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.
This Week’s Shows: Week of January 2 – 8
Short List with Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM
The Short List: Corridor Jazz (Eddie Piccard) new series
Pianist Eddie Piccard rehearsing prior to performing with his quintet at KCCK’s Jazz Under the Stars
A familiar musician is on The Short List this week as we survey “Corridor Jazz.” If there were a face for jazz music in Eastern Iowa, the leading candidate would be pianist-singer Eddie Piccard. He has been resettled in Cedar Rapids for more than a quarter-century and has brought a lot of joy to both dyed-in-the-wool and casual jazz fans. He is a native of Norway, Iowa, and attended Cornell College back in the days without a jazz program—he and his friends made their own. Eddie spent a few years in Chicago playing clubs like The London House and the Jazz Showcase; then a few more in Florida resorts where comedian Jackie Gleason became a fan. Piccard has played all the great jazz venues in Cedar Rapids (including KCCK’s Jazz Under the Stars) and has legions of loyal fans.
Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson
Monday at 6:00 PM
Mary Lou Williams, ‘Perpetually Contemporary’
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams achieved and maintained a status that many women in jazz found elusive: unwavering respect from male colleagues as a musical equal. Her accomplishments are many as arranger and pianist with Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds of Joy, with her own small groups, and with the be-bop artists of the ’40s. Throughout, she was always — as Duke Ellington once said — “perpetually contemporary.”
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM (follows Jazz Profiles)
“Birth Date Anniversary Celebration for Gil Melle”
Craig celebrates the birthday of painter, sculptor, jazz artist, film composer, and pioneering inventor of electronic instruments, GILBERT JOHN MELLE (b.12/31/1931). We’ll hear a variety of amazing recordings made by Melle, including his respected Blue Note and Prestige dates, most of which fall into the category of “overlooked” and “underrated”.
New Orleans Calling with George Ingmire
Tuesday at 6:00 PM
Allen Toussaint: Say Yes To Music (Part 1)
Allen Toussaint
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. So, in this program, part one of a two-hour tribute special, we hear Allen Toussaint’s own voice, from interviews preserved at the Archive of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, as he talks about his early career, in the years leading up to his time in the Army in the mid-1960s.
And in this first part we’ll also hear an exclusive live performance of Allen Toussaint, recorded in 2005 at WWOZ Piano Night, an annual benefit for the radio station where this program is produced. Allen has been a supporter of WWOZ since its inception, and we’re proud to share this recording, which has not been heard in ten years.
As Allen Toussaint said: “Once you have said ‘yes’ to music, it says ‘yes’ back to you.”
Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride
Wednesday at 6:00 PM
Jazz Night in Panama
Danilo Perez
Jazz and Panama may not have an obvious relationship, yet this tiny country between the Americas and giant oceans, has given us some of its finest musicians dating back to Luis Russell, around the time of construction of the great Canal itself. Today, no one person is doing more to underscore this connection than Danilo Perez, renown pianist, educator, and country’s official Cultural Ambassador. We take you to his Panama Jazz Festival, the grand vehicle behind his greater mission of introducing underserved kids to music and inspiring greater social change in his developing nation.
Wednesday Night Special
7:00 PM (Follows Jazz Night in America)
Hot Latin Jazz For a Cold Winter’s Night – Jane Bunnett and the Spirits of Havana (ICJF)
Jane Bunnett
A native of Toronto, Jane Bunnett has become one of the foremost jazz musicians in Canada, and has gained recognition around the world for her improvising talents, technical proficiency, composing and band leading abilities. Following several visits to Cuba, she has devoted much of her music to reflect her own unique experiences with that island’s musical traditions. The result is an infectious blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms and straight-ahead North American Jazz. Don’t miss Jane Bunnett and the Spirits of Havana from the 2004 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
“A Look Back at Jazz, 2016”
Paul Smoker: May 8, 1941 – May 14, 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.
Tropical Heat (hosted by Kpoti Senam Accoh)
Sunday, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Featured Album: TBD
KCCK’s Midnight CD
The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:
New Music Monday for January 2, 2017
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
The music of 
Latin America has long been some of the world’s most beloved, whether Brazilian bossa nova, Argentinean tango, Cuban bolero or irresistible songs from Chile, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Pianist Edward Simon— a native of Venezuela who has made a name for himself in America as a jazz pianist, bandleader and composer/arranger, along with being a Guggenheim Fellow and a member of the SFJazz Collective—has created fresh, supple interpretations of melodies from all these countries for his new CD, “Latin American Songbook.” The San Francisco Bay Area-based pianist leads his working trio with bassist Joe Martin and drummer Adam Cruz.
The music of composer Anthony Branker stands firmly on jazz traditions while simultaneously pushing the boundaries in bold and beautiful new directions. In describing his music, Jazz Times magazine says, “Honing a hybrid of freewheeling postbop and social commentary, abetted by judicious dollops of funk, fusion, spoken word, clave and polyrhythmic percussion, Branker incorporates these elements in broad, bold strokes, like a muralist. He has yet to make a bad record.” For his newest disc, “Beauty Within,” Branker presents brilliant new works as performed by his newest ensemble, Imagine, with longtime collaborator-saxophonist Ralph Bowen, guitarist Pete McCann, pianist Fabian Almazan, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Rudy Royston.
Also this week, saxophonist and flutist Steve Slagle is joined by special guest Joe Lovano on “Alto Manhattan”.
Saxophonist Shawn Maxell, one of the preeminent performers on the Chicago jazz scene, adds the singular trumpet voices of three of Chicago’s finest—Victor Garcia, Chad McCullough and Cory Wilkes—to his working quartet on “Shawn Maxwell’s New Tomorrow”.
Terell Stafford, hailed by legendary pianist McCoy Tyner as “one of the great players of our time, a fabulous trumpet player,” performs the music of Herb Harris on the new CD, “Forgive and Forget.”
Clean Up Your Act 1-25-17
A successful conservation program seeks more participation from dairy farmers.
Talking Pictures 12-29-16
Passengers with Hollis Monroe, Denny Lynch and Phil Brown.
First Friday Jazz June 2
The TYE Male Quartet will perform at First Friday Jazz at the Opus Concert Cafe Friday, June 2, at 5 p.m. The first set will be broadcast live on KCCK. The First Friday Jazz Series features an eclectic mix of jazz, Latin, contemporary music and more in an intimate, upscale environment. For a $12 cover, enjoy live music and drink specials at the Opus Concert Café bar, on the first Friday of every month. Purchase tickets.