Special Programs for May 30 thru June 5

The 2021 Iowa City Jazz Festival  

Memorial Day

Tune in all day as KCCK whets your appetite for great live jazz! Our rebroadcast of the 2021 Iowa City Jazz Festival includes hot mainstage sets from Immanuel Wilkins, Giveton Gelin, Jennifer Wharton’s Bonegasm, and headliner Cory Wong. Plus, great side stage acts Bad News, Jim Buennig, Wave Cage, and the Peterson-Thaker Band.

 

 

 

 

The Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00 PM

Jane Bunnett at the IC Jazz Fest

As we get set for the 2022 Iowa City Jazz Festival on  the July 4th weekend, we thought we’d listen back to some of our favorite acts from past Fests. Jane Bunnett & Maqueque brought their high energy exploration of world rhythms to a Festival crowd that was up and dancing the entire set.

 

 

 

 


Jazz Night in America

Thursday at 11:00 PM

Cory Wong at Newport

The summer season of great jazz festivals is getting close, and host Christian McBride takes us to hear guitarist Cory Wong at Newport. Cory Wong (who, by the way, headlined last year’s Iowa City Jazz Festival) always hits the stage for a power set of jazz, funk, and groove.

 

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World

Saturdays at 12:00 Noon

Early Works of Oregon  

Host Craig Kessler takes a chronological look at this stylish and sophisticated group founded in 1970 by Paul McCandless, Ralph Towner, Collin Walcott, and Glen Moore. In this first of several shows, we’ll hear choice works of art (both studio and live recordings) from their earliest days, to works from the mid-1970s.

 

 

 

 

KCCK’s Midnight CD

Every Night at Midnight

Each night, KCCK gives you the chance to hear a new CD played start-to-finish.

Everybody Say Yeah! by George Freeman oMonday; The Artist by John Lee on Tuesday; Magnolia Strut by Tuba Skinny on Wednesday; The Message by Doug Webb on Thursday; I’ll Worry If I Wanna by Michael Rubin on Friday; Jumpin’ the Broom by Markey Blue/Ric Latina Project on Saturday; Nothing Standard by Jesse Palter on Sunday

New Music Monday for May 30, 2022

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify      
It was in 2017 that the trio known as 3 More Sounds was formed, a co-op group with former Gene Harris & Three Sounds bassist Henry “Skipper” Franklin and drummer Carl Burnett, along with pianist Robert Turner. With Franklin’s three years with Harris and Burnett’s ten years, they fondly remember how great it was playing with the legendary pianist. The goal of the new ensemble was to “make people happy and to have them tap their foot like Gene did, and to preserve Gene’s style of playing.” The spirit of Gene Harris shines through on their new session celebrating the music another jazz icon, “3 More Sounds Play Ray Charles.”

 

 

 

 

      Caesar Frazier has been appropriately called a renaissance man, one of the last keyboardists of the golden era of what has been called the greatest time for jazz/blues organ. A time when the hard grooves of the organ triumphed as the premier crowd-pleasing instrument all over the world. Frazer has chosen to remain true to this tradition on a new collection of songs that reach back to those days. Recorded at Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey, “Tenacity” also features guitarist Peter Bernstein, sax great Eric Alexander, and drummer Vincent Ector.

 

 

 

 

 

                         

Also this week, celebrated pianist and bandleader Joey Alexander unveils his first release of all original music with “Origin”;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   

Brooklyn-based saxophonist and composer Aaron Bazell conveys the beauty and the struggle of the human experience on his debut, “Aesthetic”;

 

 

 

 

 

     

      and Chris Hajian, who has worked as a film composer over the last twenty five years, explores his jazz roots and film aesthetic on “My City, My Story,” highlighted by the work of Chris Potter, John Patitucci, Joe Locke, Eric Harland and other notables.

 

 

 

 

 

Culture Crawl 719 “Dropping in a Little Thelonious Monk”

The Iowa Arts Festival returns to downtown Iowa City June 3-5. More than 90 artists, including students in the Emerging Artists Center, and musical headliners including Asleep At The Wheel, and self-proclaimed Chicago Blues Kitten, Ivy Ford.

Free admission. Full schedule at www.summerofthearts.org.

Clean Up Your Act 6-15-22

From nuclear to solar.  Converting a retired nuclear power plant to a solar farm.

Talking Pictures 5-25-22

Men (2022) and Multiverse (Hulu) with Hollis Monroe, Phil Brown and Scott Chrisman.

 

Culture Crawl 718 “He Sucks Up To God”

The play “God Help Us” was originally written as a vehicle for Ed Asner, but the legendary actor passed away before he could bring the show to Cedar Rapids’ Rich Heritage Theatre. Stepping in is Gregory Harrison, of TV’s “Trapper John, M.D.” and “General Hospital,” who was a close friend of Asner’s.

The play takes the form of a debate, acerbically moderated by God, between political pundits from opposite ends of the political spectrum, who are also ex-romantic partners. Their job? Convince God not to flush the human race and start over.

Jun 3-5 in the Fine Arts Center at Kennedy High School. Tickets at www.rhcrtheatre.com.

Special Programs for May 23 thru May 29

Jazz Corner of the World

Saturdays at 12:00 Noon

Third Stream Jazz, Part 2  

Host Craig Kessler plays more wonderful examples of “Third Stream Jazz” (music that combines characteristics of improvised jazz, and European classical music).  In this second of three shows, you’ll love the offerings from Ornette Coleman, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, Don Ellis, Gary Burton, Joe Lovano, Eberhard Weber, and a host of others. 

 

 

 

 

The Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00 PM

George Jazz Group at Opus

Drummer Nick George’s first true jazz love is the Great American Songbook. He and his band played a beautiful set of timeless jazz standards at the Opus Concert Café for First Friday Jazz.

 

 

 

 


Jazz Night in America

Thursday at 11:00 PM

The Curious Linda May Han Oh

Linda May Han Oh is a musician rooted in curiosity. Host Christian McBride relates the story of the bassist and composer, from her roots in Australia to her growth in New York City. Also featured is music from her latest project, Aventurine – a third stream musical exploration with strings.

 

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World

Saturdays at 12:00 Noon

Miles Davis In Transition  

Tune in for some amazing, underrated, and sometimes overlooked American jazz, as host Craig Kessler spins the dazzling music made between 1959 and 1964 by some of Miles Davis’s “other” sax greats. We’ll hear from Hank Mobley, George Coleman, Sam Rivers, Sonny Stitt, Wayne Shorter, 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.

Seresta by Phill Fest oMonday; Bam! by the Daniel Glass Trio on Tuesday; StandArt by Tigran Hamasyan on Wednesday; Stardust by the Alberto Pibiri Trio on Thursday; Mississippi Son by Charlie Musselwhite on Friday; Nightwalk by Dave Weld & the Imperial Blue Flames on Saturday; Late Bloomin’ Jazzman by Mark Winkler on Sunday

This Week In Jazz May 22 thru May 28


Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of bandleader Artie Shaw, reedmen Bud Shank and Arche Shepp, pianists Ramsey Lewis and Richie Beirach, singers Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee and Dee Dee Bridgewater and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of Sonny Rollins’ “Tenor Madness” (1956), Dexter Gordon’s “Our Man in Paris” (1963), Cal Tjader’s “The Grace Cathedral Concert” (1976), Maynard Ferguson “Live from San Francisco” (1983) and many others, Mondays thru Fridays at noon on JAZZ MASTERS‘ on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.