Special Programs – June 3 thru June 8

Short List with host Bob Naujoks

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

Galloping Guitars: Kevin Eubanks

Kevin Eubanks worked with countless other musicians during his nearly 20-year association with the Tonight Show. Away from Hollywood, he has collaborated with some of the greatest talents in jazz, including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughn, and his uncle, Ray Bryant.

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler

Mondays from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM

The Famed Miles Davis/Gil Evans Collaborations

Craig takes a fond look back at the very important recordings that Miles made with arranger, composer, bandleader, and pianist, Gil Evans. We’ll hear selections from “Birth Of The Cool,” “Miles Ahead,” “Porgy And Bess,” “Sketches Of Spain,” and several others.

Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00 PM

Students Take Over, Part 5

Dennis Green talks jazz with student musicians from the 2019 Corridor Jazz Project. This week, saxophonists Cedar and Maddie from the Mt. Vernon High School Swingin’ Stangs, and saxophonist Abby and trombonist Chris from the Lisbon High School Jazz Band share their insights on band, music, and their futures, and play some of their favorite charts.

Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride

Thursdays at 11:00 PM

Benny Green in Conversation

Christian McBride sits down with hard bop pianist Benny Green to talk about his life, career and influences, including his time as one of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Green has been compared to Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson in style and counts them as influences.

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler

Saturdays at Noon

Great Bands of the 1970’s – Keith Jarrett, Part 3

Craig presents the final Jarrett sessions of the 1970’s with this show. We will again hear brilliant recordings from both the “American Quartet” and the “European Quartet.” Jarrett’s music from this era helped define jazz of the 1970’s.

KCCK’s Midnight CD

The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:

http://www.kcck.org/midnight-cd/

2019 Jazz Under The Stars Lineup

High School Combos Come to Noelridge Park for the first time

The Corridor Quintet

Iowa’s Jazz Station doubles the entertainment this year, as student combos are coming to Jazz Under The Stars.

Three groups, consisting of students from area high schools will perform in KCCK’s Young Artist Series at three of the four Jazz Under the Stars concerts, August 1, 8, and 15, at 6:30pm, thirty minutes prior to main concerts. Performers will include students and recent graduates from Cedar Rapids Washington, Marion, City High, West High, and Cedar Falls.

“KCCK’s jazz education programs, including The Corridor Jazz Project, and Jazz Band Camp, bring us into contact with dozens of outstanding student musicians each year,” says KCCK general manager Dennis Green. “Nearly every school has kids who want to perform on their own outside of high school band, and KCCK has been able to showcase some of them at many of our events. Beginning this year, we are also going to be able to bring student groups to Jazz Under The Stars. To put it bluntly, the audience is going to be knocked out by the talent and quality of our young players.”

Green notes that each of the groups is self-directed, with the members setting up rehearsals, repertoire, and performances.

The headline shows will once again showcase some of Iowa’s top jazz and funk bands.

Aug. 1 – Big Fun (Noelridge Park)

Aug. 8 – Soul Sherpa (Noelridge Park)

Aug. 15 – Christopher’s Very Happy. Band. (Noelridge Park)

Aug. 22 – Funk Daddies (McGrath Amphitheatre)

Big Fun is a project created by UI jazz professor Steve Grismore, known throughout Eastern Iowa and the U.S. for being a founding member of The Beaker Brothers, Orquesta Alto Maiz, and his own Steve Grismore Trio. Big Fun is an outlet for Grismore and his friends to perform soulful, funky jazz classics made famous by The Crusaders, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Harris, and others. Big Fun’s performance will also be in tribute to keyboardist John Shultz, a founding member of the band who passed away in 2018.

Soul Sherpa is a Nu-Soul/Funk musical collective, which is a bass driven style that fuses elements of Funk, R&B, Pop, and Hip-Hop, made popular by artists like Alicia Keys and The Roots. The members of Soul Sherpa met while students in the Kirkwood jazz program.

Christopher’s Very Happy. Band. is a quartet led by Chris Merz, director of jazz studies at UNI and director of the award-winning UNI Jazz Band One. Merz formed the band to fight the image that jazz sometimes has of being stuffy or hard to understand. “Christopher’s Very Happy. Band. performs bright sounding compositions played with joyous abandon,” says Merz.

