Welcome back folks! Your hosts take you an another blues safari with a selection of artists across generations and blues styles, tune in to hear who’s featured! Songs featured in the episode:
Roomful of Blues – “What Can I Do?”
Brandon Santini – “Blues So Bad”
Beth Hart – “Can’t Let Go”
Willie Dixon – “Little Red Rooster”
Deanna Boggart – “In The Rain”
Listen to ‘da Friday Blues with Big Mo each week at 6pm, and catch the podcast for a behind the scenes look at the show!
Tim Hankewich returns ahead of Orchestra Iowa’s Pops V: “Field of Dreams in Concert” Sat, June 7, 7PM at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The orchestra will play the score live as this beloved midwestern flick plays on the Jumbotron, the first ever live orchestra film concert of its kind!
Weather is looking great, but a rain date is set for Sun, June 8, 7PM just in case.
Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast player. Listen Live at 10:30am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or kcck.org/listen.
For the first week of the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band season, director Steve Shanley is working his Coe College colleague Bill Carson pretty hard. Bill’s clarinet playing is featured in a Benny Goodman medley, then Bill picks up the baton to conduct Percy Grainger’s “Spoon River,” a piece that Bill resurrected when the master copy of the score was found in the Coe archives.
June 5 at The History Center and June 8 at McGrath Amphitheater. All concerts start at 7:30, but come at 6:30 Sunday to hear the Metro Youth Wind Ensemble. More info at www.crmuniband.org or facebook.com/crmuniband.
Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast player. Listen Live at 10:30am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or kcck.org/listen.
Gabriel Espinoza and former student Kiersten Conway are in the studio ahead of their upcoming concert at the Ideal. Kiersten attended Solon High School and studied under Gabriel at Central College for a year before transferring to SMV in Creston Iowa. Gabriel has continued to be a mentor to Kiersten and now the two are about to share the stage.
It’s Gabriel Espinosa & Ashanti Latin Jazz Ft. Kiersten Conway – Sat, June 14 at The Ideal.
Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast player. Listen Live at 10:30am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or kcck.org/listen.
The KCCK Featured Album for June is “Lady in Satin” from Kandace Springs. The singer’s latest project is a heartfelt and sonically gorgeous tribute to one of her favorite artists, Billie Holiday, and Lady Day’s last great album from 1958. Ms. Springs is backed by the Espinho Classical Orchestra of Portugal and several of Portugal’s most accomplished arrangers in re-creating and reimagining the lush sound and feel of that original recording. “Lady in Satin” is from SRP Records. Purchase
Julia Jessen, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at Cedar Rapids Art Museum, and Dennis Green team up for the museum’s upcoming June Art Bites: All that Jazz: Photographs by Carl Van Vechten and George T. Henry.
Julia and Dennis will be talking about the exhibition Wednesday, June 4, 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM at CRMA. A reception will be held for this and two additional new exhibitions at the museum on Thursday, June 5, 5 PM – 6:30 PM and will feature live music from the Roots of Rhythm Trio.
Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast player. Listen Live at 10:30am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or kcck.org/listen.
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify Ed Palermo is not your typical big band leader. Renowned for his unconventional approach, Ed’s repertoire defies expectations –don’t be surprised if you hear the music of Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, The Police, or Pat Metheny at one of his shows. As Gil Evans once said: “He was using the instrumentation of a traditional big band, yet his arrangements and songs were anything but that…Ed Palermo’s music is alive and represents now.” Over the years, Ed’s inventive interpretations have earned him widespread acclaim. On the new CD, “Prog vs. Fusion: A War of the Ages,” the Ed Palermo Big Band crafts a musical battleground where two distinct genres—progressive rock and jazz fusion—lock horns in a playful yet highly sophisticated war.
On a Sunday afternoon in 2023, Dr./Prof. Leonard King drove to Cadieux Café on Detroit’s east side to hear the Planet D Nonet perform. Usually he would have recorded music playing in the van within five minutes of pulling out of the driveway, but that day he drove several minutes in silence. It wasn’t long before he began innately hearing the melody to one of Joe Williams’ recordings. At that moment, he decided to ask RJ Spangler if the PD9 would want to collaborate on a Joe Williams project. The band was receptive to the idea and “Doctor Professor Leonard King in Tribute to Joe Williams” was the result, a disc primarily focused on the work of Mr. Williams after his departure from the Count Basie Orchestra.
Also this week, baritone saxophonist, composer and arranger Saul Dautch reflects on the challenges and growth he’s experienced in his first five years in New York City on his debut album, “Music for the People”; Juno Award-winning Canadian multi-instrumentalist Brad Turner highlights his brilliant pianistic and compositional skills on “It’s All So”; and saxophonist Jordan Van Hemert’s stellar band on his fifth release as leader, “Survival of the Fittest,” includes trumpeter Terell Stafford, trombonist Michael Dease, pianist Helen Sung, Rodney Whitaker on bass, and Lewis Nash on drums.
