Special Programs for January 11 thru January 15

Short List with host Bob Naujoks

Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturdays at 7 AM

The Short List: “The Hits”

The Short List continues its look at jazz tunes that became popular hits. This week, host Bob Naujoks visits songs that scored high on the pop charts and have become party of Great American Songbook. Tune in to hear songs and stories from Al Hirt’s “Java,” Al Hibbler’s “Unchained Melody,” Ray Charles’s “Busted,” Ramsey Lewis’s “The ‘In’ Crowd,” and Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea.”

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with Host Craig Kessler 

Mondays at 6:00 PM

Gary Peacock with the Standards Trio

To celebrate more of the astonishing career of Gary Peacock, Craig will give us a delightful sampling of Jarrett’s trio with Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums (spanning 26 years, from 1983 to 2009). Don’t miss it!

 

 

 

The Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00 PM

Jazz in the Stacks: The Music of Pat Metheny

Join drummer Dennis McPartland and a hand-picked band of Eastern Iowa’s best musicians at the Cedar Rapids Public Library’s Whipple Auditorium for the 2016 Jazz In The Stacks. McPartland, along with Joe Perea, Ian Draves, Denny Redmond, Peter Hart, and Dan Towey present the Music of Pat Metheny. Narrated by KCCK’s Ron Adkins, it’s a full night of stories and songs from the Pat Metheny songbook.

 

 

 

Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride

Thursdays at 11:00 PM

Newport’s Legendary Early Years

Host Christian McBride takes us back in time to the early years of the Newport Jazz Festival. We’ll hear the history of how Rhode Island became a destination for great jazz. We also get to listen back to some legendary sets, hand-picked by McBride himself, from the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Clifford Brown with Max Roach, and Horace Silver.

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with Host Craig Kessler 

Saturdays at 12:00 Noon

Tribute to Stanley Cowell

Craig celebrates the wonderful career of one of his favorite figures in jazz – Stanley Cowell –  who has recently passed at the age of 79.  In this first of two shows, we’ll hear great records featuring Cowell as a side man … performances with Bobby Hutcherson, Sonny Fortune, Max Roach, Art Pepper, Gary Bartz, and many more. 

 

 

 

 

KCCK’s Midnight CD

Every Night at Midnight

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

Roots – Tales of the Urban Yoda by Joe Bowden on Monday; Bridges by Jesse Ryan on Tuesday; Talking Drums by Bobby Wiens on Wednesday; 49th Parallel by the Neil Swainson Quintet on Thursday; Mississippi Suitcase by Peter Parcek on Friday; Can’t Change It by The Mystix on Saturday; The Planets: Reimagined by the Jeremy Levy Jazz Orchestra on Sunday

 

 

Clean Up Your Act 1-19-21

There’s concern about the safety of drinking water in central Iowa.

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Talking Pictures 1-6-21

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) and Churchill and the Movie Mogul (2019) with Hollis Monroe, Phil Brown and Denny Lynch.

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KCCK’s Featured CD for January 2021

The KCCK Featured CD for January is “Cachai” from Anibal Rojas. The Chilean-born saxophonist and composer attended West High in Iowa City before studying at the University of Iowa. While in Eastern Iowa he worked in several bands including Mean Street and the Hell Horns, Funkfarm, Orquesta Alto Maiz and the Demolition Band. Now based in New York City, Ani tours with Blood Sweat and Tears and is a member of Ralph Irizarry’s Timbalaye. The new disc fuses the rhythm drive of Latin with the soul of R&B and the creative freedom of jazz. Purchase the CD.

Clean Up Your Act 1-27-21

Environmental groups are calling on MidAmerican Energy to shut down two Iowa coal-fired power plants.

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Special Programs for January 4 thru January 9

Short List with host Bob Naujoks

Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturdays at 7 AM

Short List: “The Hits”

The Short List continues its look at jazz tunes that became popular hits. This week, host Bob Naujoks visits songs that almost made it to Number One on the pop charts. Tune in for these “almost Number Ones:” Kenny Ball’s “Midnight in Moscow,” the Chris Barber Jazz Band’s “Petit Fleur,” Ray Charles’s “You Don’t Know Me,” Jimmy Dorsey’s “So Rare,” and Marvin Hamlisch’s “The Entertainer.”

