New Music Monday for September 28, 2015

    Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.

“Live in CubCuba_cover_width_750_300_0_0_0_90___1a” captures nine-time Grammy Award-winner Wynton Marsalis and the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s dazzling first—and only—performances in Cuba, where they explored the profound connections between American jazz and Afro-Cuban music, from bebop to bolero and beyond. Recorded in front of clamorous, sold-out crowds over three night at Havana’s Mella Theater in October 2010, the disc finds the Orchestra performing Ellington Standards, Afro-Cuban numbers and distinctly modern compositions form the band members.

                                   

“The Royal Bopsters Project” is a singular recording with a LMPRcvrSquare-600one-two vocal jazz punch. It simultaneously introduces a powerful new jazz quartet of Amy London, Darmon Meader, Dylan Pramuk and Holli Ross while serving as a stellar vehicle to honor five of the most influential jazz vocalese legends of all time: Mark Murphy, Bob Dorough, Jon Hendricks, Sheila Jordan and Annie Ross. Four years in the making, the project was initially conceived by London as a twilight-years feature for her musical hero and close friend Mark Murphy. One by one, the other ‘royal bopsters’ signed on for the project at London’s behest. “I wanted to honor these elders and bring their music to a new generation who may not be aware of their importance to this music,” says London, a jazz vocal hero herself at this point, having helped to found the prestigious New School Jazz Vocal program, one of the first and most respected such programs in the country, out of which many top young vocalists have emerged.

                                    

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   Also this week, Karrin Allyson focuses her vocal talents on the legendary musical partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein with “Many a New Day: Karrin Allyson sings Rodgers and Hammerstein”; pianist Orrin Evans introduces an extraordinary new piano trio featuring Christian McBride and Karriem Riggins on “The Evolution of Oneself”; and Gerry Gibbs Thrasher Dream Trio with Ron Carter and Kenny Barron are captured “Live in Studio.”

Culture Crawl 098 “From Hungary to Appalachia”

Culture Crawl 097 “Live From The Creationarium!”

This Week’s Shows – Week of September 21

Short List with Bob Naujoks

Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM

Jazz and the Spoken Word: “Jazz Canto” / Rick Fay / Chip White

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“Jazz and the Spoken Word” Short List series is about a small group of writers and musicians who have worked to blend the rhythm of jazz with the rhythm of poetry and the spoken word. The series reveals some of the best attempts at combining the two art forms during the past 90 years. On the Short List this week it’s more from the unique offering of the 1958 recording “Jazz Canto,” as well as the poetry of Rick Fay set to traditional jazz, and the modern mainstream poetic musings of drummer Chip White. Both Fay and White pay tribute to their jazz mentors and heroes in their work, both written and spoken.

 

Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson  

Monday at 6:00 PM

Charlie Parker: “Bird Lives!” Part 2CCP

Charles “Yardbird” Parker pioneered the bebop movement in jazz with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. This program focuses on Bird’s influence on other musicians, his celebrated return to New York, his superstar acceptance in Europe, his experimentations with strings, and his premature, tragic death. Interviewees include Jackie McLean and Mitch Miller.

 

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler

Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM (follows Jazz Profiles)

“Blue Note Records In 1965”              

Craig travels back 50 years to look in on some of the nearly FORTY recording sessions done by Alfred Lion and company for his BLUE NOTE record label back in 1965.  We’ll hear jazz gems from the likes of Herbie Hancock, Larry Young, Hank Mobley, Jackie McLean, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, and a host of others!  Some would certainly say that this is the essence of modern jazz!

 

 

New Orleans Calling with George Ingmire    

Tuesday at 6:00 PM 

“On Jackson Square and Royal Street” NOC     

Just like on the music clubs and concert stages of New Orleans, there are great performers on the city’s streets. Some of the city’s most legendary musicians perform for audiences around the world, but still choose to connect with New Orleans by performing on the streets — on Royal Street, Frenchman Street, and on Jackson Square. Many of the most famous names in New Orleans music spent their early years playing there. It’s a tradition that goes back hundreds of years, of buskers mentoring younger generations, who then become mentors themselves — passing down more than just music, in this integral part of the city’s culture.

 

 

Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride

Wednesday at 6:00 PM

From Duke to the JLCO

Joe Temperley

Joe Temperley

        

The horn player who’s been the heart and soul of the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra for the past quarter-century, Joe Temperley is now 85. His illustrious career in jazz has spanned stints with Duke Ellington, Clark Terry, Joe Henderson, and other iconic names of the big band era. On this episode of Jazz Night In America, we hear Temperley’s life story, along with his own compositions and new arrangements of his favorite Ellington tunes.

