Short List with Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM
The Short List: A Personal History of Jazz – Movies / TV
Movie Poster for Round Midnight
Producer Bob Naujoks concentrates on television and movie themes that are jazz based. The Peter Gunn theme by Henry Mancini is at the top of his TV list, but Hill Street Blues is not far behind. Imagine the jazz giants Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday in the same movie. They were, in 1947 in the film New Orleans. The picture was pedestrian, but their performances were not. Bio-flics like The Benny Goodman Story and The Five Pennies (that’s cornetist Red Nichols) had great music and weak stories. Better on both accounts was Round Midnight with Dexter Gordon.
Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson
Monday at 6:00 PM
Bud Powell: Bebop Pianism
Bud Powell – Photo credit: Susanne Schapowalow
After being brutally beaten by police at age 21, Powell spent the rest of his short life fighting mental illness, until his death in 1966. His music revealed his constant state of struggle. Known to improvise like one possessed, Powell’s right hand could race through the upper registers of the keyboard with astounding clarity while his left hand grounded the lines with irregularly spaced dissonant bass chords. Bud Powell created a ferocious body of music that shattered the limits of bebop and influenced all that followed him.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM (follows Jazz Profiles)
“Pianist Lennie Tristano”
Craig celebrates the birth date anniversary of pioneering pianist, composer, arranger, and teacher, Leonard Joseph “Lennie” Tristano. We’ll hear an array of amazing examples of his artistry from throughout his distinguished career…including solo piano works, as well as recordings in the company of many of his famed students (Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Ronnie Ball, and others). A unique stylist, to be sure!
New Orleans Calling with George Ingmire
Tuesday at 6:00 PM
“Remebering Harold Battiste – Part 1”
Harold Battiste
Harold Battiste, who passed last year at the age of 83, was a true New Orleanian: he grew up in the Magnolia Projects, was educated at Dillard, and founded the first record label, All For One (A.K.A. AFO Records) owned by African American musicians. After decades in Los Angeles, he spent many years on the Jazz Studies faculty at the University of New Orleans. His 2010 autobiography Unfinished Blues: Memories of a New Orleans Music Man is required reading for any student of music history.
A composer, teacher, and mentor, Battiste was perhaps best known as a producer and arranger.
Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride
Wednesday at 6:00 PM
The Panama Jazz Festival: Danilo Pérez
Stateside, Danilo Pérez is a highly respected pianist in the jazz world. In his homeland of Panama, he’s a national icon, and not just for his artistry: He sees jazz as a vehicle for social change. The Panama Jazz Festival he founded, for instance, doesn’t just feature major international acts — it brings students from all sorts of backgrounds to share the stage. Jazz Night In America goes to Panama City to take in festival performances by Perez, John Patitucci and a rising star violinist named Joshue Ashby, and finds out how music can change lives in Panama.
Wednesday Night Special
7:00 PM (Follows Jazz Night in America)
Jazz Masters at the Iowa City Jazz Festival: Tom Harrell Colors of a Dream (2014)
Tom Harrell Colors of a Dream at the 2014 Iowa City Jazz Festival
Praised by Newsweek for his pure melodic genius, Tom Harrell is widely recognized as one of the most creative and dynamic jazz instrumentalists and composers of our time. While Harrell is a master of the jazz idiom, he constantly seeks new challenges and influences. With a discography of over 260 recordings and a career that spans more than four decades, Harrell has managed to stay fresh and current as he continues to actively record and tour around the world. In the last two years, Harrell has begun to develop new projects, often involving some or all of the quintet members. The TRIP quartet is a piano-less group that was formed last year after Harrell was commissioned to write new music by Dave Douglas. COLORS OF A DREAM, Harrell’s latest creation, takes the piano-less concept one step further with this sextet featuring alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, Grammy Award winning bassist-vocalist Esperanza Spalding and quintet members Wayne Escoffery (tenor sax), Ugonna Okegwo (bass), and Johnathan Blake (drums).
