For decades, the Linn County Blues Society has presented a big summer Blues concert, spotlighting the best local and national talent. Beginning this year, the celebration becomes “Bourbon & Blues,” August 20 at McGrath Amphitheatre.
The party begins with Iowa legends Molly Nova & The Hawk, featuring Bryce Janey, and also features Danielle Nicole from Kansas City, Blues and Americana chart-topper Carolyn Wonderland, and concluding with a true Blues superstar, Shemekia Copeland.
There will be food trucks, and as the name implies, refreshments including bourbon from Cedar Ridge.
Tickets are $35 in advance at lcbs.org.
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.
Craig Kessler surveys the interesting career of this multi-faceted reed master. We’ll hear selections from all corners of his career – the early days of bebop, modern jazz in Boston, his partnership with pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, his time with Mingus and others, and his studies in “world musics” and European progressive jazz.
The Wednesday Night Special
Wednesdays at 6:00 PM
Rod Pierson Big Band with Craig Boche at Opus
Iowa bandleader Rod Pierson and vocalist Craig Boche brought “the cool” to First Friday Jazz with big band favorites from all eras – from Glenn Miller to Rat Pack favorites, right up to Woody Herman and Harry Connick, Jr. It was a Friday evening of swing at the Opus Concert Café.
Jazz Night in America
Thursday at 11:00 PM
Exit Zero Jazz Festival
Host Christian McBride takes us to Cape May, New Jersey for their Exit Zero Jazz Festival. We listen in on standout sets from last year’s headliners – pianist Matthew Whitaker, singer Gabrielle Cavassa, and percussionist Pedrito Martinez.
Jazz Corner of the World
Saturdays at 12:00 Noon
A Look at IAI Records
Craig Kessler looks at the short-lived IAI (Improvising Artists Incorporated) jazz label, owned and operated by pianist and composer Paul Bley. It was founded in 1974 to record improvised music and video art. We’ll hear true obscurities culled from the label’s 20-plus titles, from artists like Sun Ra, Bill Connors, Jimmy Giuffre, Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Ran Blake, Lee Konitz, and others.
KCCK’s Midnight CD
Every Night at Midnight
Each night, KCCK gives you the chance to hear a new CD played start-to-finish.
The Next Step by Roberto Occhipinti on Monday;Native Speaker by SaltmanKnowles on Tuesday; Be-Bop! by Pasquale Grasso on Wednesday; Diamonds & Other Jewels by Cyrus Chestnut on Thursday; Tulsa Tea by Brad Absher & the Superials on Friday; Done Come Too Far by Shemekia Copeland on Saturday; Putt Lake Toodleloo by La Pompe Attack on Sunday
Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of saxmen Benny Carter, Russell Procope and Arnett Cobb, singers Patti Austin and Cyrille Aimee, guitarist Pat Metheny, percussionist Jack DeJohnette and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of Oscar Peterson “Live at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival” (1956), Jimmy Forrest’s “Forrest Fire” (1960), Art Pepper’s “San Francisco Samba: Live at Keystone Korner” (1977), Red Rodney Quintet’s “No Turn On Red” (1986), LaVerne Butler’s “Blues In The City” (1998) Behn Gillece’s “Still Doing Our Thing” (2020) and many others, Mondays thru Fridays at noon on JAZZ MASTERS‘ on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.
Some years ago, Iowa City singer Betsy Hickok was looking for a guitarist to collaborate with. Some friends connected her with Central Iowa musician Ron Roberts (an acoustical researcher at ISU by day). To say the two hit it off is a bit of an understatement, since soon thereafter they were married!
The two lived and performed in Ames and Des Moines for several years, before returning (for Betsy, at least), to Iowa City.
Betsy and Ron bring a quintet to Jazz Under the Stars on Aug. 11, and promise a program of familiar and new standards. Our Young Artists opening act is YesterNite, featuring recent grads from Liberty High School.
And bring a shopping bag, because it’s also KCCK’s Album & CD Sale. Hundreds of vintage vinyl and CDs, for just $1 a disk!
6:30pm Aug. 11 at Noelridge Park. More info at www.kcck.org.
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.
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Mike Conrad, Associate Professor of Jazz Studies and Music Education at the University of Northern Iowa, believes that the bonds formed through musical experiences can be incredibly strong and enduring. For his debut jazz trio album, “Reconnect,” the pianist wanted to connect with some of his favorite musicians from his past to bring eight of his original tunes to life. Chicago bassist Katie Ernst lends her lyrical, buoyant approach to the project. She and Conrad met at a jazz band camp in high school, and both have a connection to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Over ten years after Indianapolis-based drummer Cassius Goens III released his debut album with Conrad on piano, he rejoins the pianist to bring both fire and sensitivity to this new release.
Keyboardist Ronnie Foster first caught the ear of Blue Note Records co-founder Francis Wolff when he made his first-ever recording as a sideman on guitar legend Grant Green’s album “Alive” in 1970. After Wolff passed away a few months later, Ronnie was officially signed to the label, making him the next in an illustrious lineage if Hammond B3 organists the label had presented which included Jimmy Smith, Larry Young and Dr. Lonnie Smith. The 2022 return of Foster to Blue Note is an event of synergistic quintessence, completeness and cool. The organ great’s dynamic new disc, “Reboot,” arrives on the 50th anniversary of his 1972 Blue Note debut, “Two Headed Freap,” which is also being reissued this year.
Also this week, singer Tierney Sutton returns with “Paris Sessions 2,” reuniting her with her husband, Parisian guitarist Serge Merlaud, and bassist Kevin Axt with special guest Hubert Laws on flute;
singer Lia Booth, who has shared the stage with Arturo Sandoval and Jeff Goldblum, makes her recorded debut with “Life Can Be Beautiful”;
and Taiwanese-American saxophonist Tim Lin unveils his debut release, “Romance in Formosa,” featuring Bob Sheppard, Billy Drummond, Jay Anderson and Andy Laverne in his quintet.
Jill Van Brussel is a costume designer and Theatre professor, currently teaching at Colorado Mesa University, whose cabaret show “Why Do I Own A Thong? (And Other Existential Questions),” examines her life (and all of our lives) through our clothing choices.
Jill is a longtime friend of long-time Eastern Iowa performers and producers Patrick Du Laney and Chris Okishii, and they picked her show to be the inaugural production in the first full season of their company, Crooked Path Productions.
August 12, 13, 14 at The James Theater in Iowa City. Tickets at www.thejamesic.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