Funk Daddies play horn-driven soul, R&B, and dance music, inspired by groups like Tower of Power, Earth, Wind & Fire, and all the great Motown artists. The name is a bit of a misnomer, as singer Alicia Monee joined the band a few years ago, as the group’s “Funk Mommy,” adding songs by legendary soul sisters like Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan to the band’s repertoire.

The KCCK Young Artist Series:

Aug. 1 – Cheesecake Experiment (C.R. Washington & Cedar Falls)

Aug. 8 – Clowntooth (Marion)

Aug. 15 – The Corridor Quintet (City High, West High, and C.R. Washington)

Young Artist Concerts will begin at 6:30pm. The main concerts start at 7pm.

In case of inclement weather, listen to KCCK for cancellation or rain location info. At 88.3 FM, online at www.kcck.org or follow @jazz883kcck on Twitter or Facebook.

Kirkwood Board of Trustees to meet June 13, 2019

The regular meeting of the Kirkwood Board of Trustees will take place June 13, 2019. Time, place, and meeting agenda can be found at this link.

KCCK’s Featured CD for June 2019

The KCCK Featured CD for June is “Friends” from trumpeter Al Naylor. Al’s been a fixture on the Eastern Iowa jazz scene for more than five decades, both as a player and an educator. From leading the I-380 Express Big Band to his work in the Blue Band and Orquesta Alto Maiz, he’s made an indelible mark up and down the Corridor. For his new CD, Al has gathered up colleagues from his various ensembles to perform a program of originals and jazz standards. Purchase the CD.

New Music Monday for June 3, 2019

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.

When it comes to Art Blakey, there is no living drummer more suited to honoring his legacy than the incomparable Ralph Peterson. As the last drummer chosen by Blakey to play by his side in the Jazz Messengers Two Drummer Big Band, Peterson is tasked with the unique responsibility of carrying forth Buhaina’s torch and tradition. On “Legacy: Alive Vol. 6 at the Side Door,” the mission comes full circle as Peterson and the Messenger Legacy Band mark what would have been the icon’s 100^th birthday. The drummer is in the company of five undisputed authorities and alumni of the Blakey tradition: saxophonists Bill Pierce and Bobby Watson, trumpeter Brian Lynch, pianist Geoffrey Keezer, and bassist Essiet Essiet.

Charlie Apicella & Iron City are torch bearers of the classic guitar/organ sound and “Groove Machine” is a return to form for the New York guitarist’s catchy, swinging original compositions. Straight out of the classic 1960s hard bop era and showcasing the band’s deep interplay, the third recording by Apicella, organist Radam Schwartz, saxophonist Gene Ghee, and drummer Alan Korzin, is packed with burning solos, Charlie’s tight arrangements, and an unrelenting groove that defines the character of Iron City. Special guests include Freddie Hendrix on trumpet, Mayra Casales on congas, and violinist Amy Bateman.

Also this week, composer, conductor and bandleader Jaelem Bhate makes his debut with “On the Edge,” assembling a big band of Canada’s most exciting and talented jazz instrumentalists;

the Tierney Sutton Band presents “Screenplay,” an ambitious 15-track collection of songs from American film;

and pianist George Colligan is joined by bassist Buster Williams and drummer Lenny White on “Again With Attitude.”

This Week In Jazz June 2nd thru June 8th

Hey, Jazz fans!!!

Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of reedmen Oliver Nelson, Tina Brooks, Anthony Braxton and Paquita D’Rivera, guitarists Tal Farlow, Grant Green and Paul Bollenback, drummers Peter Erskine and Cassius Goens and more!!! We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie’s “Bird & Diz” (1950), “The Eminent J.J. Johnson, Vol. 2” (1955), Miles Davis’ “’Round About Midnight” (1956), Tal Farlow’s “Tal” (1956), “The Legendary Buster Smith” (1959), Betty Roche’s “Singin’ and Swingin’” (1960) and many more throughout the week and Mondays thru Fridays at noon on our ‘JAZZ MASTERS’ program on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.

Culture Crawl 458 “Street Art”

The National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library is celebrating the demise of the Eastern Bloc, including what is now the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, begun by the fall of the Berlin Wall, thirty years ago this year.

Street artist Ganzeer, forced to leave his native Egypt after using his art to protest totalitarianism during the Egyptian revolution, will give a public lecture and also give a two-day class in creating street and protest art, June 6-8.