A Monster Calls and The Infiltrator with Hollis Monroe, Denny Lynch and Scott Chrisman.
This Week’s Shows: Week of January 9 – 15
Short List with Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM
The Short List: Corridor Jazz (Saul Lubaroff) new series
Saul Lubaroff plays soprano sax with his band
The new Short List “Corridor Jazz” series continues with Iowa City saxophonist Saul Lubaroff. He has been a familiar figure on the regional jazz scene playing with such distinctive groups as Shade of Blue, The Fez, WeFunk, and the Johnny Kilowatt Band. He also has his own quartet and appears regularly in Eastern Iowa. Lubaroff teaches with West Music and is also an adjunct instructor with the Iowa City schools teaching all the woodwinds.
Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson
Monday at 6:00 PM
Louis Armstrong: ‘The Man and His Music,’ Part 1
Louis Armstrong
It’s hard to overstate the incredible reach of this original American artist. Louis Armstrong defined American culture and did it with the force of his talent as a musician, singer, composer, author, innovator, entertainer, actor, and bandleader. He transcended racial barriers and became America’s ambassador to the world.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM (follows Jazz Profiles)
“A Look Back at Jazz, 2016”
This past year was an especially rough one for having to say goodbye to a particularly large number of jazz personalities. This week, Craig gives a tip of the hat to many of these folks by spinning some great selections by the likes of Bobby Hutcherson, Kay Starr, Claude Williamson, Toots Thielemans, Sharon Jones, Paul Smoker, Bob Cranshaw, Joe Temperley, Paul Bley, and so many more that left us during 2016.
New Orleans Calling with George Ingmire
Tuesday at 6:00 PM
Allen Toussaint: Last Train (Part 2 of 2) 
Allen Toussaint (1938-2015) was a huge figure in New Orleans music: a producer, songwriter, arranger, musician, and sharp-dressed man. To even begin to give a sense of who he was, we need more than just one hour.
Allen Toussaint was a friend and collaborator to many great figures in New Orleans music. As a writer, producer, and arranger, he brought out the best in everyone, and was a key figure in some of the biggest hits to ever come from New Orleans. He was known and loved around the world as an ambassador of New Orleans music, but he remained a shy and private person, more comfortable working in the background as a sideman.
In this episode, the second part of a two-episode tribute, we speak with some of the people he worked closely with, including Leo Nocentelli and George Porter Jr of the Meters, Sarah Dash of Labelle, and the Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas. Plus we hear from a record collector who became friends with Toussaint one night, after he just dropped by to listen to some music.
Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride
Wednesday at 6:00 PM
50 Years of Monday Nights at The Vanguard
Vanguard Jazz Orchestra with Des Moines, Ia. native Dick Oatts (front row, far left – holding soprano sax)
In the middle of their careers, the trumpeter and composer/arranger Thad Jones and the 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.
Wednesday Night Special
7:00 PM (Follows Jazz Night in America)
Hot Latin Jazz For a Cold Winter’s Night – The Pedrito Martinez Group (ICJF)
The Pedrito Martinez Group at the 2014 Iowa City Jazz Festival
The Pedrito Martinez Group has its roots planted firmly in the Afro-Cuban rumba tradition and in the bata rhythms and vocal chants of the music of Yoruba and Santeria. Formed in 2008, the group has developed into an extraordinarily tight and musically creative unit. With a home base gig in Midtown Manhattan the group has built a fan base that includes Steve Gadd, Dave Weckel, Anton Fig, Steve Jordan Taj Mahal, John Scofield, Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, Zigaboo Modeliste, Wynton Marsalis, Derek Trucks, and Herlin Riley. Members of the group include Padro “Pedrito” Martinez, from Havana, on percussion and vocals; percussionist, Jhair Sala, from Lima, Peru; electric bassist, Alvaro Benavides, from Caracas, Venezuela; and keyboard player/vocalist, Araicne Trujillo, from Havana, Cuba. Don’t miss The Pedrito Martinez Group from the 2014 Iowa City Jazz Festival on the next Wednesday Night Special.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM
“Birth Date Anniversary Celebration For Kenny Wheeler”
Kenny Wheeler
Craig salutes trumpet and flugelhorn master, KENNETH VINCENT JOHN WHEELER (1/14/30 to 9/18/14), by spinning a dazzling array of selections from the exquisite sounds of this important composer and player. We’ll hear Kenny both as a leader, and as a sideman, spanning his 64 + years in the jazz recording business. Be sure to tune in for the mellow beauty that Kenny was able to produce for us.
