Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
World-renowned guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli has dedicated many of his albums to the great songwriters and performers who have helped to establish the Great American Songbook and the pop music canon: Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, Richard Rodgers, and Duke Ellington, to name a few. With his new album “Stage & Screen,” which is a celebration of the 40th anniversary of his debut album, John and his new trio find inspiration in classic songs from Broadway musicals and Hollywood films, with the repertoire spanning nearly a century.
The hard bop recordings of Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and Art Blakey were highly regarded for a reason—catchy horn lines and incredible musicianship combined with Rudy Van Gelder’s impeccable engineering skills. The Jazz Defenders, led by one of the UK’s most formidable jazz pianists, George Cooper, is a group that defends the legacy of those recordings whilst creating its own identity and distinction. The music they produce together on their new CD, “Scheming,” is a modern soul jazz slant on this classic hard bop, effortlessly channeling the spirit of the golden Blue Note era of jazz.
Also this week, Eastern Iowa’s own 3 Dogs and a Bone, with Rich Medd, Steve Grismore, James Dreier, and Scott Barnum, unveil their debut release, “Dig It!”;
trombonist and composer Nick Finzer and his long-running sextet explore the role of the muse in creative inspiration on “Dream, Visions Illusions”;
and young alto sax phenom Nick Green boasts a big, warm & robust tone on his wonderfully swinging debut disc, “Green on the Scene.”
Just as Jude Biwer and Ben Drzycimski arrived for their guest DJ shows, we learned that Carl Rowles and Matthew Nicholson had just been named the new directors of the Cedar Rapids Jefferson band program. Mr. Nicholson has been a part of the Jefferson program during his student teaching years and helped Steve Stickney from Mt. Mercy and Corridor Jazz guest artist Rich Medd during this transition year.
Ryan Humphrey and Jackson Schloss learned the hard way why you never use Google Maps to get to KCCK (it sends you to a random building on the north end of campus). But they arrived just in time to host their show, with music from Cannonball Adderly, Clifford Brown, Herbie Hancock, and more!
It’s been quite a year for the Linn-Mar Music Department. The Colton Center Jazz Ensemble took 2nd place in the 4A Jazz Championships, the highest placement of any area school. Linn-Mar’s Show Choir, Tenth Street Edition, took first place at the Show Choir Nationals in Nashville.
Jazz Corner of the World 
Jazz Night in America