Culture Crawl 360 “Fun Stuff Indoors and Out”

Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance (ICCA) board member Rebecca Larkin brings in parallel lists of activities for the weekend, so you’ll have plenty of options whether the weather is wet or dry. Festivals in Amana and Iowa City, and theatre options at both ends of the Corridor, keep you covered whether you’re seeking sunshine or air conditioning.

These and hundreds of other events at www.culturalcorridor.org.

Talking Pictures 6-20-18

Incredibles 2 with Hollis Monroe, Denny Lynch and Phil Brown.

Culture Crawl 359 “Me, then Kristin Chenoweth”

Actor and singer Logan Adam Schultz presents an arts education benefit show June 29 at the Paramount Theatre. He’s gathered a group of friends including Angela Billman, Janelle Lauer, Scott Dix, Jackson Bartelme, Lincoln Ginsberg, Alex Schulte, and more to support the education programs of Theatre Cedar Rapids and Giving Tree Theater.

Tickets and information at www.loganadamschultz.com.

Culture Crawl 359 “Me, then Kristin Chenoweth”

Actor and singer Logan Adam Schultz presents an arts education benefit show June 29 at the Paramount Theatre. He’s gathered a group of friends including Angela Billman, Janelle Lauer, Scott Dix, Jackson Bartelme, Lincoln Ginsberg, Alex Schulte, and more to support the education programs of Theatre Cedar Rapids and Giving Tree Theater.

Tickets and information at www.loganadamschultz.com.

PlayPlay

Clean Up Your Act 7-9-18

Iowa sends more than it share of nitrates to the Gulf of Mexico.

This Week’s Programs for June 18 – June 23

Short List with host Bob Naujoks    

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

Formidable Flutes: Frank Wess

Frank Wess began as a classical artist. He switched to jazz as an early teenager and by 19 he was playing in big bands. After leaving the military, following World War II, he joined Billy Eckstine’s orchestra. He later played tenor sax, doubling on flute with Count Basie from 1953 to 1964. Wess was named one of the best jazz flautists of his time. From 1959 to 1964, he won the Down Beat magazine critics’ poll for flute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler

Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

The Complete Chronological Early Years of Chick Corea, Part One

Craig travels back to July 9, 1962 for Chick’s very first recording session … a date led by Mongo Santamaria … to begin a series of shows that will spotlight the early years of Corea’s  stellar recording career.  In this first show, we’ll hear Chick with Mongo Santamaria, Sonny Stitt, Dave Pike, Hubert Laws, Montego Joe, Blue Mitchell, and a number of other jazz stars, many of whom are working in a Latin jazz vein.  This is historically interesting and important music from one of today’s pillars of jazz!!

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Profiles with host Nancy Wilson    

Monday at 11:00 PM 

Miles Davis, Part One: Miles’ Styles

Trumpeter Miles Davis dominated jazz for much of the latter half of the twentieth century. While his trumpet sound is instantly recognizable, he refused to be boxed in any one style, consistently developing fresh musical shapes and structures. Miles’s powerful influence did not end with his death in 1991; his restless spirit continues to intrigue and inspire artists of all kinds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Night Special

6:00 PM   

Geoffrey Keezer at the 2006 Iowa City Jazz Festival

KCCK Program Director Bob Stewart has chosen some of the absolute best performances from past Iowa City Jazz Festivals, including the 2006 set from pianist Geoffrey Keezer. Keezer, whether as a sideman or the leader of his own combo, has worked with some legendary jazz superstars, like Chick Corea, Benny Green, and Wynton Marsalis. His virtuosity and sense of swing amazed the crowd on the U of I Pentacrest. Hear that set tonight – Geoffrey Keezer at the 2006 Iowa City Jazz Festival – on KCCK’s Wednesday Night Special.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride

Thursday at 11:00 PM

50 Years Of Monday Nights At The Vanguard 

In the middle of their careers, trumpeter and composer/arranger Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis found themselves with a book of big band music — and no band to perform it. So they made their own, handpicking some of New York’s top talent across age and color lines. They rehearsed on Monday nights, when guys could actually make rehearsal. And by the time they debuted on a Monday in February 1966 at the famed Village Vanguard, they were already a force to be reckoned with, soon to become the most influential big band of the last 50 years. The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, now the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, still plays every Monday night. Jazz Night In America heads to the basement jazz shrine to see the band’s 50th anniversary show, full of cuts from Thad’s songbook, and tells the story of how the band came to be.

 

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler

Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Jazz Corner of the World’s Annual Jazz Fest Preview Show

Craig prepares us for the 2018 Iowa City Jazz Festival by spinning a number of tasteful selections from many of the participants in this year’s festival.  We’ll hear from Jane Ira Bloom, Behn Gillece, Matt Wilson, Rene Marie, John Rapson’s Hot Tamale Louis Ensemble, Amanda Monaco, and many others.  2018 will clearly be another great lineup … continuing a 27-year history of excellence that makes the Iowa City Jazz Festival one of the top jazz festivals in the world!!

 

 

 

 

KCCK’s Midnight CD

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

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

Culture Crawl 358 “Doing The Things That Used to Tick Me Off”

Starlighters II Theater in Anamosa presents “The Miss Firecracker Contest” June 22 – July 1. 

From the pen Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley, it’s a comedy set in 1980s Mississippi about a local beauty pageant, complete with the hair, clothing styles, and slang that Director Kathryn Williams admits somewhat ruefully, that she had to explain to younger members of the cast.

Information and tickets at www.starlighters.org.

New Music Monday for June 18, 2018

    Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify

For nearly fifty years, Eddie Daniels has continued to be one of the leading voices of modern jazz clarinet. Just as Buddy DeFranco made the transition from Benny Goodman to Charlie Parker, Daniels helped bring the clarinet from the post-bop era into the modern age. For his exciting new project, “Heart of Brazil,” Daniels focuses on the work of one of Brazil’s most important modern composers, Egberto Gismonti. Daniels’ old friend and producer George Klabin has been a fan of Gismonti for decades and persuaded the reedman to delve into his work, which embraces a wide world of sound, joining elements of Afro-Brazilian folklore to classical music to modern jazz and beyond.

 

 

The OKB Trio was born at a jam session that drummer Brian Woodruff ran at Blackbird’s in Astoria, Queens that gave him the privilege of playing with different musicians each week. In June of 2010 he brought pianist Oscar Perez and bassist Kuriko Tsugawa and himself together for the first time and the chemistry was immediate. Woodruff and Perez talked about the difficulties they experienced in featuring their own playing while leading larger groups that play elaborately arranged originals, so they decided OKB would play simpler material so they could focus on the groove and expressing themselves more freely on their instruments. As Woodruff proudly boasts, “We always keep the ‘ing’ in swing.” Hence the title of their new disc, “The Ing…”

Also this week, pianist Brad Mehldau unveils “Seymour Reads the Constitution,” a new trio recording with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard.

 

 

 

 

 

Las Vegas-based pianist Mike Jones is joined by magician and comedian Penn Jillette, who also happens to be a fine jazz bassist, for the duo CD, “The Show Before the Show,” recorded live at the Penn & Teller Theater in Vegas.

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz veterans Mark Sherman on vibes and drummer Mike Clark are joined by bassist Felix Patorius and the young Boston-based saxophonist Chase Baird in the new band Venture on their debut release, “Life Cycle.”