Tropical Heat (hosted by Kpoti Senam Accoh)
Sunday, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Featured Album: “Oriental Jazz Elementals” by Casiopea feat. Various Artists 
https://www.amazon.com/Oriental-Jazz-elementals-Various-artists/dp/B004V526BG
Casiopea is a Japanese jazz fusion band that was formed in 1976 by guitarist Issei Noro, bassist Tetsuo Sakurai and keyboardist Hidehiko Koike. In 1977, keyboardist Minoru Mukaiya and drummer Takashi Sasaki joined the group, leaving Hidehiko out of Casiopea. The group debuted with the self-titled album Casiopea in 1979, featuring Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker and David Sanborn as guest musicians. The first record label to sign them was Alfa Records in 1979, with their first album Casiopea.
Galactic Funk first featured in their 1981 album “Crosspoint” which had around 10 different versions recorded both live and in studio. The album “Eyes of the Mind” was released in the United States in 1981. They then released the album Mint Jams in 1982, followed by Four by Four the same year, which was a collaborative album with Lee Ritenour, Harvey Mason, Nathan East and Don Grusin (all except Don Grusin later became founding members of Fourplay). Their first overseas concert was held in the United Kingdom in 1983. The group has toured Europe, South America, Australia, and Southeast Asia.
KCCK’s Midnight CD
The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:
New Music Monday for January 9, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Hailing from the remote location of Perth, West Australia, saxophonist and composer Troy Roberts has received numerous awards, including three consecutive DownBeat Jazz Soloist Awards, and was theonly Australian semi-finalist in the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. He’s performed around Europe and the U.S. extensively with artists such as Christian McBride, Dave Douglas, Orrin Evans and Kurt Elling, and he’s a regular member of the Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts Quartet. He’s also the newest member of Joey DeFrancesco’s latest quartet. For his seventh record as a leader, “Tales & Tones,” he has Mr. Watts on drums, Robert Hurst on bass and Silvano Monasterios on piano.
Saxophonist Bruce Williams’ fourth recording as a leader, “Private Thoughts,” is his first featuring solely original music. The Bard College and Julliard Jazz professor has graced the horn sections of The World Saxophone Quartet, as well as groups led by Stanley Cowelll, Frank Foster, Curtis Fuller and Roy Hargrove. He’s been an honored recipient of awards from DownBeat magazine and the Charlie Parker Music and More Foundation. Williams calls upon eight musicians who are brothers on and off the bandstand, including trumpeters Freddie Hendrix and Josh Evans, pianists Brandon McCune and Alan Jay Palmer, drummers Vince Ector and Chris Beck, bassist Chris Berger and guitarist Brad Allen Williams.
Also this week, steel pan master Victor Provost funneled the nervous excitement while expecting his first child’s birth into composing and recording his new CD, “Bright Eyes”.
Throttle Elevat
or Music reunites with saxophonist Kamasi Washington and virtuoso trumpeter Erik Jekabson for their fourth album.
Award-winning Toronto-based guitarist Eric St-Laurent, who has recorded and toured with Till Bronner, Dave Douglas and Dave Liebman, offers up a new quartet recording, “Planet.”
Culture Crawl 221 “Can You Have Too Much of a Good Thing?
Jen Brown directs the Shakespeare comedy “As You Like It” at the Iowa City Community Theatre January 20-29.
One of The Bard’s funniest scripts, it’s the tale of several people who seek refuge from their troubles in the forest, and in process discover trouble, mistaken identities, and of course, love. The play originates phrases that we still use today, including “all the world’s a stage.” and “can you have too much of a good thing?”
Tickets at www.iowacitycommunitytheatre.com or call 319.338.0443.
Culture Crawl 220 “Tears of a Clown”
It’s a double bill January 13 and 15 as the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre presents two very famous operas “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci.”
Christopher Clayton sings in both programs, and Cedar Rapids native and Jefferson High School graduate Janara Kellerman performs in Cavalleria. Janara is one of three Iowa natives in the cast, and Ta’u Pupu’a, a former Cleveland Browns NFL player, sings the lead in both shows.
Two shows, Friday and Sunday, January 13 & 15. Tickets at the Orchestra Iowa box office, www.artsiowa.com, or www.cr-opera.org.
Talking Pictures 1-5-17
Collateral Beauty and Lala Land with Dennis Green, Denny Lynch and Scott Chrisman.
KCCK’s Featured CD for January 2017
The KCCK Featured CD for January is “Make America Great Again”, the debut recording from Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra. In the aftermath of one of the most bizarre presidential elections the county has ever seen, the trombonist and his rollicking big band take back that tarnished slogan and run it up the flagpole of great American music, tracing its sound from its African roots through the streets of New Orleans to the country as a whole. Along the way, actor Wendell Pierce and Dirty Dozen Brass Band co-founder Roger Lewis join a host of the Crescent City’s finest young players to provide an infectious, finger-snapping state of the musical union. “Make America Great Again” is from Troubador Jass. Click here to purchase the CD.
Kirkwood Board of Trustees to meet January 12, 2017
The regular meeting of the Kirkwood Board of Trustees will take place January 12, 2017.
Time, place, and meeting agenda can be found at this link.