The Middle Cedar Partnership Project aims to improve water quality and reduce flooding.
Special Programs: Week of March 20 – 26
Short List with Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM
Corridor Jazz (Dick Watson)
Dick Watson
Pianist Dick Watson has been a fixture for many years at the Lighthouse Inn in Cedar Rapids. Dick is a resident of Iowa City, a graduate of the University of Iowa and a successful insurance representative. But his jazz piano is equally as important to him for a balanced life. He began in classical music but lessons with the Des Moines jazz pianist “Speck” Redd changed his direction. He never took a music class at the “U” but forged his own style, which is as gentle as Teddy Wilson’s and as modern as Thelonious Monk’s.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
“Jazz in Paris – Part Two”
Craig presents another tasty program featuring a wide variety of jazz artists from France, as well as visiting artists in France. We’ll hear French mainstays Michel de Villers, Blossom Dearie (both as a pianist, and as a vocalist with Les Blue Stars), Jean-Claude Fohrenbach, Rene Thomas, Toots Thielemans, and many others. We’ll also hear recordings from American ex-patriots and visitors….like Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Chet Baker, Max Roach, and several others.
Night Lights (Classic Jazz) with David Brent Johnson
Monday, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM (follows Jazz Corner the World)
Billie Holiday (Photo by William Gottlieb/Redferns)
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: “Late Lady: Billie Holiday on Verve in the 1950s”. http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/archives/2017/1/
Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson
Monday at 11:00 PM (follows Nightlights)
Buddy Collette: ‘Man of Many Parts’ 
Multi-instrumentalist Buddy Collette helped make jazz history. He was one of the first African-American musicians to play in a television studio band, and he was the driving force behind integrating the musician’s union in Los Angeles. As a sideman, he played with Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, and the Chico Hamilton Quintet, among others. Collette’s life is equal parts passion for music and social justice.
Wednesday Night Special
6:00 PM
The Jarrett Purdy Project live at the Opus Concert Café
The Jarrett Purdy Project at Opus Concert Café
The Jarrett Purdy Project is a collective that unites the talent of the jazz programs at the University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa. Performing almost entirely compositions by pianist and bandleader Jarrett Purdy, the group creates an energized, original sound that touches on both contemporary and traditional jazz styles. The group will be reconvening since their summer performances at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival and the Iowa City Jazz Festival. The Jarrett Purdy Project features Gerardo Gomez on saxophone and clarinet, Mark Northup on saxophone and flute, Joey Schnoebelen on trumpet and flugelhorn, Jarrett Purdy on piano, Blake Shaw on bass, and Ben Oetken on drums.
Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride
Thursday at 11:00 PM
Cassandra Wilson Sings Billie Holiday
Cassandra Wilson at the Kennedy Center
Jazz Night in America marks the centennial of the birth of Billie Holiday with Grammy winner Cassandra Wilson. She showcases her blues, country, and folk-tinged delivery, singing selections from her latest recording highlighting the artistry of Billie Holiday. Jazz Night speaks with some of the key players in the making of this recording and we also catch up with pianist Barbara Carroll who shares her story of the one opportunity she had to perform with Lady Day on “The Today Show” in 1958.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
“Blue Note Records in 1967” 
Craig travels back 50 years to sample some of the jazz goodies that were provided by Blue Note Records in 1967. We’ll hear classic Blue Note dates from major figures like Lee Morgan, Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, Larry Young, Lou Donaldson, and many others. This is the stuff!!
Tropical Heat (hosted by Kpoti Senam Accoh)
Sunday, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Featured Album: “Luk Thung: Classic & Obscure 78s from the Thai Countryside” by Suraphon Sombatcharoen et Various Artists
There have been several compilations of Thailand’s Luk Thung music issued in the West since 2010. To date, all of them have focused on different expressions of the style that emerged in the 1950s. Luk Thung is Thailand’s “country” music, that of its rural people. It has its roots in the Ramwong dance, instituted by the Thai government in 1944 to combat its own cultural error in introducing too many Western cultural traditions — from the use of Latin rhythms (cha-cha-cha, tango, rhumba, etc.) and jazzy big-band horns in its music to forks and knives to Western dress in everyday life. As a musical force, Ramwong proved to be popular among both urban and rural citizens who longed for their own heritage. Its interpretive bands began to split along those lines. Luk Thung featured more regional and traditional Thai instruments, and socially conscious lyrics (sometimes outlawed by the power structure, making them more popular), and yet, the new sound often retained the horns and rhythms introduced during the government’s Pleng Thai Sakon (Modern Thai Song) era.
