Culture Crawl 319 “The Grant Wood of the East”

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art has the world’s largest collection of works by Cedar Rapids native Grant Wood. The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City is borrowing 27 of the CRMA’s collection for a big Grant Wood exhibit going up this spring. In return, the Whitney is sending several works by Edward Hopper, who is a mainstay of their collection, just as Grant Wood is at the CRMA.

Get a preview of which Hoppers are coming a few minutes into the video!

The exhibit opens Feb. 3. Information at www.crma.org.

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Special Programs: Week of January 15 – January 20

Short List with host Bob Naujoks    

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

Vocal Short List: Francis Wayne

Big Band singer Francis Wayne was a teenager when she left Boston for New York to sing with her brother’s band. She soon became the vocalist for Charlie Barnet’s orchestra, and then joined Woody Herman’s First Herd in the mid-1940’s. Wayne married trumpeter Neal Hefti and then both of them left Herman’s band. Francis Wayne had a nice 15-year career until she retired to raise a family. Hear the Short List weekday mornings at 8:35 and Saturday mornings at 7:00 on 88.3 KCCK, or with our free mobile app.

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler

Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Tribute To Roswell Rudd     

Jazz Corner of the World salutes the life and legacy of recently departed trombonist and composer, Roswell Hopkins Rudd.  Craig will spin some select examples from Roswell’s 20+ recordings as a leader, as well as from his 40+ recordings as a sideman.  Don’t miss this special tribute to the pioneering spirit of this complex and remarkable musician, composer, trombonist and jazzman!

 

 

 

Jazz Profiles with host Nancy Wilson    

Monday at 11:00 PM 

Nat Adderley: Brotherly Swing

Nat Adderly was a fine trumpet player. But he spent most of his career in the shadow of his older brother, Julian “Cannonball” Adderly. Nat ran the band business and wrote many of their hits. When Cannonball died, Nat carried on, not only with the band, but also with the family tradition of educating the next generation.

 

 

 

Wednesday Night Special             

6:00 PM   

Funk Daddies at Jazz Under The Stars

The Funk Daddies brought their signature brand of groove to Noelridge Park for a 2011 gig at Jazz Under the Stars. Saxman Skeeter Lewis, guitarist Craig Erickson, Ken Fullard on bass, vocalist Alicia Strong, and keyboard wizard Denny Ketelsen jammed on the horn-driven soul and R&B of Motown, Tower of Power, Earth, Wind & Fire, and their own originals. The crowd that night was definitely picking up what they were laying down. Funk Daddies was a popular choice in our recent 30th Anniversary poll of best Jazz Under the Stars performances. And you can hear it again, on this week’s Wednesday Night Special!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride

Thursday at 11:00 PM

Muldrow Meets Mingus 

Georgia Anne Muldrow is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist entrenched in the alternative R&B scene, but she was born out of jazz family. Her father Ronald was Eddie Harris’ guitarist (making Harris her Godfather) and her mother is singer Rickie Byers Beckwith who worked with Sir Roland Hanna and Pharaoh Sanders. Georgia also knew Alice Coltrane, who gave her the name Jytoni, which she uses as her “jazz alias.” Muldrow joins pianist Jason Moran and his cohorts at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. for a program featuring her own original music and their interpretations of music by Charles Mingus.

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler   

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

The Music of Woody Shaw, Part Two … His Blue Note Years

Craig focuses on another area of the career of this remarkable trumpet master and composer … his legendary work with famed artists of the classy, modern jazz record label, Blue Note Records.  We’ll hear Woody performing in the company of jazz greats Andrew Hill, Horace Silver, Jackie McLean, McCoy Tyner, Hank Mobley, Booker Ervin, and others. Exciting jazz from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s!

 

KCCK’s Midnight CD

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

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

Kennedy Student Wins Corridor Jazz Art Contest

Grant Borchert, a junior at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, has been chosen as the winner of the 2018 Corridor Jazz Project CD Cover design. Grant will receive a $100 cash prize from KCCK-FM and his design will adorn the cover of the “The Corridor Jazz Project XI”, 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; Iowa City High, Iowa City West High, Solon, Mt. Vernon, and Lisbon.