 

 

Wednesday Night Special               

7:00 PM (Follows Jazz Night in America)   

Howard Levy with the Kirkwood Jazz Ensemble (new)

Howard Levy

Howard Levy

               

Multiple Grammy- Award Winner Howard Levy is an acknowledged master of the diatonic harmonica, a superb pianist, innovative composer, recording artist, bandleader, teacher, producer, and Chicago area resident. His musical travels have taken him all over the geographical world and the musical map. Equally at home in Jazz, Classical music, Rock, Folk, Latin, and World Music, he brings a fresh lyrical approach to whatever he plays. This has made him a favorite with audiences worldwide, and a recording artist sought after by the likes of Kenny Loggins, Dolly Parton, Paquito D’Rivera, Styx, Donald Fagen, and Paul Simon. As a sideman, Howard has appeared on hundreds of CDs and played on many movie soundtracks. He is perhaps best known for the four CD’s he recorded with Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, a unique band that set the musical world on its ear back in the early 1990’s. This performance, airing for the first time on KCCK, is from the Spring 2015 Kirkwood Big Band Concert. Al Naylor directs the Kirkwood Jazz Ensemble.

 

 

Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland       

Thursday at 6:00 PM

Ray Brown

Ray Brown

Ray Brown

        

Double bass player Ray Brown (1926 – 2002) moved to New York in 1945 and immediately became part of the jazz scene. He worked extensively with the Oscar Peterson Trio, Jimmy Rowles, and Ella Fitzgerald, to whom he was married. He was one of the leading bassists in the bop style and was known for the precision of his playing and the beauty of his tone. In this 1996 session, Brown and McPartland play “Embraceable You” and “Like Someone in Love.”

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler  

Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM

“John Coltrane — The Prestige Years – 1955 to 1958” JC4              

For this year’s annual John Coltrane ‘birth week’ celebration, Craig takes us on a tour of the Prestige recording sessions that ‘TRANE’ was involved with, both as a leader and as a sideman with folks like Red Garland, Miles Davis, Mal Waldron, Paul Quinichette, and others, during the years of 1955 and 1958. We’ll hear Trane’s first appearance on the label for a Miles Davis date that took place 11/16/55, all the way through to his last appearance on the label for his own recording date that took place 12/26/58!…. an abundance of thrilling jazz work!!

 

 

Riverwalk Jazz

Sunday at 5:00 PM

East Commerce Stomp: San Antonio Swing Reborn

The Jim Cullum Jazz 'Big Band'

The Jim Cullum Jazz ‘Big Band’

                  

Shadowland, the Beauty Saloon, Riverside Gardens, White Horse Tavern, Blue Willow. The swinging sounds of San Antonio’s hottest nightspots of the 1930s are back with a spectacular 12-piece Jim Cullum Jazz ‘Big Band’ providing the soundtrack— joined by special guest Broadway actor and singer Vernel Bagneris.

 

 

KCCK’s Midnight CD

The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:

http://www.kcck.org/onair/midnight_cd.php

Culture Crawl 096 “The Weekend is Just Packed”

New Music Monday for September 21, 2015

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.

perez_pattitucci_bladeDanilo Perez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade have been three quarters of the extraordinary Wayne Shorter Quartet for more than a decade. They’ve also continued their individual careers as leaders of their own projects and groups. Now, on “Children of the Light,” they step forward as a trio for the first time. Daring and luminous, often an improbable mix of pointed, questioning turns and childlike joy, the music unfolds with mischievous unpredictability. “We can ‘comprovise’ (spontaneous composition) with dense harmonic and melodic forms, but we can also explore the beauty of a simple harmony,” says Perez. “And you can see the care each one of us put into the songs we brought in.”

A1VCVsHLk1L._SY355_Few singers have had the emotional depth and versatility of Abbey Lincoln. With a voice capable of evoking the joys and pains of life, she carved out a niche as a singer, songwriter and storyteller for over 40 years. She could wring a lyric for its emotional content while bringing a searing, dramatic quality to the musical line. Early in her career her rich, sustained contralto register—sometimes pierced by sudden impassioned cries—echoed the style of her idol Billie Holiday; in turn it inspired a generation of younger artists such as Cassandra Wilson. The 1970s and ‘80s found Lincoln recording only sporadically and there is precious little documentation of her art from this period, which makes the previously unreleased new CD, “Sophisticated Lady,” a rare treasure indeed. Recorded live at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco in 1980, the disc offers up a set of compelling performances with Lincoln in superb voice.

61WRgyKHHuL81Dx6QKFy0L._SL1500_Also this week, “Jazz and Other Four Letter Words” is the witty, heartfelt, and swinging new release from Los Angeles vocalist and lyricist Mark Winkler; keyboardist Cesar Orozco and Kamarata Jazz add new ingredients to their mix of Venezuelan music, Cuban music and jazz on “No Limits for Tumbao,” with special guests Paquito D’Rivera, Yosvany Terry and Pedrito Martinez; and guitarist Brad Myers offers up the delightful blend of a tenor/guitar/vibes frontline to his long awaited debut, “Prime Numbers.”

Jazz Corner 2-6-2016

 

 

 

 

Culture Crawl 095 “The Art of The Native Flute”