The Corridor Quintet – comprised of students from City High, West High, Cedar Falls, and Cedar Rapids Washington – will perform at First Friday Jazz at the Opus Concert Cafe Friday, February 7, at 5 p.m. The first set will be broadcast live on KCCK. The First Friday Jazz Series features an eclectic mix of jazz, Latin, contemporary music and more in an intimate, upscale environment. For a $12 cover, enjoy live music and drink specials at the Opus Concert Café bar the first Friday of every month. Purchase tickets .
First Friday Jazz February 7
Talking Pictures 1-22-20
1917, Uncut Gems, Underwater with Hollis Monroe, Phil Brown and Monica Schmidt.
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Xavier Junior Wins Corridor Jazz Art Contest
Allison Talyat, a junior at Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids, has been chosen as the winner of the 2019 Corridor Jazz Project CD Cover design. Allison will receive a $100 cash prize from KCCK-FM.
Her design will serve as the cover of the “The Corridor Jazz Project XIII”, 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, Liberty, Center Point Urbana, Solon, Mt. Vernon, and Lisbon.
Receiving Honorable Mention in the contest were eight other students:
Megan Bennett, CR Washington
Katy Hawkins, Marion
Andrew Galimowski, Marion
Lydia Johnston, Marion
Shelby LaMere, Marion
Katelyn Putz, Marion
Carl Steinlase, Marion
Dangelo Washpun, Marion
Allison’s original piece, and those receiving Honorable Mention will all be exhibited during the Corridor Jazz Project concert, March 10 at the Solon Center for Fine Arts.
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 on a compilation CD.
Support for the Corridor Jazz Project comes from MidWestOne Bank, Latta Harris, Orchestra Iowa, and West Music.
Special Programs for January 20 thru January 25
Short List with host Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturdays at 7 AM
Bob’s Baker’s Dozen: Sauter-Finegan Orchestra
An obscure big band from the 1950s. The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra had a nice five-year run with a dozen albums. Their Orchestra flirted with novelty effects, near modern classical compositions, and offered little improvisation. They hit the charts with “Doodletown Fifers,” and “The Moon Is Blue.”
Jazz Corner of the World with Host Craig Kessler
Mondays at 6:00 PM
Prestige Records in 1970, Part One
In this first of a 2-part set of shows, Craig presents selections from the first half of 1970. We’ll hear from great jazz artists like Harold Mabern, Gene Ammons, Houston Person, Pat Martino, Dexter Gordon, and others. Looking back 50 years, Prestige Records was still totally in the groove.
The Wednesday Night Special
Wednesdays at 6:00 PM
Ritmocano at ICJF 2015
With the recent release of their latest album, Iowa Friends, Cuban Music, now is a great time to revisit Ritmocano’s standout performance at the Iowa City Jazz Festival. Led by master percussionist James Dreier, this hot Latin music ensemble features a who’s who of Eastern Iowa talent.
Jazz Night In America with Host Christian McBride
Thursdays at 11:00 PM
The Two Hemispheres of Mark Guiliana
Explore two sides of drummer Mark Guiliana’s creative brain featuring two different bands from two sides of the globe. The Mark Guiliana Jazz Quartet, his acclaimed acoustic ensemble, performs a lightning-rod set at the world famous Bimhuis in Amsterdam, followed by the premiere of the composer’s new look electric Beat Music project, captured at Rough Trade in Brooklyn.
Jazz Corner of the World with Host Craig Kessler
Saturdays at 12:00 Noon
John Coltrane in 1960
Craig travels back 60 years to look in on the recorded output of saxophonist John Coltrane in 1960. We’ll hear live material that features Coltrane in Miles’ band, as well as more studio material from Atlantic Records and Roulette Records.
KCCK’s Midnight CD
Every Night at Midnight
Each night, KCCK gives you the chance to hear a new CD played start-to-finish. Tune in at Midnight for:
Live In New York by Kurt Elling & James Morrison on Monday; Crazy Time by Shuffle Demons on Tuesday; Beast From The East by Wild Card on Wednesday; Sunrise Over Molokai by the Bill Cunliffe Trio on Thursday; Wayback Machine by Mark Hummel on Friday; Every Day of Your Life by Jimmy Johnson on Saturday; Brazilian Whispers by Andrea Brachfeld on Sunday.
This Week In Jazz January 19 thru January 25
Tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of trombonists Juan Tizol and J.J. Johnson, drummers Jimmy Cobb and Jeff “Tain” Watts, singer Etta James and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of Miles Davis’ “Birth of the Cool” (1949), “Clifford Brown with strings” (1955), Lee Morgan Quintet’s “Take Twelve” (1962) and many others through and out the week and Mondays thru Fridays at noon on our ‘JAZZ MASTERS’ program on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.
Culture Crawl 539 “It’s About Rights… They Didn’t Have Any”
Jessica Link of Cedar Rapids and Curtis Jackson of Chicago portray women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony and abolitionist Frederick Douglass in “The Agitators,” Jan. 24 – Feb. 16 at Riverside Theatre.
It’s an Iowa premiere of a play that tells the true story of the 40-year tempestuous friendship between these two icons of the fight for equal rights. In addition to the performances, there will be special talkbacks after the Sunday shows which will include playwright Mat Smart, as well as local scholars from the University of Iowa, African-American Museum of Iowa, and the League of Women Voters.
More information and tickets available at www.riversidetheatre.org.
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New Music Monday for January 20, 2020
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
For the better part of a decade, acclaimed trombonist, producer and composer Delfeayo Marsalis has spent most Wednesday nights at the helm of his dynamic Uptown Jazz Orchestra’s residency at Snug Harbor in New Orleans. With “Jazz Party,” Marsalis’ seventh studio album as a leader, he delivers an original compositions-heavy set of music that showcases the same exuberant energy of those shows, complete with modernized twists on New Orleans songbook gems, and swinging, groove-infused homages to the contributions of modern jazz masters. “Jazz, the indigenous American music, is a music of celebration and optimism,” he explains. “The Uptown Jazz Orchestra is such a fun band that I wanted to capture its uniqueness…really capture the joy that is a central trademark of the band.”
After a long and storied career, saxophonist Brian Scanlon is releasing his debut CD, “Brain Scan.” Scanlon is a first-call studio musician who has worked on dozens of movies and television shows over the past 32 years. He’s also busy working as a sideman on recording projects for some of the top names in jazz. But he is perhaps best known for his work with Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, for which he holds the first tenor sax chair. Scanlon’s writing is stylistically diverse but he’s particularly drawn to Latin and funk grooves.
Also this week, Bay Area trumpeter Erik Jekabson, who has played with the likes of Galactic, John Mayer and Kamasi Washington, unveils his third album with his sextet, “One Note at a Time”;
renowned Russian pianist and composer Yelena Eckemoff focuses her music on “Nocturnal Animals” on her new disc, recorded in Norway;
and Omaha-based guitarist Aaron Stroessner digs into his love of jazz with his debut, “Haymarket Station.”
Culture Crawl 538 “Actor Nerd Shows”
Jason Alberty is the founder of the Foundry Performance Laboratory, a new theatre group in Cedar Rapids which has three focuses: Getting veterans involved in theatre, providing an entertainment outreach to cancer patients and their families, and producing shows that are high on “actor nerd” bucket lists, but perhaps not well-known to the public.
The Foundry presents “The Seafarer,” a tale about Irish brothers, their conflicts, cussing, and humor, Jan. 16-25 at The Shores Event Center.
Tickets at www.shoreseventcenter.com.