2015 Iowa City Jazz Festival – Memorial Day Special
Monday, May 30th at 6:00 AM
Charles Lloyd at the 2015 Iowa City Jazz Festival
KCCK gives you a great way to kick-start the summer and get pumped for the 2016 Iowa City Jazz Festival (July 1-3) when we bring you all of the 2015 Iowa City Jazz Festival Main Stage performances plus our exclusive, behind the scene, backstage interviews with the major artists during our special Memorial Day broadcast. Enjoy 12 different bands during 18 hours of non-stop coverage from all three days of last summer’s festival. Hear several of today’s top international jazz artists, some outstanding local players, plus many of the area’s best high school jazz musicians. Our line-up includes the United Jazz Ensemble, Brian Charette Trio, The Becca Stevens Band, North Corridor Jazz All-Stars, Colossus Big Band, James Dreier and Ritmocano!, Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Bird Calls, Dave Douglas & High Risk, Atlantis Quartet, Julian Lage Trio, Ben Allison & Think Free and the Charles Lloyd Quartet!
Don’t forget… listen from wherever you happen to be on Memorial Day. With our IOS and Android apps, KCCK goes where you do.
Short List with Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM
The Short List: Vocal Short List 14 (Cris Barber)
Cris Barber
Cris Barber is a little heralded Los Angeles-based singer. She’s been seen often on the regional scene, but rarely outside of California. This is an attempt to give her an introduction to the Midwest through several recent albums; one of them a Christmas treat.
Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson
Monday at 6:00 PM
Melba Liston: Bones of an Arranger
Melba Liston
Melba Liston (1926-1999) made her mark as one of the few women to succeed as a jazz instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. A trombonist in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, she played in big bands and led her own group in the ’70s and ’80s. As an accomplished arranger, she brought musical life to the songs of artists as diverse as Billie Holiday, Gloria Lynne, Art Blakey, Milt Jackson, and even Marvin Gaye. And her musical collaboration with pianist Randy Weston for more than thirty years produced such critically acclaimed albums as The Spirits of Our Ancestors and Volcano Blues.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM (follows Jazz Profiles)
“State of The Instrument – Part Eight….More Pianists”
Craig continues the “STATE OF THE INSTRUMENT” series with Show # 8…a close look at 4 more current jazz pianists who are held in very high regard! We’ll hear selections from from the recorded output of GERI ALLEN, DAVID BERKMAN, GERALD CLAYTON, and ORRIN EVANS. Essential listening from 4 very distinct and magnetic voices from today’s modern jazz pianists!
New Orleans Calling with George Ingmire
Tuesday at 6:00 PM
That’s A Plenty: The Journey of Seva Venet
Seva Venet
Photo: Zack Smith
Guitarist and banjoist Seva Venet is a musician’s musician. He came to New Orleans in 1999, in search of traditional jazz; finding it in places like Jackson Square and in music clubs. But he didn’t stop there – he’s also spent hundreds of hours researching the 19th century roots of early jazz, before this music was even recorded.
Seva’s Storyville String Band, which performs live in this episode, continues the traditions of the classic string band era in New Orleans. The Storyville String Band instrumentation was based on the 6 and 7/8 String Band, which Seva describes in the program.
In addition to his recordings, he periodically publishes important articles on traditional jazz music and musicians. His articles often appear in Offbeat magazine.
Seva speaks about the influence of the great New Orleanian musician, songwriter, and mentor Danny Barker (1909-1994), who died five years before Seva arrived in the city.
Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride
Wednesday at 6:00 PM
Dew Drop Jazz Hall with Leroy Jones
Leroy Jones
Trumpeter Leroy Jones started playing New Orleans back when Bourbon Street was lined with jazz clubs instead of bars. The city has changed since then and Leroy has evolved right along with it. He’s led second lines with the Fairview Brass Band and its successor, The Hurricane Brass Band, played club gigs with modern jazz combos, and toured with Harry Connick Jr’s band for two decades. Always dapper and always swinging, Leroy Jones is known in the Big Easy as the “Keeper of the Flame” for keeping these New Orleans traditions foremost in his playing and his personal character. He brings his septet to the historic Dew Drop Jazz Hall in Mandeville, LA for a special Big Easy Jazz Night in America.