https://dusttodigital.bandcamp.com/album/luk-thung-classic-obscure-78s-from-the-thai-countryside
KCCK’s Midnight CD
The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:
New Music Monday for March 20, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Pop music has been a ri
ch resource that jazz artists have mined for generations and the music of the 1960s is no exception, with many finding inspiration in the songs of the Beatles. Organissimo, the acclaimed Michigan-based trio centered around the powerful Hammond B3 organ, presents a new take on the Beatles oeuvre on its 6th album, “B3tles-A Soulful Tribute to the Fab Four.” While traveling the highways of the American South returning from a festival in Tupelo, MS, in 2016, the band passed the time listening to their favorite Beatles songs and inevitably discussed arranging them for the organ trio format. They eventually convened in keyboardist Jim Alfredson’s home studio to flesh out those ideas, with arrangements coming together in a group setting.
Over the past half century, Howard Johnson, the eminence grise of low brass, has appeared on hundreds of album playing tuba, baritone sax, bass clarinet, electric bass and other instruments with jazz giants including Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Lee Morgan, Chick Corea, Tony Williams and Gato Barbieri. With “Testimony,” his third recording with his band Gravity, Johnson takes a giant step forward in making the music world safe for tubas and low brass. His ten-piece tuba choir, which also includes veterans Earl McIntyre and Bob Stewart, takes on a program of Johnson’s originals as well as compositions by McCoy Tyner, Carol King and others.
Also this week, saxophonist Lisa Parrott, winner of the 2016 Downbeat Critics Poll in the Rising Star category for baritone sax and one of many Australians who have shown they can succeed on the competitive New York jazz scene, pays homage to her homeland with “Round Tripper”. Pianist Mike Longo is joined by fellow Dizzy Gillespie Band alumni Paul West on bass and Lewis Nash on drums for “Only Time Will Tell”.
Reedman Ke
n Fowser offers up another batch of original compositions with his quintet on “Now Hear This!”
Culture Crawl 237 “Just Keep Singing”
Chorale Midwest was formed 20 years ago by a group of choir alums who wanted to keep performing post-school. KCCK’s Bob Stewart is a charter member.
Today, the Chorale has grown to include a main ensemble, a women’s chorus, a vocal jazz group, and also features a soloist spotlight series.
Upcoming events include:
- March 13 – Spotlight Concert Series: The Mezzos
- April 2 – Spring Concert “Voices from Heaven and Earth”
- May 6 – Spotlight Concert: Jazz Singers
- June 2-4 – Bach Mass in B Minor (with Orchestra Iowa)
Details at www.ChoraleMidwest.org.
Talking Pictures 3-16-17
Kong: Skull Island with Hollis Monroe, Denny Lynch and Phil Brown.
Laurence Hobgood
Jazz pianist Laurence Hobgood performs Thursday, March 16, at Holiday Inn & Suites in Davenport and 6 p.m. Sunday, March 19, at the Redstone Room in Davenport. He spoke with KCCK’s Bob Stewart.
Special Programs: Week of March 13 – 19
Short List with Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM
Corridor Jazz (Tim Daugherty)
Tim Daugherty performing at Opus Concert Cafe in Cedar Rapids
Keyboardist Tim Daugherty should be a familiar name to many. From his emergence with the Daugherty-Davis & McPartland group in the early 1980s to his current steady gig as a musician on cruise ships, he has been enjoying his musical career. The original trio lasted a decade and was an Eastern Iowa favorite, and they even had a three-week tour in Russia and another in Mexico before they disbanded. Daugherty and Dennis McPartland continued their association to the twenty-first century.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
“Birthdate Anniversary of Jazz Trumpet Master, Blue Mitchell”
Craig celebrates the birthday of Richard Allen “Blue” Mitchell (3/13/30 to 5/21/79). We’ll hear many recordings that feature Blue as a leader, for Blue Note, Riverside, and Mainstream Records. We’ll also hear him as a side man with the likes of Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, bluesman John Mayall, Chick Corea, Horace Silver, and a host of others. Uplifting music from one of the true jazz greats!
Night Lights (Classic Jazz) with David Brent Johnson
Emily Remler
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: “Jazz Women of the 1980’s – Geri Allen, Jane Ira Bloom, Emily Remler and others”. http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/archives/2017/1/
Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson
Monday at 11:00 PM (follows Nightlights)
Thelonious Monk: ‘Thelonious Himself’
The sound of Thelonious Monk is one of the most recognizable in modern jazz. By the “plunk” or “thunk” of a single chord, his piano and compositions are unmistakable. An original on and off the bandstand, he was the launch pad of bebop, and also created a body of work in its own orbit. This show celebrates Monk’s lasting contributions, with help from his collaborators and admirers including drummer Max Roach, producer Orrin Keepnews, and writer Stanley Crouch.
