Dumbo, The Lego Batman Movie and Death Race 2050 with Hollis Monroe, Denny Lynch and Scott Chrisman.
Culture Crawl 231 “Harassment, Objectification… All the Fun Stuff”
Comedian and playwright Megan Gogerty premieres her new one-woman show “Lady Macbeth and Her Pal Megan” at Riverside Theatre.
Megan says that what began as an examination of the character of Lady Macbeth soon morphed into a meditation on the nature of ambitious women in male-dominated professions, like politics… or comedy. All through the lens of Megan’s witty outlook on herself and her world.
Running Feb. 24-March 12 at Riverside Theatre. for tickets and information visit Megan’s own site, www.ladymacbethshow.com or the theatre’s, www.riversidetheatre.org.
Travel to Italy & The Umbria Jazz Festival!
Travel with KCCK to Italy to the Umbria Jazz Festival and Rome,
July 9 -17, 2017.
Don’t delay!! This is a specially priced experience and your commitment must be made by the end of March.
For more information contact Lisa Baum at 319.398.5421 or lisa@kcck.org.
Download the Brochure.
Download the Reservation form.
We’re heading to Italy this July 9 to 17 to experience jazz Italian style…an incredible trip to Rome and Umbria to find historic villages, delectable wines, incredible food and three nights with tickets to the Umbria Jazz Festival featuring Wayne Shorter and more.
We begin Rome for three days with a guided tour of the priceless collection of art and treasure in the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum. Our time in Rome also includes a guided trip to the Piazza Venezia and Roman Forum, with a stop at the Colosseum. We’ll view the Arch of Constantine, Circus Maximus, the Great Synagogue, Isola Tiberina and Castel Sant’Angelo.
There will be free time as well to discover this incredible city. Each evening we’ll seek out the local club scene and enjoy the summer nights café style. We then will bus in comfort through the hill towns to our jazz festival home, Perugia.
Perugia is home to the legendary Umbria Jazz Festival taking place every July. Founded by Carlo Pagnotta in 1973, for ten days Perugia becomes an international music town, full of lights, colors, music in every corner and tens of thousands of jazz music lovers. During your stay here you get to experience a live music festival that brings together famous acts like Wayne Shorter Quartet featuring Danilo Perez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade., Brian Wilson and Pet Project and more. The concerts run from mid-day to midnight nonstop and the city beats to the sound of international jazz. There is nothing better than a summer night in a unique place with a magical atmosphere, listening to good live music and drinking excellent Italian wine! Each day we’ll tour cities of Umbria…Assisi, Orvieto and Gubbio and return each afternoon to settle in to our festival itinerary.
Assisi, a medieval hill town in central Umbria, famous for St. Francis of Assisi and the magnificent basilica painted by renowned artists like Giotto and Cimabue. You might feel that the entire interior is decorated with wonderful frescoes – with so much to see, the experience can feel overwhelming! Luckily, your expert art historian guide will help you understand these masterpieces, and you won’t miss any of the beauty inspired by St. Francis.
Orvieto, one of the most striking, memorable, and enjoyable hill towns in central Italy. Located between Florence and Rome, this town sits high above the valley floor on the top of a big chunk of tufo volcanic stone.
We will vist the glorious Gothic-style Duomo (cathedral) one of the most beautiful churches in Italy, due to its splendid and decorative façade adorned with elaborate sculptures and colored mosaics designed by Lorenzo Maitani of Siena. Inside you can find the magnificent frescoes of Fra Angelico and Luca Signorelli. Time permitting, other monuments that you get visit are: the Palazzo Vescovile, Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo, the churches of San Lorence, Sant’Andrea and San Giovenale.
Gubbio is one of the most ancient towns of Umbria. The picturesque city is built beneath Mount Ingino on the eastern side of the Tiber; Gubbio was an important town of the ancient Umbrians in pre-Roman times. Gubbio’s Civic Museum displays the Eugubine Tablets, written in Umbrian language using the Latin and the Etruscan alphabets. The tablets, dating from the 2nd century BC, document the Umbrian civilization, from its religion to government. Your tour will take you through Gubbio’s most stunning medieval backstreets to the imposing 14th century Palazzo dei Consoli, said to rival Palazzo Vecchio in Florence in its beauty. Our trip returns to Rome and our flight home.
Don’t delay!! This is a specially priced experience and your commitment must be made by the end of March.
For more information contact Lisa Baum at 319.398.5421 or lisa@kcck.org.
