewis, nicknamed The Killer for his frenetic performance style that often included banging on the piano with his feet and jumping up onto the instrument to exhort the crowd into a parent-alarming frenzy. Once, he even set fire to a piano onstage.
The Killer performed at Danceland not once but twice, in 1964 and 1966. Legend has it that it at one of these shows, Lewis jumped up on the piano and broke off a piece of the instrument’s lid. The partially-repaired damage is clearly visible in the picture.
When Danceland was demolished in 1968 to make way for the arena known today as The Alliant Powerhouse, the piano was donated to the Linn County Historical Society (now The History Center). The piano came to KCCK in 2015 when the Center didn’t have the space to display it in the Douglas Mansion.
Lewis was a volatile and unpredictable man whose legacy is problematic, but there is no denying that he defined the role of the piano in rock and roll. We enjoy telling the story of our unique piano to KCCK guests.
Thanks to Steve Wilson, whose www.dancelandcriowa.com provides a history of the ballroom, complete with posters from shows. And to www.concertarchives.org, which features a user-submitted list of Danceland shows, which provided the Jerry Lee Lewis performance dates.
New Music Monday for October 31, 2022
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
After receiving four Grammy nominations for his highly successful series of recordings that “Latinized” the music of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Horace Silver, trombonist Conrad Herwig turns his attention to the legendary Charles Mingus. As an homage to the influential artist, Herwig provides a fiery excursion into the world of Afro-Caribbean rhythms skillfully applied to Mingus’ wildly imaginative compositions. Joining Herwig and his long-time Latin Side Band is special guest trumpeter Randy Brecker.
Throughout his career, Brazilian drummer and four-time Grammy nominee Duduka da Fonseca has been one of the leaders in performing music that mixes together jazz with Brazilian rhythms. He played extensively in his native Rio de Janeiro before moving to New York in 1975, where he has worked with a who’s who of jazz and led several groups of his own. His newest group, Quarteto Universal, features pianist Helio Alves, bassist Gili Lopes and guitarist Vinicius Gomes on their debut release, “Yes!!!”
Also this week, pianist Spike Wilner was recorded live at his Mezzrow Jazz Club in New York City for “Spike Wilner Trio Plays Monk & Ellington”;
“Finding the Right Notes” is the original motion picture soundtrack to a new documentary on bassist Ron Carter;
and saxophonist and composer Dennis Mitcheltree celebrates family, lost friends and major inspirations on his sixth disc as a leader, “Golden Rule.”