Receiving Honorable Mention in the contest were eleven other students:

  • Ana Schuttloffel, Marion
  • Zoe Baum, Kennedy
  • Trae Ellenz, Kennedy
  • Payton Stelling, Kennedy
  • Sienna Brown, Marion
  • Emily Shaw, Kennedy
  • Ashley Gordon, Marion
  • Grace Stammeyer, Kennedy
  • Elise Woolison, Kennedy
  • Jaxon Steichen, Kennedy
  • Abigayle Godsey, Kennedy

Grant’s original piece, and those receiving Honorable Mention will all be exhibited during the Corridor Jazz Project concert, March 6 at the University of Iowa Voxman Hall of Music.

The Corridor Jazz Project is a jazz education and mentoring program for jazz band students at the high schools in the Creative Corridor. The program, developed as a part of the education outreach of Jazz 88.3 KCCK, matches each school’s top jazz band with a professional jazz player, who performed as a guest soloist with the band. The subsequent recordings have been collected and will be released on a compilation CD. CDs will be made available to each school to sell and keep the proceeds. CDs will be available at local retail outlets as well.

Support for the Corridor Jazz Project comes from MidWestOne Bank, and West Music.

New Music Monday for January 15, 2018

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

Critically acclaimed vocalist Jeff Baker returns with his fifth release, “Phrases,” an alive and bristling set of originals and thoughtfully conceived pop and jazz standards. Collaborating with some of the most influential and compelling jazz musicians in the world today—Brian Blade, Steve Wilson, Marquis Hill, Clark Sommers and Geoff Bradfield—Baker and his musical director, pianist Darrell Grant, present a provocative collection of original songs and arrangements based on texts by writers such as Pablo Neruda, J.D. Salinger, A.A. Milne and Salvador Plascencia. Commenting on Bradfield’s most ambitious and personal recording yet, All About Jazz says, “The songs, the arrangements, the musicianship, the group dynamic, the singing are near perfection.”

For his newest CD, “Puerto de Buenos Aires 1933,” drummer and composer Guillermo Nojechowicz has given his most personal, profoundly moving project to date: a soundtrack for the story of his grandmother’s flight from Poland to Argentina in 1933, as the Nazis were coming to power in Germany. Nojechowicz wrote this cinematic music for his multi-national ensemble El Eco with bassist, fellow Argentine Fernando Huergo, Brazilian pianist Helio Alves, Italian saxophonist Marco Pignataro, New York Voices co-founder Kim Nazarian, and special guest, trumpeter Brian Lynch.

 

 

 

 

Also this week, Toronto guitarist and composer Harley Card introduces eleven new compositions written for his long-standing quintet on “The Greatest Invention”.

Seattle drummer Phil Parisot adds longtime friend and collaborator, New York trumpeter Tatum Greenblatt, to his usual working quartet for “Creekside”.

 

 

 

 

 

“Mi Mundo” is the solo debut of Brenda Navarrete, a Cuban-based singer, songwriter, and percussionist who has previously made an impact with the internationally-acclaimed Cuban group Interactivo.  

 

 

 

 

 

Culture Crawl 318 “Donuts With Some Meat”

Iowa City Community Theatre presents “Superior Donuts,” a play written by Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwright Tracy Letts, and the inspiration for the CBS comedy of the same name.

Arthur Przybyszewski, a former 60s radical, must adjust to his new, energetic assistant who wants to update Arthur’s rundown donut shop.

Director Barry Schreier says the play is deeper and more dramatic than the sitcom it shares its name with, while still providing many hilarious moments to balance the pathos.

January 19-28 at the Iowa City Community Theatre. www.iowacitycommunitytheatre.com for tickets and information.

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Talking Pictures 1-10-18

The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Molly’s Game with Dennis Green, Scott Chrisman and Phil Brown.

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Special Programs: Week of January 8 – January 13

Short List with host Bob Naujoks    

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

Vocal Short List: Beverly Kenney

This week’s Short List spotlights a singer who is a cult figure in Japan but long obscure in the United States. Beverly Kenney had a glorious six years on the jazz scene in the mid-to-late-1950s. Her voice is somewhere between Billie Holiday and Julie London — a soft and swinging vocalist. Her first album in 1955 was with the renowned guitarist, Johnny Smith. She would make five subsequent albums — one a year — until 1960. That year she took her own life and left the vocal jazz scene much poorer. Hear Beverly Kenney’s story and songs each weekday morning at 8:30 and Saturday morning at 7:00 on Iowa’s Jazz Station, 88.3 KCCK, and with our free mobile app.

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler

Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

The Career of Trumpet Master Woody Shaw, Part One

This first show (in a series of 3) begins a general overview of Woody’s outstanding jazz career.  Craig will look at Shaw’s time in Paris, his work with Eric Dolphy, his Blue Note years, and his collaborations with many jazz greats, like Jackie McLean, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Andrew Hill, and others.  Don’t miss this 3-part loving tribute to one of the true jazz giants!!