Wednesday Night Special
7:00 PM (Follows Jazz Night in America)
“Miles Ahead”
Don Cheadle as Miles Davis In ‘Miles Ahead’
We celebrate the 90th birthday anniversary of Miles Davis (born May 26, 1926) with a one hour radio special: “Miles Ahead.” Our special features interviews with Don Cheadle, who stared in, wrote and directed the recent biopic “Miles Ahead”, Robert Glasper (pianist, Miles Ahead score composer), plus Miles’ son (Erin Davis) and nephew (Vince Wilburn, Jr) who co-manage his estate. The hour includes classic Miles Davis recordings “Seven Steps to Heaven”, “So What”, “Frelon Brun”, “Solea”, “Black Satin”, Prelude, Part 2” and “Back Seat Betty” plus new cuts from Robert Glasper’s original film score. Hosted by Joshua Jackson (WVTF – Roanoke, VA)
Repeats Thursday at 12:00 pm during the Jazz Masters with Hollis Monroe.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM
“Prestige Records in 1966” 
Craig travels back 50 years to look in on the operations and output from one of the “Big 3” modern jazz record labels, PRESTIGE RECORDS, back in 1966. We’ll hear a mixed bag of jazz goodies from Johnny ‘Hammond’ Smith, Jaki Byard, Bobby Timmons, Houston Person, Frank Foster, Teddy Edwards, Don Patterson, and many others. The most when it comes down to the “Ultra – Cool”!!!
Tropical Heat with Kpoti Accoh
Sunday, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Featured Album: “Publico” by Adriana Calcanhotto 
http://www.allmusic.com/album/publico-mw0001008066
Adriana Calcanhotto (formerly Calcanhoto) is a MPB/pop singer/composer revealed in 1990 who had great success in Brazil, and helped bring Brazilian music again to the hit parade after the 1980s were characterized as the Brazilian rock period.
Her father, a jazz drummer, accompanied Elis Regina in her early career, and influenced Calcanhotto’s taste for music. She started out in Porto Alegre playing and singing at small bars then moved to Rio, where she was invited to sing at bars of the same style. Her novice repertory of only ten songs wasn’t enough for a gig, but she insisted anyway. The widespread notion that she began her career as a barbecue restaurant singer is not true; she sang only one night there and never returned, due to her small repertory. In 1990, she recorded her first album, Enguiço. There she revealed a young singer with unusual taste for MPB as the album had “Nunca” (Lupicínio Rodrigues, also a gaúcho). Those were still Brazilian rock times and other musics didn’t have a chance. Fortunately to her, other singers like Marisa Monte were making the same choice, which dislocated the popular taste during the 1990s to a re-approximation with Brazilian music. The album also brought “Sonífera Ilha,” a cheesy hit by the Os Titãs improved in her rendition, and “Caminhoneiro,” another corny hit by Roberto Carlos that reaffirmed her capacity for creating sensitive performances of uneven material.
KCCK’s Midnight CD
The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:
usic is at once timeless and yet utterly of its time, Gregory Porter solidifies his standing as his generation’s most soulful jazz singer with “Take Me to the Alley”, the much-anticipated follow-up to his sensational 2013 Blue Note debut. As he’s done with his previous three albums, Porter teamed up with producer Kamau Kenyatta to craft a collection of stirring originals that juxtapose the personal and political. His partnership with Kenyatta started in the mid-1990s when he was a student at San Diego State University, where Porter began his college years playing football on a full athletic scholarship. A shoulder injury diverted him into a music career and it was through Kenyatta’s mentorship that that professional career began. Recently, Porter moved his family from Brooklyn back to his hometown of Bakersfield, California, where he can be closer to his brothers and sisters.
Also this week, the post-bop supergroup The Power Quintet, consisting of trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, pianist Danny Grissett, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Bill Stewart, cooks up a swinging brew of mostly original tunes on “High Art”; the Chicago-based group The Giving Trio, with a style and sound reminiscent of late ’50s and ‘60s cool-jazz and pop music, unveils its first full-length studio recording, “Defuser”.
For nearly 24 years our affable local curmudgeon, Mark Yother, offered us his weekday “Got A Minute” commentaries – his sometimes skewed perspective on what everybody else is up to. Occasionally serious; always more or less reality-based.
st, composer and author Walt Weiskopf has made in impressive mark as both a leader and sideman with over a dozen critically acclaimed discs and countless sideman credits. In 1983, he began a fourteen-year association with pianist and arranger Toshiko Akiyoshi, making seven recordings and touring the U.S., Japan and Europe several times with her orchestra. In 1993 Weiskopf began releasing his own CDs as a leader, with sixteen to his credit to date. Also in this time, he’s performed with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Steve Smith’s Jazz Legacy, and has had a long-running association with Steely Dan. He’s also among the most respected authors in the field, penning six books on advanced topics in improvisation. His new record, “The Way You Say It,” continues to show his evolution as a composer, bandleader and reed man, with organist Brian Charette, vibraphonist Behn Gillece and drummer Steve Fidyk helping to convey his clear and straight-forward message.
Also this week, jazz master Benny Golson offers up his first recording in seven years, “Horizon Ahead”.
