Concern that chronic wasting disease is spreading in Iowa.
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Talking Pictures 3-21-18
Love, Simon and Tomb Raider with Hollis Monroe, Denny Lynch and Scott Chrisman.
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Iowa City Jazz Fest 2018 Lineup
Summer of the Arts welcomes world-renowned jazz artists for Iowa City Jazz Festival
For Immediate Release: March 19, 2018- IOWA CITY, IA
An eclectic mix of top stars, genre legends, and young talents comprise the lineup for the 2018 Iowa City Jazz Festival, which will feature hours of free performances on the University of Iowa Pentacrest, as well as food, activities and more throughout downtown Iowa City from June 29 to July 1. The Jazz Festival, presented by the University of Iowa Community Credit Union, is in its 28th year.
Matt Wilson’s Honey and Salt
The festival starts off swinging on Friday, June 29, at 5 p.m., with the United Jazz Ensemble, which features the best young musicians from City High and West High. At 7 p.m. Behn Gillece Quartet will take the stage. The group is led by virtuosic vibraphonist and prolific composer Gillece. The night wraps up at 9 p.m. with “Hot Tamale Louie.” This multi-media piece, composed and directed by John Rapson, director of the Jazz Studies Program at the University of Iowa, includes lilting Western ballads, gentle Mexican waltzes, and folk songs and melodies from the East, all woven into a compelling narrative.
Saturday, June 30, the second day of the festival, begins at 1 p.m. with the North Corridor Jazz All Stars, a group composed of the best high school musicians from Cedar Rapids to Cedar Falls. At 3 p.m., the Braxton Cook Quintet takes the stage. The group is led by tenor saxophonist Cook, a recent graduate of the prestigious
Rene Marie
Julliard School of Music and sideman to Rihanna at the 2016 Video Music Awards. The Vincent Herring Quartet follows at 5 p.m. Herring, an alto saxophonist, is described as “intense and soulful with a multi-noted style and ebullient swing.” At 7 p.m., vocalist Rene Marie & Experiment in Truth will share her multifaceted style. Marie is known for her blend of folk, R&B and even classical and country, all of which ultimately encapsulate her hybridity. Saturday comes to a close with the Jane Ira Bloom Quartet at 9 p.m. Bloom, a highly regarded soprano saxophonist, is an American original with a “soaring, poetic, quick silver, spontaneous and instantly identifiable” sound.
Joshua Redman
The final day of the festival, Sunday, July 1, launches at 2 p.m., with Steve Kenny’s Group 47, a pillar of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Jazz scene. At 4 p.m., the Amanda Monaco Quartet will bring a guitar sound that is “utterly unique, a breath of fresh air in the cookie-cutter climes of both mainstream and free jazz.” In addition to touring, Monaco works as an educator at the Berklee College of Music. Matt Wilson, who will drum with Monaco’s group, will lead his own new combo at 6 p.m. Wilson’s Honey & Salt brings a collection of songs devoted to the Midwestern poet Carl Sandburg. In true Iowa City fashion, literature and music meet on stage. The festival ends at 8 p.m. with Sill Dreaming, a combo led by Joshua Redman and featuring Ron Miles, Scott Colley, and Brian Blade. The group’s repertoire includes tunes performed or inspired by the “Old and New Dreams” quartet of the 1970s and ’80s that featured Ornette Coleman alumni including Redman’s father, Dewey Redman.
In addition to these main stage sets, music will be performed on three side stages throughout the festival. A Culinary Row, artist booths, a FUN Zone, and a Beverage Garden round out this full weekend.
For a complete line-up CLICK HERE.
Special Programs: Week of March 19 – March 24
Short List with host Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM
Vocal Short List: Milton Suggs
This week’s Vocal Short List highlights Milton Suggs, a singer who has been swimming upstream for recognition. He has been heralded as “Chicago’s next rising jazz star” and lauded as a savior for the parched “male jazz vocalist” category. His schedule is not full, but he has issued four recordings, one with his godfather and mentor, the veteran pianist Willie Pickens. His voice is reminiscent of Joe Williams and Johnny Hartman, but with the added flexibility of Jon Hendricks or Mark Murphy. Hear The Short List each day at 8:35 am and Saturday morning at 7:00, on 88.3 KCCK, or on demand at kcck.org.
Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler
Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Jazz in 1968
Craig travels back 50 years to sample some of the jazz goodies that were recorded or released during 1968. Through the “lens” of the ’68 Down Beat Magazine Reader’s Poll, we’ll hear from a variety of jazz greats like Miles Davis, Gary Burton, Duke Ellington, Wes Montgomery, and many others. Great stuff from a great year in modern jazz!!
