Short List with Bob Naujoks
Monday – Friday at 8:35 AM and Saturday at 7 AM
Jazz and the Spoken Word: Robert Pinsky w Laurence Hobgood / David Gonzalez / “Jazz Canto”
Robert Pinsky with Laurence Hobgood
“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 a continuation of the jazz and poetry collaboration of writer Robert Pinsky and pianist Laurence Hobgood. They call their work ‘Poem-Jazz’ and it is quite modern and often freewheeling. Then a listen to Latin-tinged work of David Gonzalez who is a “storyteller-musician and poet,” but also has a Ph.D. His recording with drummer Bobby Sanabria’s music is titled “City of Dreams” with the so-called Poetic License Band. Then from an obscure but interesting souvenir recording from the late 1950s titled “Jazz Canto” comes poetry from Walt Whitman, Dylan Thomas, William Carlos Williams and Lawrence Ferlinghetti read by Hoagy Carmichael, John Carradine and Bob Dorough.
Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson
Monday at 6:00 PM
Charlie Parker: ‘Bird Lives!’ Part 1
Charles “Yardbird” Parker was a self-taught innovator who could fly higher and cut deeper than any other musician of his day. Parker pioneered the bebop movement in jazz with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. He influenced generations of musicians. He accomplished all of this and other feats despite a crippling drug addition that ended his life at thirty-four. This program focuses on “Bird” the improviser, and traces his instrumental virtuosity from his early days in Kansas City to his bebop experiments in New York to his ill-fated trip to Los Angeles in 1945.
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM (follows Jazz Profiles)
“The Incomparable Artistry of Andrew Hill — Part Three”
Craig brings us the 3rd of 4 shows in which he’ll throw the spotlight onto the career of one of the most innovative jazz pianists of the last 65 years! In this show, we’ll examine more material from Mr. Hill, including groups under his leadership, as well as some of the many appearances of Hill as a sideman.
New Orleans Calling with George Ingmire
Tuesday at 6:00 PM
“Play It By Ear”
Danny Barker
This week we find the connections between the legendary musician Danny Barker, a Baptist Church marching band from New Orleans, and brass bands like the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth. Late in life, Danny Barker gathered young musicians for a marching band — and what he did wound up keeping New Orleans jazz alive for a new generation.
Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride
Wednesday at 6:00 PM
Duke, Dizzy, Trane & Mingus: Jazz Titans
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis present music of the Americas through the lens of four pioneering giants of jazz.
Wednesday Night Special
7:00 PM (Follows Jazz Night in America)
Roots of Rhythm: Lynne Hart / Richard Wagor / Pat Smith live at the Opus Concert Café
Pat Smith / Lynne Hart / Richard Wagor Photo by Mark Clark
Clarinetist Lynne Hart, bassist Richard Wagor, and guitarist Pat Smith are some of the area’s top jazz players and educators. Their relatively new trio, Roots of Rhythm, explores the many possibilities of the music of Benny Goodman, Rube Bloom, Spencer Williams, Django Reinhardt, Harry Warren, George Gershwin and others through their own, unique interpretations of this timeless music. Their self-entitled CD was released last year and this performance was originally broadcast live on KCCK on August 7th during “First Friday Jazz” at the Opus Concert Café in downtown Cedar Rapids.
Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland
Thursday at 6:00 PM
Onaje Allan Gumbs
Pianist, arranger, and songwriter Onaje Allan Gumbs began playing piano at age seven and drew his early inspiration from Henry Mancini. He studied classical piano and honed his skill in multiple genres, from jazz and pop to R&B and soul. He has played with greats such as Woody Shaw, Nat Adderly, and Cassandra Wilson. On this 1998 Piano Jazz, Gumbs performs his original compositions “The First Time We Met” and “The Eyes of Wisdom.”
Jazz Corner of the World with Craig Kessler
Saturday, Noon – 4:00 PM and Monday, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM
“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!
Riverwalk Jazz
Sunday at 5:00 PM
Ev’rything I Love: The Songs of Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Live from San Francisco’s historic Filoli Gardens, The Jim Cullum Jazz Band and jazz vocalist Nina Ferro spotlight the swinging music and witty, sophisticated lyrics of the incomparable Cole Porter.
KCCK’s Midnight CD
The Monday – Sunday Midnight CD for this week can be found at:
http://www.kcck.org/onair/midnight_cd.php
Danilo 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.”
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.
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.”