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with Host Craig Kessler 

Mondays at 6:00 PM

6 More Who Have Left Us

Craig salutes six jazz artists who have recently passed on. We’ll spin tasty items and tell a few tales about pianists Richard Wyands, Mike Longo, and Ellis Marsalis … saxophonists Hal Singer and Lennie Niehaus … and trumpeter Eddie Gale. We’ll hear a variety of styles and genres devoted to saluting some very well-deserving jazz artists!  May they all rest in peace!

 

 

The Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00 PM

Orquesta Alto Maiz Heats It Up

Nothing warms up a winter’s night better than a little hot salsa. The Wednesday Night Special this week features the 2009 Iowa City Jazz Festival appearance of Orquesta Alto Maiz, aka the Salsa Band. This set is loaded with some serious spice and a whole lot of soul.   

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride

Thursdays at 11:00 PM

Jon Batiste & Talk Show Jazz

From Steve Allen to Stephen Colbert, jazz has had a profound influence on late night television. Host Christian McBride talks with pianist, composer, and arranger Jon Batiste about this influence on our nightly viewing, his role as Stephen Colbert’s music director, and how late night talk shows give jazz music a world-wide audience.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with Host Craig Kessler 

Saturdays at 12:00 Noon

Gary Peacock with the Standards Trio

To celebrate more of the astonishing career of Gary Peacock, Craig will give us a delightful sampling of Jarrett’s trio with Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums (spanning 26 years, from 1983 to 2009). Don’t miss it!

 

 

 

 

KCCK’s Midnight CD

Every Night at Midnight

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

Follow Up by the Eric Lilley Trio on Monday; The Royal Chase by Nation Beat on Tuesday; History Gets Ahead of the Story by Jeff Cosgrove on Wednesday; Very Well & Good by Richard Whiteman on Thursday; Wanderlust by Justin Howell on Friday; Stony Hill by G.E. Smith & Leroy Bell on Saturday; Sunset in the Blue by Melody Gardot on Sunday

 

New Music Monday for January 4, 2021

     Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Four-time Juno Award winner Neil Swainson was born and raised in the province of British Columbia, moving to his home base of Toronto in the late ‘70s. Over his career he’s recorded on albums with George Shearing, Jay McShann and Woody Shaw and performed with Diana Krall, Nancy Wilson, Mel Torme, James Moody, Lee Konitz and many others. Initially released in 1988, the bassist’s only album as a leader, “49th Parallel,” has now been made available again. It features a quintet with jazz legends Joe Henderson on tenor and trumpeter Woody Shaw, drummer Jerry Fuller and Gary Williamson on piano.

 

 

     Los Angeles-based composer/arranger/orchestrator Jeremy Levy has co-led the Budman/Levy Jazz Orchestra since 2007, played lead trombone for the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and has been involved in the upper reaches of the film, TV and video game music industry for well over a decade. Looking to create an ambitious project for his own jazz orchestra, Levy was inspired to adapt Gustav Holst’s symphonic masterpiece, “The Planets,” while attending a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 2017. The piece provided Levy with sweeping and dynamic materials to develop. In the hands of his elite colleagues from the L.A. studio and jazz scenes, Levy’s innovated arrangements are broad, bold and swinging.

 

 

                       

Also this week, veteran Toronto-based drummer Joe Bowden mixes in a little funk with the jazz on “Roots—Tales of the Urban Yoda”; 

 

 

 

 

                

“Bridges” is the long anticipated debut recording from saxophonist and composer Jesse Ryan, an eclectic offering that straddle both jazz and Afro-Caribbean traditions;

 

 

 

 

         

     and drummer Bobby Wiens also offers up his first recording as a leader, “Talking Drums.”

 

 

 

This Week In Jazz January 3 thru January 9


Hey, Jazz fans!!! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of brassmen Wild Bill Davis, Dizzy Reece, Don Sickler and Vernon Brown, reedmen Frank Wess and Kenny Davern, drummers Sam Woodyard and Kenny Clarke and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of “The Return of Art Pepper” (1957), The Curtis Counce Group’s “Sonority” (1958), Jackie McLean’s “Bluesnik” (1961), Kenny Burrell’s “Midnight Blue” (1963), Arturo Sandoval’s “Swingin'” (1996), Jimmy Cobb’s Mob’s “Cobb’s Groove” (2003) and many others throughout the week and Mondays thru Fridays at noon on our ‘ MASTERS’ program on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.