Special Programs: Week of February 13 – 19
Short List with Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM
Corridor Jazz (John Rapson)
University of Iowa’s John Rapson
On the surface, John Rapson is a trombonist and composer who teaches at the University of Iowa. However, Rapson is also a remarkable jazz ensemble creator of wonderful sounds that have strong internal structure with free jazz elements that are very accessible. Rapson has been at the University of Iowa since 1993 after living in the Los Angeles area for twenty years and on the East Coast another three; each place offering the opportunity to work with excellent contemporary jazzmen. His associations with saxophonists Vinny Golia and Anthony Braxton seemed to have shaped his art.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
“Riverside Records in 1957”
Craig travels back 60 years to look in on the incredible recordings put together by label owners Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer. With the humble beginnings of RIVERSIDE’S modern jazz era beginning just a few years earlier (1954), the label skyrockets to 40 + recording sessions in 1957, from jazz luminaries such as Thelonious Monk, Donald Byrd, Abbey Lincoln, Benny Golson, Coleman Hawkins, Kenny Dorham, Sonny Rollins, and so many more! This is the stuff!!
Night Lights (Classic Jazz) with David Brent Johnson
Monday, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM (follows Jazz Corner the World)
Night Lights, is a weekly one-hour jazz radio program hosted by David Brent Johnson, focusing on jazz from the 1945-1990 era—covering artists such as Jackie McLean, Charles Mingus, and Nina Simone and themes ranging from jazz recordings of spirituals to avant-garde interpretations of the Great American Songbook. Night Lights also features many lesser-known talents of post-1945 jazz. Every program is archived after broadcast for online listening. This week: “Vee-Jay Records”.
Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson
Monday at 11:00 PM
Charlie Parker: “Bird Lives!” Part 2
Charles “Yardbird” Parker was a self-taught innovator who could fly higher and cut deeper than any other musician of his day. Parker pioneered the bebop movement in jazz with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. He influenced generations of musicians. He accomplished all of this and other feats despite a crippling drug addition that ended his life at thirty-four. The concluding half of this trip focuses on Bird’s influence on other musicians, his celebrated return to New York, his superstar acceptance in Europe, his experimentations with strings, and his premature, tragic death. Interviewees include Jackie McLean and Mitch Miller.
Charlie Parker
Wednesday Night Special
6:00 PM
Jazz Legends at the Iowa City Jazz Festival: Heath Brothers Quartet
Heath Brothers at the 2012 Iowa City Jazz Festival
For over 60 years, the legendary Heath Brothers have been synonymous with great jazz. NEA Jazz Master tenor player, Jimmy Heath and his drummer, brother Tootie Heath, came to Iowa City to promote ‘Endurance’, their first CD since the passing of their beloved brother, legendary bassist Percy Heath.
Jimmy Heath has long been recognized as a brilliant instrumentalist and a magnificent composer and arranger. Jimmy has performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the last 50 years, from Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis to Wynton Marsalis. It is no surprise that over his long and storied career, Jimmy Heath has performed on more than 100 record albums including seven with The Heath Brothers and twelve as a leader.
Albert “Tootie” Heath is the youngest of the Heath brothers and drummer for the quartet, Tootie is a recipient of Yale University’s Duke Ellington Fellowship Medal. He was the drummer on John Coltrane’s first recording as a leader and the last drummer for the Modern Jazz Quartet. Tootie has played and recorded with Don Cherry, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Frederic Gulda, Tommy Flanagan, Dexter Gordon, Nina Simone, Herbie Hancock, J.J. Johnson, Yusef Lateef, Sonny Rollins, Bobby Timmons, Lester Young, Cedar Walton and Ben Webster.
Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride
Thursday at 11:00 PM
Real Enemies (Darcy James Argue)
Jazz Night in America presents Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society and their latest project entitled Real Enemies. Argue describes the piece as “an exploration of real world beliefs, of the present day folklore that we call conspiracy theories.” Musically, Real Enemies draws from on 12-tone compositional techniques along with a collage of found text and media from dozens of sources that trace the historical roots, iconography, ideology, rhetoric, and psychology of these conspiracies.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
“Julius Watkins and The French Horn in Jazz” 
Craig presents music from the extraordinary French horn player and educator, JULIUS WATKINS. We’ll hear amazing examples of his work leading his own groups, and also with him alongside of some of the greatest jazz artists of all time….John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Johnny Griffin, Randy Weston, Charlie Rouse, Miles Davis, and others. We’ll also hear from several other horn players, such as Tom Varner, John Clark, and Gunther Schuller! Don’t miss this one!!