 

 

 

Jazz Profiles with host Nancy Wilson    

Monday at 11:00 PM 

Betty Carter: Fiercely Individual

For nearly 50 years, Betty Carter was an irrepressible and incomparable practitioner of jazz vocal tradition. She was a “pure” jazz singer whose strong musical style and instrument-like voice was keenly original and distinct. She was also a fiercely dedicated and demanding bandleader who helped hone the skills of gifted young musicians like Cyrus Chestnut and Jacky Terrasson. This program explores Carter’s many sides and talents — as a song stylist, composer, a bandleader, and teacher.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Night Special             

6:00 PM   

The Jazz Underground at Jazz Under The Stars

The Jazz Underground, another strong vote-getter in KCCK’s recent listener poll of their favorite Jazz Under The Stars performances, brought their full repertoire to a huge crowd in Noelridge Park. Led by drummer Dennis McPartland with pianist Dick Watson, Dr. Craig Dove on bass, Bob Dunn on guitar, and saxophonist David Sharp, Jazz Underground played the whole range of jazz – from straight-ahead, bop, Broadway classics, tunes from the Great American Songbook, and even a little Burt Bacharach. Vocalist D Pittam even sat in on a few numbers. It was a great night of jazz, and you can hear it again on the Wednesday Night Special. The Jazz Underground, live in Noelridge Park at KCCK’s Jazz Under The Stars!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride

Thursday at 11:00 PM

Buster Williams: Something More 

Buster Williams, once a sideman renowned for his work with Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Jimmy Heath, Betty Carter, and others, now leads his own groups under the name “Something More.” Of this title, Williams says: “Music should be an experience. It shouldn’t be something that’s understood by mathematics or by categories. The objective is to always give the audience something more.” While the members of Something More rotate from project to project, their individual and collective standards of performance – as well as their long, diverse lists of musical accomplishments and collaborations – never falter. For this performance, the revered bassist brings Steve Wilson, George Colligan, and Lenny White to the stage. 

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler     

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

Tribute To Roswell Rudd     

Jazz Corner of the World salutes the life and legacy of recently departed trombonist and composer, Roswell Hopkins Rudd.  Craig will spin some select examples from Roswell’s 20+ recordings as a leader, as well as from his 40+ recordings as a sideman.  Don’t miss this special tribute to the pioneering spirit of this complex and remarkable musician, composer, trombonist and jazzman!

 

KCCK’s Midnight CD

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

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

New Music Monday for January 8, 2018

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

Wayne Escoffery reaching is 40th birthday marked a period of big change for the award-winning saxophonist both artistically and in his personal life. He had reached a crossroads. Escoffery had spent a happy and successful decade in the band of trumpeter Tom Harrell but felt that it was time for him to step out more as a leader. At the end of 2016, he assembled a quartet of jazz’s most elite musicians that would record a live album, headline New York’s legendary Village Vanguard, and tour steadily for the next year. Escoffery presents this great quartet on an evocative new studio record, “Vortex,” which reflects the current dizzying maelstrom of racism, bigotry and hate in the U.S.  and the saxophonist’s renewed commitment to his responsibilities and artistic goals. Joining him are pianist David Kikoski, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Ralph Peterson Jr.

 

 

Saxophonists Dave Liebman and Mike Murley have performed together for more than a decade. Their second release, “Live at the U of T,” featuring bassist Jim Vivian and drummer Terry Clarke, came about as a result of Liebman’s appointment as Visiting Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music. The natural rapport between the musicians on the recording is immediately apparent. Murley studied with Liebman in the 1980s at the Banff Jazz Workshop and in New York City. He and Vivian have worked frequently with Liebman over the years, primarily in the Toronto area but also at recording sessions and concerts in Halifax and Montreal. Clarke and Liebman are both veterans of the international jazz scene dating back to the late 1960s and their musical chemistry was instantaneous.

 

 

 

Also this week, marimba/vibes veteran Steve Hobbs honors his mentor and late friend Bobby Hutcherson with “Tribute to Bobby”.

Legendary organist Dr. Lonnie Smith and his trio are captured live at New York’s Jazz Standard for “All in My Mind”.

 

 

 

Pianist and composer Lisa Hilton is joined by saxophonist JD Allen, trumpeter Terell Stafford, bassist Greg August and drummer Rudy Royston for her 20th disc, “Escapism.”