Jazz Profiles with host Nancy Wilson
Monday at 11:00 PM
Al Grey: The Last of the Big Time Plungers
He was described as a “sterling trombonist whose humorous inflection and skill with the plunger have been balanced by his excellent facility and overall technique.” Grey performed to the end of his life with appearances at Basie Band reunions and sessions, as well as teaching young musicians the techniques he developed throughout the years. This program follows Grey’s prolific career as a trombonist in bands ranging from Count Basie’s to Lionel Hampton’s.
Wednesday Night Special
6:00 PM
Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola at the 2013 Iowa City Jazz Festival
Guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter and fellow Bay Area legend, drummer Scott Amendola came together at the 2013 Iowa City Jazz Festival. The result of this union was magic. The crowd at the 2013 Iowa City Jazz Festival were amazed by Hunter’s Joe Pass-inspired technique and his improvisational skills. His rapport and friendship with Amendola was obvious, and the audience loved their ability to make great music. Enjoy this standout performance again, from the 2013 Iowa City Jazz Festival, on KCCK’s Wednesday Night Special!
Jazz Night in America with host Christian McBride
Thursday at 11:00 PM
Celebrating Marian McPartland’s Centennial
This week, we celebrate pianist and radio host Marian McPartland’s centennial. Jazz Night in America host is joined by McPartland’s granddaughter, Donna Gordoul, and McPartland’s long-time radio producer and friend, Shari Hutchinson, to revisit some of the best of “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz,” — complete with some rarely heard outtakes.
Jazz Corner of the World with host Craig Kessler
Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
The Saxophone Artistry of Jane Ira Bloom
Craig celebrates the career of legendary, award winning soprano saxophonist, Jane Ira Bloom. We’ll hear unique selections from her 20+ recordings that span from 1978 to the present. Bloom is a tenured professor at The New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, and has garnered a number of awards over the years. Don’t miss this important display of top-notch music from this overlooked, underappreciated, and awe-inspiring jazz artist!!
KCCK’s Midnight CD
The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:
New Music Monday for March 19, 2018
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
In the course of its 30-year lifespan, the trio of Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette—the group colloquially known as The Standards Trio—made many outstanding recordings. And “After the Fall,” overflowing with sparkling playing and dynamic interaction, must rank with the very best of them. The performance—in Newark, New Jersey in November of 1998—marked Jarrett’s return to the stage after a two-year hiatus. As the pianist puts it, “For over two years, I suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and could not play the piano in public. Near the end of this period, I decided to try playing with my trio in my studio. I immediately relapsed at dinner that evening. A little later we tried again, and I felt I had no option other than attempting a concert, preferably near my house in New Jersey. So what you are hearing was basically an experiment for me, and it proved that we could play again.”
The Calle Mambo story and how its debut CD, “See the Light,” became reality reads like a Hollywood movie: a drummer born and raised in Denver, whose career includes success leading house bands in Las Vegas, reconnects with an old music friend who writes a bunch of arrangements, lines up an A-List of Latin jazz musicians and enters a New York City studio to lay down tracks. That’s how drummer Chris Smith realized his dream—inspired by seeing and meeting Pete and Sheila Escovedo—to record a Latin jazz album. He formed Calle Mambo in 2008 and gained notoriety in the Rocky Mountain Region playing festivals and concerts. By 2016 it was time to record a CD. He contacted his friend from his Vegas days, pianist and arranger Mike Eckroth, who brought a couple of originals as well as charts of the music of George Duke and Earth, Wind & Fire. And the rest is history.
Also this week, Corcoran Holt, the regular bassist in the Kenny Garrett Quintet, unveils his debut as a leader, “The Mecca”.
Saxophonist Adrian Cunningham returns as Professor Cunningham and his Old School for “Swing It Out!”
California-based trumpeter Joe Mazzaferro features saxophonist Jeff Clayton on his new CD, “In Terms Of…”
Culture Crawl 333 “Art by the Drink”
Jamie Siefken of the Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance (ICCA) and Cedar Ridge Distillery, stops by to talk about upcoming community arts events you can find on the newly re-designed CulturalCorridor.org. He also reminds us that changes in state law now allow Cedar Ridge to serve cocktails made from their products, and his mixologists are letting their imaginations run wild.
Learn more at www.culturalcorridor.org or www.crwine.com
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Clean Up Your Act 4-4-18
Is ethanol killing off the Monarch butterfly?
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Culture Crawl 332 “Tchaikovsky Mashup”
Orchestra Iowa and Ballet Quad Cities present the ballet “Alice in Wonderland,” one performance only in Cedar Rapids, Friday, March 16 at the Paramount Theatre.
Tim Hankewich explains that the music was not written expressly for this ballet. Rather, several Tchaikovsky pieces of music written for young people were arranged for orchestra by the National Ballet of England to create this work. All of the familiar characters are there: Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Chestire Cat, the Caterpillar, etc. But re-imagined in a way that brings new light to this famous story.
Tickets at www.orchestraiowa.org.
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