Tropical Heat (hosted by Kpoti Senam Accoh)
Sunday, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Featured Album: “Xenophonia” by Bojan Z 
Xenophonia is an album of the Serbian jazz pianist Bojan Z released in 2006 at Label Bleu . The name of the album, built from “xenos”, “the stranger” in Greek, is a reference to the situation of Bojan Z as a Franco-Serbian.
On this album Bojan Z plays the “xenophone”, instrument of his invention, a sort of Fender Rhodes trafficked with a temperament different from that of the piano, with a sound closer to that of “Arabic” music. Bojan adds to this instrument many effects pedals ( distortion , phaser …) which ends up bringing it closer to an electric guitar. Bojan Z goes so far, on Wheels, to play “note à note” on his instrument a solo of RM Točak, star of Serbian rock.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/xenophonia-bojan-z-label-bleu-review-by-ian-patterson.php
KCCK’s Midnight CD
The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:
New Music Monday for February 13, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Since moving from Chesapeake, Virginia to New York City in 2001, Nate Smith has helped reinvigorate the international jazz scene with his visceral style of drumming by playing with such esteemed leading lights as bassist Dave Holland, saxophonists Chris Potter and Ravi Coltrane, and singers Patricia Barber, Somi, and Jose James. The New York Times has described Smith as “a firecracker of a drummer.” His rising career reaches a new benchmark with the release of his bandleader debut, “Kinfolk: Postcards From Everywhere,” on which he fuses his original modern jazz compositions with R&B, pop, and hip-hop. The disc shows Smith leading a scintillating core ensemble, expanded on several cuts with the inclusion of Potter and Holland along with guitarists Lionel Loueke and Adam Rogers, and singer Gretchen Parlato.
In the years since the release of its debut disc in 2013, Philadelphia-based Ensemble Novo has refined a sound that is perfectly suited to its primary inspiration—music made in Brazil during the 1960 and early ‘70s. The band is the brainchild of writer and musician Tom Moon. Following the publication of his New York Times bestseller “1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die,” the saxophonist resumed active work as a musician and devoted specific attention to Brazilian music. He convinced several prominent members of Philly’s diverse music community, including vibraphonist Behn Gillece, to join in an exploration of samba and bossa nova. Their new CD, “Look to the Sky,” finds Ensemble Novo tackling several little-heard gems from the years just after the bossa nova craze—the fertile era known as MPB. This period in Brazilian music is notable for its endlessly lyrical melodies, coupled with a jazz-influenced sense of harmonic daring.
Also this week, guitarist John Abercrombie’s newest quartet project, “Up and Coming”.
Father-and-son saxophonists Don Aliquo and Don Aliquo, Jr., are joined by other noted Pittsburgh familial duos on “Fathers and Sons”.
Critically accla
imed trombonist Scott Whitfield shows his remarkable instinct and soul with a feast of Carl Saunders charts on “New Jazz Standards (Volume 2).”
Culture Crawl 230 “Exorcising My Demons”
Katie Roche stops by to plug a variety of events she’s involved with. First off, her band the Dandelion Stompers performs on Fat Tuesday at the Mill, 6-9pm. Eat red beans and rice, and enjoy the danceable sounds of one of our favorite bands. Tickets at the door or at www.icmill.com.
Slipping on her hat as development director at the Englert Theatre, Katie also reminds us that drummer Antonio Sanchez will perform his Grammy Award-winning score from the film “Birdman” live as the movie plays on March 1.
And it’s not too early to start planning for the Mission Creek Festival. Music, literature, and other events throughout Iowa City.
Details at www.englert.org or www.missioncreekfestival.com.
Clean Up Your Act 3-14-17
The impact of GMOs goes beyond the food we eat.
Culture Crawl 229 “Part Musical, Part ‘Hoarders’”
Revival Theatre Company presents the story of Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis’s aunt and cousin, who were the subject of a 1970s documentary, that chronicled their reclusive lives in the run down mansion that thirty years before, had been the social capital of the East Hamptons.
Part musical, part reality TV, director Brian Glick says the musical is both entertaining and a fascinating character study.
“Grey Gardens” runs Feb. 23-26 at CSPS Hall. Information and tickets at www.revivaltheatrecompany.com.