
Hey, Jazz fans!!! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of pianists Eubie Blake and Sir Roland Hanna, bassist Walter Page, singer Roberta Flack, vibist Ben Gillece and more!!! We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of John Lewis’ “Grand Encounter” (1956), John Coltrane and Red Garland’s “Soultrane” (1957), Art Blakey’s “Free for All” (1964), Shirley Horn’s “Travelin’ Light” (1965), Ray Brown Trio’s “Black Orpheus” (1991), Barbara Morrison’s “I Wanna Be Loved” (2017) and many more throughout the week and Mondays thru Fridays at noon on our ‘ MASTERS’ program on Jazz 88.3 KCCK
This Week In Jazz February 7 thru February 13
Special Programs for February 8 thru February 13
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 listen to great jazz tunes in the popular mind. Join host Bob Naujoks as he spotlights jazz tunes that crossed the boundaries of jazz and other genres. This week, it’s Etta James’s “At Last,” Tommy Dorsey’s “Tea For Two Cha-Cha,” Si Zentner’s “Up a Lazy River,” “Street Life,” made popular by the Crusaders and Randy Crawford, and “Dire Straits’s “Sultans of Swing.”
Jazz Corner of the World with Host Craig Kessler
Mondays at 6:00 PM
4 More Who Recently Left Us
In this show, Craig pays tribute to four more jazz artists who have moved on to that “big stage” in the afterworld – Candido Camero Guerra (aka Candido), pianist Frank Kimbrough, baritone sax and tubist Howard Lewis Johnson, and Junior Mance. Each of these artists were, in their unique ways, pioneers in jazz and they left behind a treasure in their recorded legacies.
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The Wednesday Night Special
Wednesdays at 6:00 PM
Don Byron Music For Six Musicians
All month long, our Wednesday Night Specials celebrate African-Americans who raise jazz to the level of high art. This week, we listen back to the 2003 Iowa City Jazz Festival for Don Byron’s Music For Six Musicians. Byron, a celebrated, innovative composer, performer, and jazz educator, never stops reinventing jazz. His experiments with tone, tempo, and ensembles break new ground and inspire legions of fans.
Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride
Thursdays at 11:00 PM
Channeling Cannonball
This week, we’re introduced to young saxophonist Patrick Bartley, whose love of Julian “Cannonball” Adderley’s music and musicianship is defining his career. Plus, host Christian McBride tells stories from the recording of Cannonball’s classic live album, “Black Messiah.”
Jazz Corner of the World with Host Craig Kessler
Saturdays at 12:00 Noon
Jazz & the Spoken Word, Part One
Craig will spin a variety of spoken forms in a jazz context. We’ll hear poet Barry Wallenstein with pianist Stanley Cowell, a story told by Duke Ellington, poetry by Jack Kerouac with saxophonist Zoot Sims, Barbara Simmons speaking in front of Jackie McLean’s Sextet, poet Ted Joans with the Archie Shepp Quintet, a Gunther Schuller narration in front of his orchestra, some work by Charles Mingus, and a variety of other goodies and rarities. 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.
Cartoon Bebop by the 14 Jazz Orchestra on Monday; Been Down That Road Before by Clifton Anderson on Tuesday; The VJE: Very Live! by the Verve Jazz Ensemble on Wednesday; Baker’s Circle by Dave Stryker on Thursday; What Is Real by Trevor B. Power on Friday; One More Mile by Dave Thomas on Saturday; Spirit Garden by Tivon Pennicott on Sunday
New Music Monday for February 8, 2021
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Celebrating a half-century of life and a quarter century of trailblazing music, Venezuelan-born turned San Francisco Bay Area-based pianist, composer, educator and bandleader Edward Simon releases a two-disc career retrospective, “25 Years.” Brimming with arrestingly beautiful music drawn from 13 albums spanning 1995-2018, the disc features a brilliant cadre of Simon’s closest collaborators including tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, altoist David Binney, bassists Scott Colley, John Patitucci and Ben Street and drummers Brian Blade and Adam Cruz.
Leon Lee Dorsey’s new release, “Thank You, Mr. Mabern!” is a posthumous release featuring and in honor of jazz luminary Harold Mabern. The album echoes the sentiments of jazz fans everywhere in appreciation for Mabern’s prolific 60 years. The Memphis-born pianist was characterized musically by an authentic soul-infused jazz and deep blues swing. This, coupled with a profound command of the Great American Songbook, amassed the admiration of generations of musicians, including bassist-producer Leon Lee Dorsey.
Also this week, guitarist and composer Henry Robinett and his quartet release “Jazz Standards, Volume 2: Then Again,” a previously unreleased set from 2000;
clarinetist Joe Traina releases his fifth recording as a leader, “Tip of the Hat,” which pays tribute to Artie Shaw, Bennie Goodman, Duke Ellington and Chet Baker;

and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet with Wynton Marsalis unveils “The Democracy Suite.”
Clean Up Your Act 2-24-21
Iowa and Illinois are seeing increased interest in cover crops.
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Talking Pictures 2-3-21
Raised by Wolves (HBO Max) and The Leftovers (HBO) with Hollis Monroe, Phil Brown and Scott Chrisman.
Podcast (talkingpics): Play in new window | Download
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Clean Up Your Act 2-23-21
The Doomsday Clock remains close to midnight due in part to climate change.
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Kirkwood Board of Trustees to meet February 11, 2021
The regular meeting of the Kirkwood Board of Trustees will take place February 11, 2021. Time, place, and meeting agenda can be found at this link.
KCCK’s Featured Album for February 2021
The KCCK Featured Album for February is “Bud Powell in the 21st Century” by Ethan Iverson. Of the half dozen true pioneers of the bebop movement, pianist Bud Powell has remained somewhat in the shadows. His brilliant original compositions are essential, infinitely listenable but also strangely tricky. Pianist and historian Iverson provides a fantastic validation of Powell’s compositional genius on his new recording, a reworking of a number of Powell’s pieces. He has stylishly recreated the legend’s works for a grand big band to perform on a festival stage in Italy. “Bud Powell in the 21st Century” is on Sunnyside Records. Purchase the album.