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2023 Corridor Jazz Art Winner!

KENNEDY STUDENT WINS CORRIDOR JAZZ ART CONTEST

McKenzie Hitzel, a junior at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, has been chosen as the winner of the 2023 Corridor Jazz Project Art design. She will receive a $100 cash prize from KCCK-FM.

Her design will serve as the cover of the “The Corridor Jazz Project XVI”, a compilation of recordings from the top jazz bands from Jefferson, Kennedy, Prairie, Xavier and Washington High Schools in Cedar Rapids, Linn-Mar and Marion in Marion; City High and West High in Iowa City, Anamosa, Center Point-Urbana, Clear
Creek-Amana, Liberty, Lisbon, Mid-Prairie, Solon, and West Branch.

Receiving Honorable Mention in the contest were these students:

Kassy Conway, North Linn
Meg Düster, Solon
Wyatt Hyde, Mt. Vernon
Chloe Flender, CR Kennedy
Kayleigh Jordon, Mt. Vernon
Kaci Miller, CR Kennedy
Kylie Pyatt, Mt. Vernon (2 entries)
Cora Smith, Mt. Vernson

McKenzie’s original piece and those receiving Honorable Mention will all be exhibited during the Corridor Jazz Project concert, March 7 at the Paramount Theatre.

The Corridor Jazz Project is a jazz education and mentoring program for jazz band students in Eastern Iowa. The program matches each high school’s top jazz band with a professional jazz player, who performs as a guest soloist with the band. The subsequent recordings have been collected and will be released as a downloadable album and/or CD.

Support for the Corridor Jazz Project comes from MidWestOne Bank, Orchestra Iowa, Hills Bank, Orchestra Iowa, and West Music.

Jazz 88.3 KCCK is the public radio station operated as a part of the community outreach of Kirkwood Community College.

Culture Crawl 782 “Shoulder Pads – How Big?”

It’s Opera Week on the Culture Crawl, as we talk to the casts of two different Cedar Rapids Opera productions happening in the coming days.

First up, the MainStage production of Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte,” a famous comedy of love and mistaken identity, but this show has a twist – it takes place on the set of an 80s soap opera, complete with big hair, puffy shirts, and lots of mugging to the “camera.”

There is even a red carpet premiere with paparazzi, hosted by KCCK’s Dennis Green.

Jan. 20 and 22 at the Paramount Theatre. Tickets and info at www.cropera.org.

Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at www.kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast player. Listen Live at 10:30am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or www.kcck.org/listen.

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Talking Pictures 1-4-23

Phil Brown, Scott Chrisman and Monica Schmidt rank their Top 5 best movies of 2022…and list a few stinkers as well. With host Hollis Monroe.

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KCCK’s Featured Album for January 2023

The KCCK Featured Album for January is “On a Clear Day” from the Oscar Peterson Trio. In 1971, the ensemble was in transition. It was the beginning of a long musical partnership and close personal friendship between Oscar and bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, and the continuation of his years working with drummer Louis Hayes, which had begun in 1965. As heard in a never-before-released live recording from Zurich, Switzerland, the group melds their individual gifts into one glorious outpouring of musical expression. “On a Clear Day” is on Mack Avenue Records. Purchase.

Kirkwood Board of Trustees to meet January 12, 2023

The regular meeting of the Kirkwood Board of Trustees will take place January 12, 2023. Time, place, and meeting agenda can be found at this link.

This Week’s Shows January 2 thru January 8

Jazz Corner of the World (January 2)

Mondays from 6:00pm to 10:00pm

The Percussion Artistry of Billy Cobham

Billy Cobham is still going strong, providing inspiration for jazz artists around the world. Host Craig Kessler plays selections from some of Cobham’s 40-plus releases as leader, as well as selections from his 100-plus appearances as a side man (with Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Larry Coryell, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver, and many others).

The Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00 PM

The Airmen of Note with Steve Turre & Cyrus Chestnut

The United States Air Force Band, the “Airmen of Note,” celebrate the New Year with more great swing and jazz standards. They welcome to the stage trombonist Steve Turre and pianist Cyrus Chestnut.

Jazz Night in America

Thursday at 11:00 PM

Remembering Joey DeFrancesco

One of the great organ virtuosos of our time left us in 2022. Known for his blurring speed and stomping swing, Joey DeFrancesco was a perennial favorite among jazz fans around the world. Host Christian McBride grew up with the late organist in Philadelphia. In this “In Memoriam” episode, he pays tribute to his childhood friend and revisits a 2019 conversation they had in the City of Brotherly Love.

Jazz Corner of the World

Saturdays from 12 noon to 4:00pm

Tribute to Sam Salomone

Host Craig Kessler celebrates the life and memory of recently departed Sam Salomone by spinning a number of selections that Sam was always interested in, as well as a number of Sam’s true favorites. We’ll hear from Larry Young, Don Patterson, Jimmy Smith, and others.

KCCK’s Midnight CD

Every Night at Midnight

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

Nikki By Starlight by Nikki Yanofsky on Monday; Live at the Sandler Center by the Jae Sinnett Zero to 60 Quartet on Tuesday; The Ostara Project by the Ostara Project on Wednesday; On a Clear Day: Live in Zurich, 1971 by Oscar Peterson on Thursday; Take My Rider by Douglas Avery on Friday; It’s Just a Dream by B.D. Lenz on Saturday; Staying In Touch by Sinne Eeg & Thomas Fonnesbaek on Sunday

This Week In Jazz January 1 thru January 7

Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of cornetist Wild Bill Davison, guitarist/singer Slim Galliard, reedman Frank Wess, trombonists Vernon Brown and Trombone Shorty and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of Count Baise’s “Hall of Fame” (1956), Chico Hamilton’s “Chico Chico Chico” (1965), The Montgomery Brothers’ “Groove Yard” (1961), Woody Shaw’s “Lotus Flower” (1982), Chick Corea and Origin “Live at the Blue Note” (1998) and many others Mondays thru Friday at noon on JAZZ MASTERS on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.

New Music Monday for January 2, 2023

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
The chromatic harmonica is an instrument still finding its footing in the world of modern jazz music. Yvonnick Prene’s mission is to put it in its rightful place in the pantheon of instruments used to improvise. He’s placed the harmonica in many musical settings, including an organ trio and a duo with guitar. For his new release, “Listen!,” Prene chose a dream ensemble with saxophonist Dana Stephens, drummer Bill Stewart, pianist Kevin Hays, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, and his friend Clovis Nicolas on bass.

Recorded in the historic ambience of the Village Vanguard in New York, “The Extra Something” is not just another release by a prolific artist. Working with a first-class band of New York-based musicians, Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi combines core jazz values with a sense of structure and order that comes from classical music, but all of it animated by a strong sense of freedom. Pieranunzi has risen to the ranks of the most significant contemporary musicians, a name to be placed alongside some of the greatest we have seen and heard. He’s joined by saxophonist Seamus Blake, trumpeter Diego Urcola, bassist Ben Street and drummer Adam Cruz.

Also this week, “Fun House” is guitarist David Blake’s thrilling quintet effort featuring some of Vancouver’s finest musicians;

Montreal-based pianist and composer Kate Wyatt is in a quartet setting for her debut album, “Artifact”;

and the Ron Kraemer Trio of Sarasota, Florida, is joined by a couple of Nashville cats in delivering a greasy, throwback soul-jazz set, “Sarasota Swing.”