New Music Monday for June 6, 2016
Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Trinidad-born trumpeter Etienne Charles’ sixth full-length release, “San 
Jose Suite,” is an ambitious ten-part work exploring the histories, cultures and musical traditions of three Western settlements that share a name: San Jose, Costa Rica; San Jose, California; and Charles’ native St. Joseph, Trinidad, known as San Jose during the era of Spanish colonization. Charles traveled to each locale last year and spent time with townspeople, local historians and storytellers, observing and participating in rituals and jamming with local musicians in the indigenous and African Diaspora communities. The process illuminated shared pasts of colonial conquest in the Americas and the resilience of communities that have developed as a result.
In 2013, for th
e first time since 1980, Pat Metheny recorded with a band that highlighted tenor saxophone. The resulting Grammy-winning disc featured Chris Potter on reeds, longtime collaborator Antonio Sanchez on drums and Ben Williams on bass. The guitarist then took that same ensemble into new territory with the addition of his Orchestrion and a focus on more through-composed material and christened the ensemble the Pat Metheny Unity Group. The Group’s first record was released in 2014 and was named the best jazz album of the year in the DownBeat Readers Poll Awards. The Group went on a world tour of more than 150 cities, and then hunkered down in a small Manhattan theater to film new performances of music from their two discs and from the entirety of Metheny’s music catalog. The results were released on DVD last year, and now “The Unity Sessions” is new on CD.
Also this week, after living and working in Europe for the last decade, innovative saxophonist Chico Freeman makes his long-awaited return to the United States, celebrating with the release of his tour-de-force disc, “Spoken Into Existence”.
Pia
nist Lafayette Harris is joined by special guest Houston Person on “Hangin’ With the Big Boys”.
Pianist Rossano Sportiello, bassist Nick Parrott and drummer Ed Metz, Jr., team up for “Strictly Confidential.”
Talking Pictures 6-2-16
X-Men: Apocalypse, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Jungle Book
Kirkwood Board of Trustees to meet June 9, 2016
The regular meeting of the Kirkwood Board of Trustees will take place June 9, 2016
Time, place, and meeting agenda can be found at this link.
KCCK’s Featured CD for June 2016
The KCCK Featured CD for June is “Beginning of a Memory” by Matt’s Wilson’s Big Happy Family. Returning to the studio for the first time since his wife Felicia lost her battle with leukemia in 2014, Wilson convenes the closest members of his extended musical family, including all the members, past and present, of the Matt Wilson Quartet, Arts and Crafts, and Christmas Tree-O. The result is a warm and loving commemoration, featuring new renditions of many of Felicia’s favorite tunes from the drummer’s past recordings. “Beginning of a Memory” is from Palmetto Records. Click here to purchase the CD.
Iowa City Jazz Fest Channel
Once again this year, Iowa’s Jazz Station gives you the chance to binge on the artists coming to the Iowa City Jazz Festival.
Our Jazz Fest Channel is a 24-7 audio feed of all the artists playing at the Festival June 30 – July 2. From the United Jazz Ensemble to Stacey Kent, they’re all here, even the sidestage groups. Plus interviews, schedule updates and other Jazz Fest news.
See the 2017 performance schedule and artist bios.
Click the button to listen to the Jazz Fest Channel right now.
Or listen on the KCCK app for IOS or Android. (Don’t know how to switch between audio streams in the app? Click here.)
Listen on itunes. Also at 88.3-2 on your HD Radio.