This Week’s Shows March 17 thru March 23

The Sky Will Still Be There TomorrowJazz Corner of the World  (Encore)

Mondays at 6:00pm

Charles Lloyd’s 87th Birthday

Craig plays a wide variety of exciting gems from the lengthy career of reedman Charles Lloyd, which spans from 1959 to the present. We’ll hear from his Columbia releases, as well as many titles from Atlantic, ECM, Blue Note, and other jazz labels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00pm

5K Quintet at First Friday Jazz

The dynamic and inventive 5K Quintet took the Opus Concert Café stage in November 2002 for a full set of classic charts and new works. Comprised of past University of Iowa School of Music Students, the 5K Quintet features brothers Kolbe and Joey Schnoebelen, Jarrett Purdy, Askar Khaetov, and Jerome Gillespie.

 

 

 

Sarah Hanahan: Among GiantsJazz Night In America  

Thursdays at 11:00pm

Sarah Hanahan at Caramoor

Host Christian McBride shines the spotlight on alto saxophonist Sarah Hanahan. Hear her blazing set from the Caramoor Jazz Festival, plus music from her debut album, Among Giants, featuring Marc Cary on piano, Nat Reeves on bass and Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Corner of the World

Saturdays from 12:00 noon to 4:00pm

Happy 85th Birthday Lew Tabackin

Craig spins from recording dates led by Lewis Barry “Lew” Tabackin, and from many sideman dates with top-notch jazz artists. We’ll also hear big band releases with his 95-year-old wife, pianist and bandleader, Toshiko Akiyoshi.

 

 

 

 

 

KCCK’s Midnight CD

KCCK features a new album every night, played from start-to-finish.

Horns Locked by Nick Hempton & Cory Weeds on Monday; Tributes: a Life Celebration by Marcus McLaurine on Tuesday; Bird Feathers by Jim Snidero on Wednesday; Arboresque by Artemis on Thursday; Raise Your Hands by the Scott Weis Band Kid Friday; Nothin’ But the Truth by Max Hightower on Saturday; Lizzie’s Lounge by La Banda Ramirez on Sunday.

Big Mo Pod Show 054 – “Music Will Heal You If You Let It”

On this episode the boys from the Singing Cowboy Studios discuss the history behind a collection of different blues tracks, covering both the artists and the environments that spawned them, as well as the restorative power of music as a whole. Songs featured in the episode: 

  1. Savoy Brown – “Why Did You Hoodoo Me” 
  2. Muddy Waters – “Mean Disposition” 
  3. King Solomon Hicks – “I’d Rather Be Blind” 
  4. Monster Mike Welch – “Walking To You Baby” 
  5. Hound Dog Taylor and HouseRockers – “She’s Gone” 

Listen to ‘da Friday Blues with Big Mo each week at 6pm, and catch the podcast for a behind the scenes look at the show!

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Culture Crawl 1039 “Lotsa Pink, Lotsa Feathers”

Young Footliters Imagination Studio presents “Penguin Goes to Flight School,” a musical based on the children’s book Flight School by Lita Judge. Director Keegan Colletta Huckfeldt and cast members Ella Schmitz and Lucy Polyak are in the studio to fill us in on all the details. The show is suited for kids (and adults) ages 3+ and will be Friday, March 21 at 7pm, Saturday, March 22 at 10am (sensory-friendly performance), and Saturday March 22 at 2pm. 

For tickets and more info visit coralvillearts.org. 

Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast player. Listen Live at 10:30am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or kcck.org/listen.

 

 

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2024 KCCK Annual Report Released

 

Read about some of the people and events in our jazz family, and also dig in to the nuts and bolts of KCCK (if that’s your thing). Click on the image to read the entire report, or email us if you’d like a printed copy.

Talking Pictures 3-12-25

“Mickey 17” (2025) and “Anora” (2024) with Hollis Monroe, Phil Brown and Monica Schmidt.

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Culture Crawl 1038 “The Perspective of the Fence”

Under the direction of Dr. Gerry Kreitzer, the Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale has been preparing for their upcoming performance of the Grammy-nominated three-part Oratorio by Craig Hella Johnson, Considering Matthew Shepard. The music celebrates and honors the life and legacy of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who was brutally attacked and murdered in 1998. 

The concert is Saturday, March 15, 7:30pm at First Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids.

Tickets and more info can be fount at crchorale.org.

Subscribe to The Culture Crawl at kcck.org/culture or search “Culture Crawl” in your favorite podcast player. Listen Live at 10:30am most weekdays on Iowa’s Jazz station. 88.3 FM or kcck.org/listen.

 

 

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New Music Monday for March 10, 2025

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify

To mark the 40th anniversary of his debut recording as a bandleader in 1984, alto saxophonist Jim Snidero set out to create something special with his 28th album—and his second trio project to date with jazz masters Peter Washington on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums. Snidero felt the time was right to pay tribute to Charlie Parker, an artist he regards as the “king of the hill.” Ranked among the top five alto saxophonists in Down Beat’s 2024 Critic’s Poll, Snidero is more than qualified to honor one of the bebop pioneers with his new release, “Bird Feathers.”

 

Fresh off their second consecutive win for Jazz Group of the Year in the Down Beat Readers Poll, Artemis returns with their third release, “Arboresque,” featuring a new quintet lineup of the band helmed by pianist and musical director Renee Rosnes with trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, bassist Noriko Ueda, and drummer Allison Miller. A paean to the sheer joy of collaboration and creativity, the album is a vibrant 8-song set that presents original compositions by each of the band members as well as Rosnes arrangements of pieces by Wayne Shorter, Burt Bacharach, and the unsung pianist Donald Brown.

 

                                                         

Also this week, veteran bassist Marcus McLaurine’s new recording, “Tributes,” fulfills a special need to acknowledge specific individuals who have deeply woven into his life as a world-class musician and father; drummer Chacho Ramirez and flautist Carolyn Steinberg Ramirez co-lead their New York-based Latin jazz quintet La Banda Ramirez on “Lizzie’s Lounge”; and saxophonists Nick Hempton and Cory Weeds team up for a live set from the legendary Frankie’s Jazz Club in Vancouver on the quartet date, “Horns Locked.”

 

 

 

This Week In Jazz March 9 thru March 15

Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of cornetist Bix Beiderbeck, composer Astor Piazzolla, trumpeter/composer/arranger Quincy Jones, drummer Roy Haynes, singers Al Jarreau, Bobby McFerrin and Vanessa Rubin, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, organist Shirley Scott and more.

We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of Art Blakey & His Jazz Messengers 1957, Second Edition feat. Johnny Griffin (1957), Chick Corea‘s “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” (1968), George Benson & Joe Farrell’s “Benson & Farrell” (1976), Lionel Hampton & His Orch., feat. Sylvia Bennett’s “Sentimental Journey” (1985), Charles Earland’s “Stomp!” (1999), Holly Cole’s “Holly” (2016) and many others Mondays thru Fridays  at noon on Jazz Masters on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.