Hey, Jazz fans, tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of singer/pianist Jimmy Rushing, reedman Buster Smith, composer Leonard Bernstein, saxophonist Lester Young, bassist Leonard Gaskin and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of “The Mundell Lowe Quartet” (1955), “The Gerry Mulligan Quartets in Concert” (1957), Cannonball Adderley Quintet’s “Cannonball in Japan” (1966), “Buddy Tate Meets Dollar Brand” (1971), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen Trio’s “Friends Forever” (1995) and many others Mondays thru Fridays at noon on JAZZ MASTERS ‘program on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.
Host Craig Kessler continues his chronological look at Chick Corea’s stellar career. This episode begins with material from late 1984 and goes well into the 1990s. We’ll hear a bit more ECM material, as well as from Chick’s Elektric Band and his Akoustic Band, absolutely top-notch masterful jazz from the GRP and Stretch labels.
The Wednesday Night Special
Wednesdays at 6:00 PM
Christian McBride at Kirkwood
Bassist Christian McBride is one of the major talents in jazz today, and remains one of its most vocal cheerleaders. By 2007, he already had 7 recordings as a leader, and nearly 200 as a sideman. The multiple Grammy winner joined the Kirkwood Jazz Ensemble on stage that year for a great night of jazz and swing.
Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride
Thursdays at 11:00 PM
Courageous Billy Lester
Host Christian McBride introduces us to a marvelous pianist, “hidden in plain sight outside Manhattan.” We get to listen in on one of Billy Lester’s gigs, and McBride sits down and talks with Lester about what the courage it takes to follow your passion in the arts.
Jazz Corner of the World
Saturdays at 12:00 Noon
Charlie Parker Live
Last year, through the entire month of August, host Craig Kessler celebrated the centennial anniversary of the genius of modern jazz, Charlie Parker, all month long with studio recordings from each of Bird’s main record labels – Savoy, Dial, Clef (Verve), and others, culminating with his 100th birthday party on August 29. This year, Craig’s annual celebration of Bird’s birth will spotlight some excellent live recordings. Don’t miss the party!
KCCK’s Midnight CD
Every Night at Midnight
Each night, KCCK gives you the chance to hear a new CD played start-to-finish.
Faster Friends by Wayne Coniglio & Scott Whitfield on Monday;Numero Uno by the Andre Ferreri Quintetto on Tuesday;Color in Motion by Art Hirahara on Wednesday; Jobim Forever by Antonio Adolfo on Thursday; Heavy Shoes by the Cold Stares on Friday; Pure by Robben Ford on Saturday; Sophisticated Lady by Hilary Kole on Sunday
KCCK’s Jazz Under The Stars 2021 wraps up on August 26 with the Iowa Women’s Jazz Orchestra. This all-female big band is the only one in the state. Directors Toni Lefebvre and Kelli Swehla say the band was formed to give women opportunities to perform and arrange, and also to spotlight female jazz composers, who have generally been given short shrift over the years.
The band also exists to provide role models for young women just starting to play, so they can see themselves continue to study and perform jazz.
Thursday, August 26 at 7pm in Noelridge Park, Cedar Rapids. Concert details at www.kcck.org. Learn more about the band at www.iowajazzwomen.com.
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify “Songs from My Father” is the much-anticipated new album from renowned musical polymath Gerry Gibbs. On his thirteenth release as a leader, the drummer and bandleader presents a double-disc masterwork featuring four iterations of his acclaimed Thrasher Dream Trio. Gibbs and his band of jazz titans pay homage to the musical legacy of Gerry’s 96-year-old father, Terry Gibbs, one of the last living architects of bebop and innovators of the vibraphone. Gerry arranged 18 tunes from his father’s vast discography and went on a nationwide trek to capture recordings alongside a long list of his friends and collaborators like Ron Carter, Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, Patrice Rushen, Larry Goldings, Geoff Keezer and Christian McBride. Also included is the last recorded performance of Chick Corea.
For five years in the mid-1980s, the 1369 Club in Cambridge, MA, was a thriving, vibrant and colorful home to a diverse clientele of both jazz “newbies” and the cognoscenti. The roster of performers was equally diverse, made up of top local and national jazz artists. For three nights in 1985, the awe-inspiring triumvirate of guitarist and Miles Davis alumnus Mike Stern, bassist Harvie S and Boston-based drummer Alan Dawson held court, delivering performances of great intensity, virtuosity and unforgettable excitement. A compilation of some of those performances are available now for the first time on “Going for It.”
Also this week, pianist Bobby West, a mainstay on L.A.’s jazz scene since the ‘70s, pays tribute to the vibrant cultural and artistic heart of Los Angeles’ African-American community on his debut “Leimert Park After Dark”;
Billy Test, a Pennsylvania native who currently holds the piano chair in the Grammy Award-winning WDR Big Band of Koln, Germany, makes his debut as a leader with the new trio disc, “Coming Down Roses”;
and guitarist Leni Stern again fronts her cross-cultural New York quartet on “Dance,” colored with a blend of international rhythms, richly harmonized vocals and Stern’s jazzy six-string lyricism.
Vocalist Lynne Rothrock hosts the first public event since March 2020 in the Opus Concert Cafe, when she debuts a brand new show, “American Songbook” Aug. 20 and 21.
The program will run the gamut, with standards from Gershwin and Cole Porter, but also more recent classics from Carole King, Jimmy Webb, and Iowa native Susan Werner.
Jazz Corner of the World Encore 
Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride
Listen to this week’s playlist on 