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM
“State of The Instrument — Part 5: The Bass”
Linda Oh
In this, the 5th show from the new series of programs, Craig will spin a variety of discs that will include music from a number of current, powerful artists, that will throw the spotlight on to 4 different hip and happening bassists. We’ll hear tunes that will include bassists, Jon Hebert, Linda Oh, Hans Glawischnig, and Scott Colley. Great music for everyone, but particularly for those who have an interest in what’s happening on today’s jazz scene!
Tropical Heat with Kpoti Accoh
Sunday, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Featured Album: “Alegria de Viver” by Leny Andrade & Roni Ben-Hur 
http://jazztimes.com/articles/170287-alegria-de-viver-leny-andrade-roni-ben-hur
Described in the New York Times as both the ‘Sarah Vaughan and the Ella Fitzgerald of Brazil’, vocal legend Leny Andrade’s intimate duo with elite NYC guitarist Roni Ben-Hur is a soul stirring collection of beloved sambas, bossa novas and boleros which have never before been recorded by this great artist.
Alegria de Viver (Joy of Living), her new CD for Motema, is a revelation, sure to please any fan of Brazilian music. ‘I chose the repertoire’, says Andrade. ‘I’d never recorded these songs. Fantastic! I did a perfect list!’ The song list includes music by some of the greatest Brazilian composers and includes Andrade’s first recording of the Antonio Jobim classic ‘Dindi’. Her perfect list of songs is mirrored by the perfect choice for instrumental support – guitarist Roni Ben-Hur who joined her in the studio in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in January, 2014. Says Ben Hur, ‘It was very casual. We were in one small room sitting next to each other. It was all under Leny’s leadership’. The resulting release is a high mark in the style of timeless, classic Brazilian music.
KCCK’s Midnight CD
The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:
usician tends to be an itinerant one. While traveling the world over the past three decades, trumpeter Jim Rotondi has formed a tenuous definition of the work “home”-sometimes it can mean a permanent residence, sometimes just a welcoming room for a few nights’ performances once or twice a year. On his latest album, “Dark Blue,” Rotondi offers a musical travelogue of some of the places he’s been privileged to call home. While the title track doesn’t refer to any place in particular, it’s a vivid description of one of the ever-changing locations where Rotondi feels most at home: his band. The disc evokes the mood of this particular quintet, a first-time conglomeration that includes old friends David Hazeltine on piano and Joe Locke on vibes as well as new additions in bassist David Wong and drummer Carl Allen.
Also this week, bassist Brian Bromberg, who started his career as a drummer, comes “Full Circle” on his new CD as both bassist and drummer with guests Alex Acuna, Bob Sheppard, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Thornburg, Mitch Forman and Kirk Whalum.
a master Hendrik Meurkens, whose numerous CDs have established him as an important stylist in the world of Brazilian music, is releasing his first all straight ahead jazz album in 15 years. Jazz came first for Meurkens, long before the Brazilian bug caught him. His 25 years on the New York jazz scene and his tours and records with Herb Ellis, Paquito D’Rivera, James Moody, Sweets Edison and many others have long ago proved his mastery and documented his fresh and different approach to jazz harmonica alongside that of the Godfather of the instrument, Toots Thielemans. “Harmonicus Rex” pairs Meurkens with the legendary Jimmy Cobb and a stellar cast of fist call New York players delivering new versions of some choice standards plus compositions by Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard and Dave Brubeck, as well as premiering a few Meurkens originals.
Drummer Willie Jones III pays masterful homage to many of the great musicians who have influenced and inspired his artistic journey over the years on “Groundwork”.
e Ordinary” is saxophonist Russ Nolan’s spirited new Latin/modern jazz release inspired by his time on salsa dance floors around New York City and realized through an inspired live session at New Haven’s well-regarded Firehouse 12.
