Orchestra Iowa kicks off its 100th season a little late, after the cancellation of Brucemorchestra, with “Cultural Crosroads.” One of the world’s leading violinists, Cho-Liang (Jimmy) Lin, joins the Orchestra for a towering Tchaikovsky concerto. Also, a world premiere from Cedar Rapids composer Jerry Owen!
7:30pm Oct. 8 at the Paramount, 2pm Oct. 9 at Hancher. Tickets and info at www.artsiowa.com. 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.
Iowa Brass is a brass band in the British style, i.e., with some British-style horns and performances in a concert band format, but the members tend to have jazz experience. The band will show off its “Jazz Roots” in concert Oct. 15 at the Solon Community Center, where they’ll perform arrangements of jazz tunes made famous by The Brecker Brothers, Pat Metheny, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, and many more.
Admission is free. Details at www.facebook.com/iabrass.
Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of bassists Jimmy Blanton, Steve Swallow and Eddie Gomez, drummer Jo Jones, pianist Walter Bishop, Jr., guitarist Duke Robillard, trombonist Clifton Anderson and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries Louis Armstrong “Live At The 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival”, Horace Silver’s “Paris Blues” (1962), Art Blakey’s “Mosaic” (1971), The Phil Woods Quartet “At The Village Vanguard” (1982), The Clifford Jordan Big Band “Down Through The Years” (1991) and many others, Mondays thru Fridays at noon on JAZZ MASTERS on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.
This week, Craig Kessler offers up some work with yet another of Miles Davis’s transitional tenors, George Coleman, who played with Miles in 1963 and early 1964. Don’t miss classic studio recordings, as well as some rather obscure live dates that feature the remarkable work of Coleman.
The Wednesday Night Special
Wednesdays at 6:00 PM
Remembering Pharoah Sanders
KCCK pays tribute to the late, great Pharoah Sanders, who passed away September 24. Tune in for his stunning performance at the 2013 Iowa City Jazz Festival.
Jazz Night in America
Thursday at 11:00 PM
Young Bloods: Immanuel Wilkins
Host Christian McBride wraps up his five-part series, “Young Bloods,” with saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, who believes the current generation’s mission is to refine the greatness of the previous jazz masters.
Jazz Corner of the World
Saturdays at 12:00 Noon
The Art & Compositions of Mike Gibbs
Craig Kessler salutes master composer Michael Gibbs. He is probably best known for his collaborations with Gary Burton, Graham Collier, Kenny Wheeler, the NDR Big Band, and many others. We’ll hear samples his work through the years.
KCCK’s Midnight CD
Every Night at Midnight
Each night, KCCK lets you hear a new CD played start-to-finish.
180 by Shawn Purcell on Monday;View With a Room by Julian Lage on Tuesday; New Standards, Vol. 1 by Terri Lyne Carrington on Wednesday; LongGone by Redman, Mehldau, McBride & Blade on Thursday; One Foot in the Groove by The Boneshakers on Friday; Smokey Tango by Laura Tate on Saturday; Lucid Dream by Roe, Bickley & Kramer on Sunday
The KCCK Featured Album for October is “New Standards, Volume One” from Terri Lyne Carrington. The drummer has published a groundbreaking new lead sheet book of 101 jazz compositions written exclusively by women, including Mary Lou Williams, Maria Schneider, Esperanza Spalding and others. The companion album is the first in what will be a series of discs to feature those compositions as performed by Ms. Carrington and her quintet along with guests including Dianne Reeves, Ravi Coltrane, Julian Lage, Samara Joy and Somi. “New Standards, Volume One” is from Candid Records. Purchase.
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Steve Turre was passed the jazz torch early in his career by some of the music’s greatest masters—Art Blakey, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Woody Shaw and Ray Charles, among others. In recent years he’s kindled the same flame in a younger crop of musicians. On his new album, “Generations,” the trombonist brings the eras together, inviting still-vital legends to join a gifted band of rising stars to pay tribute to the elders who have helped shaped his sound. The disc features Steve’s own son drummer Orion Turre, as well as Wallace Roney, Jr., whose late father was a close friend and collaborator of Turre’s. In addition, the youthful core band includes pianist Isaiah J. Thompson and bassist Corcoran Holt. Veterans James Carter, Ed Cherry, Buster Williams and Lenny White provide the balance between youth and age.
Pianist and composer Amina Figarova seeks to inspire a more optimistic and positive future on her new album, “Joy,” striving to move beyond the darkness of the last few years. It’s also a return to the acoustic piano setting following the groove-heavy electronic excursion of her previous project. The album reconvenes her regular collaborators: flautist Bart Platteau, trumpeter Alex Pope Norris, saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, with Rudy Royston and Brian Richburg, Jr. sharing drum duties. This meeting of old friends contributes greatly toward embodying the warm spirits that Figarova aimed for with “Joy.”
Also this week, “Keyed Up” marks Chicago guitarist Bobby Broom’s 14th album as a leader, expanding his trio with the addition of Chicago keyboard whiz Justin Dillard;
drummer Steve Gadd reunites with his friends from his Gadd Gang days, Eddie Gomez and Ronnie Cuber for a production with the multiple Grammy Award-winning WDR Big Band, “Center Stage”;
and drummer Richard Baratta takes us on another imaginative, jazz-filled trip to the movies with “Music in Film: The Sequel.”
David Payne auditioned for a Nashville production of the play “Shadowlands” on a lark, because as a Britisher, he had the right accent. He was cast as the lead, C.S. Lewis, which has led him to write and perform several shows as the author, whose work includes The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis and Lord of the Rings creator J.R.R. Tolkien were lifelong friends.
There is an Iowa connection to this story. Johnathan Swenson, a former Cedar Rapids resident who performed in multiple shows while living here, is in the U.K. working with Payne to tour a C.S. Lewis show and also debut a similar one-man production about Winston Churchill.
Payne and Gregory Williams Welsh bring the story of a fictitious meeting between the two, although based on their real-life writings to Cedar Rapids.
“An Evening With C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien” comes to the Paramount Theatre on Oct. 15. Tickets at www.creventslive.com.
Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at www.kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast app. Listen Live at 10:20am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or www.kcck.org/listen.
Jazz Corner of the World Encore
Jazz Night in America
