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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.”

Clean Up Your Act 11-14-22

A new report from the Environmental Defense Fund predicts how climate change will affect Midwest crop yields in the decades ahead.

Podcast (cuya): Play in new window | Download

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Talking Pictures 10-26-22

Fall (2022) and Bad Therapy (2020, Hulu) with Hollis Monroe, Phil Brown and Scott Chrisman.

Podcast (talkingpics): Play in new window | Download

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Another (Two) Bite The Dust

Key of G

Dennis Green

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Sometimes (usually around pledge drive times), we’ll talk about the fact that music has become something of a scarce commodity at the public radio end of the dial, and jazz music in particular. By one count, there are only fifteen full-time jazz stations in the country. And now there are even fewer.

Last week, we learned that WUSF in the Tampa Bay area, is killing its evening jazz programming. This came on the heels of the announcement a few weeks ago that KNTU in Denton, Texas, announced it was moving away from its (mostly) all-jazz format. What makes this last even more alarming is that Denton is the home of North Texas State University, one of the top college jazz programs in the world. If North Texas State can’t keep its jazz station going, who can?

Well, us.

Surprisingly to many, our little corner of Eastern Iowa continues to mine a sustainable vein of support for over-the-air, community-driven jazz radio. Here at KCCK, we’re grateful to everyone who donates during fund drives, attends our events, comes to our education programs, and just in general, helps keep this station relevant in a crowded musical landscape.

On behalf of everyone who loves jazz, thank you and a big cheer to all to all of us for beating the odds!

This Week In Jazz October 23 thru October 29th

Hey, Jazz fans, be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of bassists Wendell Marshall and Richard Bona, singers Cleo Laine, Andy Bey and Milton Nascimento, pianist Jacques Loussier, trumpeter Eddie Jefferson and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of Miles Davis’ “‘Round About Midnight” (1955), Horace Silver’s “Song For My Father” (1964), Chick Corea & Gary Burton “In Concert” (1979), Bobby Shew/Chuck Findley’s “Trumpets No End” (1983), Terence Blanchard’s “The Billie Holiday Songbook” (1993), Ernest Dawkins’ “Afro Straight” (2010) and many others, Mondays thru Fridays at noon on JAZZ MASTERS on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.

This Week’s Shows October 24 thru October 30

Jazz Corner of the World Encore

Mondays from 6:00pm to 10:00pm

Milestone Records, Part 5

Tune in as Craig Kessler spins Joe Henderson music that can change your life. Craig spotlights the master reedman’s 12-plus records of astonishing jazz that Henderson made for Orrin Keepnews’s Milestone label.

The Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00 PM

Iowa Women’s Jazz Orchestra at Jazz Under the Stars

Headlining our third night of 2022’s Jazz Under the Stars were the Iowa Women’s Jazz Orchestra, whose roster includes some of the best female musicians in the state. Warming up the crowd was young artist ensemble the 5K Quintet.

Jazz Night in America

Thursday at 11:00 PM

Walk with the Wind

Host Christian McBride takes us to Central Park for the Walk with the Wind concert series. We’ll hear music from this “impromptu jazz festival.”

Jazz Corner of the World

Saturdays at 12:00 Noon

The Compositions of Carla Bley, Part 2

Host Craig Kessler spins a fresh mix of Carla Bley charts. We’ll hear Carla’s recordings of her own remarkable material, as well as interpretations from other artists.

KCCK’s Midnight CD

Every Night at Midnight

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

Unfinished Business by Mike Clement on Monday; Dedication by the Bruce Barth Trio on Tuesday; Sufficient Grace by Gregory Tardy on Wednesday; Back Home in Kansas City by Bobby Watson on Thursday; Midnight Blues by Crystal Shawanda on Friday; Burn It All Down by Lauren Anderson on Saturday; Americana Vol. 2 by JD Allen on Sunday

New Music Monday for October 24th, 2022

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
While Kurt Vonnegut undoubtedly found his true calling as an author, he once speculated about another potential career. “What I would really like to have been, given a perfect world, is a jazz pianist.” On the occasion of the great satirist’s 100^th birthday, the pianist and composer Jason Yeager releases “Unstuck in Time,” a new suite of music inspired by Vonnegut’s writings. Yeager presents eleven new compositions vibrantly capturing the wit and skewed vision of one of the 20^th century’s most inventive and celebrated novelists, and one-time teacher at the Iowa Writers Workshop.

“Joy” is the latest record from Juno-winning drummer and composer Ernesto Cervini. Inspired by Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series of books and the qualities of goodness, decency, courage and love that permeate them, Cervini was moved to compose music that captures the characters, landscapes and relationships created by Penny. The album showcases Canada’s finest musicians from Ernesto’s various groups and is the first of his albums to feature vocalists.