Wednesday Night Special
6:00 PM
Local on the 8s live at the Opus Concert Café
Local on the 8s
Local on the 8s, a group of musicians from across Iowa, utilizes a compelling combination and mixture of progressive rock, jazz, R&B, hip hop and funk music. Performing the music of Trombone Shorty, Roy Hargrove, Kneebody, Christian Scott, Snarky Puppy and many others, Local on the 8s offers high energy music, steeped in tradition and sophistication that will make anyone dance. Local on the 8s seeks to erase the lines between the mainstream and the underground – straight ahead and rock/funk. Band Members are: Eric Thompson, drums / cymbals; Ben Soltau, bass; Michael Jarvey, and Jon Snell, keys; Steve Grismore and Andy Parrot, guitar; Robert Espe, saxophones and Brett Messenger, trumpet / flugelhorn.
Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride
Thursday at 11:00 PM
Catherine Russell Live at Jazz at Lincoln Center
Catherine Russell
Catherine Russell remembers her late mother, singer Carline Ray, in a performance honoring the vocal jazz trio tradition. Russell is known for her work with Steely Dan and David Bowie, but also as an interpreter of blues and early jazz music. For this episode of Jazz Night in America, she hones in on this style with arrangements originally reworked by Sy Oliver for Carline Ray. Also, Russell shares stories of her mother’s journey in jazz through coming up in the 1940s as a black woman.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
“Jazz in Paris – Part Two”
Craig presents another tasty program featuring a wide variety of jazz artists from France, as well as visiting artists in France. We’ll hear French mainstays Michel de Villers, Blossom Dearie (both as a pianist, and as a vocalist with Les Blue Stars), Jean-Claude Fohrenbach, Rene Thomas, Toots Thielemans, and many others. We’ll also hear recordings from American ex-patriots and visitors….like Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Chet Baker, Max Roach, and several others. Magnifique!!
Tropical Heat (hosted by Kpoti Senam Accoh)
Sunday, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Featured Album: “El doble de amigos / Twice as Many Friends” by Sol y Canto 
El doble de amigos/Twice as Many Friends, the first family recording by popular Latin group Sol y Canto, is twice as much fun. This collection of original songs and fresh, bilingual interpretations of favorites from Latin America and the United States is a joyous celebration of music, language, culture and childhood. The songs are fun and infectiously danceable with lyrics that invite singing and dancing along. Featuring a rocking horn section and a children’s chorus, Sol y Canto has created an irresistible recording with true multi-cultural appeal. Children will enjoy the flawless blend of English and Spanish and whether they are being exposed to either or both languages for the first time they will come away with a variety of new words and an appreciation of two wonderful cultures. Includes suggested activities to accompany the songs.
http://www.allmusic.com/album/el-doble-de-amigos-twice-as-many-friends-mw0000692196
KCCK’s Midnight CD
The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:
New Music Monday for March 13, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Heads of State made their debut recording in 2015, just months after they played together for the first time as a quartet at Smoke in New York. Now, with another year of playing together under their collective belts (on top of the nearly five decades of relationships shared by the various members), they return with the aptly-titled “Four in One.” The quartet of living legends, featuring saxophonist Gary Bartz, pianist Larry Willis, drummer Al Foster, and their latest addition, bassist David Williams, offer a jubilant, tremendously swinging sophomore release that pairs original compositions by all four members with pieces by some of the icons that have mentored them.
Award-winning trumpeter Al Muirhead has long been an iconic figure on the Canadian jazz scene. He was playing in the Regina Symphony and dance bands by age 12 and has since played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Rosemary Clooney and Diana Krall. Al recently came to wider prominence in North America with his debut album. Now at the age of 81, he’s making up for lost time with his third release in just two years, “Northern Adventures.” Featuring five different small ensembles of both old and new friends, the disc brings together a veritable who’s who of Canadian jazz, including pianist Don Thompson, guitarist Reg Schwager, trumpeter Guido Basso and saxophonist Mike Murley.
Also this week, Seattle-based guitarist Frank Kohl unveils his fourth album as leader, “Rising Tide,” joined by his New York City quartet featuring bassist Steve LaSpina and his brother Tom Kohl on piano.
Throttle Elevator Music reunites with tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington for a fifth recording, “Retrorespective”.
Peter Drew has put together an all-star big band
to feature his compositions and his arrangements of some classic jazz tunes on “Where & When.”