This Week In Jazz June 23 thru June 29

Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of composer Richard Rodgers, guitarist Johnny Smith, pianist/composer Dave Grusin, drummers Joe Chambers and Marvin “Smitty” Smith, pianists Elmo Hope and Alan Pasqua, singers Georgie Fame, Tierney Sutton and more.

We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of The Modern Jazz Quartet’s “Django” (1953), Dave Brubeck Quartet’s “Time Out” (1959), The Bill Evans Trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian “At The Village Vanguard” (1961), Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt “At the Left Bank (Live)” (1973), Charles Earland’s “Front Burner” (1988), Teri Thornton’s “I’ll Be Easy to Find” (1997), Ron Carter’s “Great Big Band” (2010) and many others, Mondays thru Fridays at noon on JAZZ MASTERS‘ on 88.3 KCCK.    

New Music Monday for June 24, 2024

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify 

Guitar great Bobby Broom knows exactly when he first fell in love with the jazz organ. At age ten he put on one of his father’s albums, Charles Earland’s “Black Talk!” “I was just into music,” he says. But after playing Earland’s now-classic 1969 album, he was sold. Bobby’s organ trio Organi-Sation, with organist Ben Paterson and drummer Kobie Watkins, debuted on record in 2018 but had been a working band for much longer. Part of their new album, “Jamalot,” features live performances going back to 2014 when the trio was opening for Steely Dan. The rest is from an appearance at Joe and Wayne Segal’s Jazz Showcase in Chicago in 2019.

 

Dubbed “The King of Swing” in his native Singapore, Jeremy Monteiro is renowned as one of the premier jazz pianists in all of Asia. He’s recorded many of his album in the U.S., and he is now releasing his 48th project, “The New Jersey Sessions.” Monteiro is not only a superb pianist and composer in a range of styles, he is also an educator and mentor to young musicians. He shares top billing on the new disc with his star student, the young Singaporean saxophonist Sean Hong Wei. Sax great Houston Person also makes a guest appearance.

 

                                                                                                                                       

Also this week, the Scott/Grant 5, co-led by guitarist Andrew Scott and trombonist Kelsley Grant, blends touches of cool, bossa nova and bebop in the mix on “Horizon Song”; “Birdwatching” is a product of saxophonist Tim Lin’s long study of Charlie Parker and serves as an ode to Bird and his songs; and Jane Scheckter sings with a wisdom and ease that only a lifetime of experience can bring on her fifth release, “I’ll Take Romance.”

 

This Week’s Shows June 24 thru June 30

Jazz Corner of the World  (Encore)

Mondays at 6:00pm

Prestige’s ‘Soul Jazz Years’

Craig continues his commemoration of Prestige Records’ 75th anniversary with classic soul jazz  from Gene Ammons, Charles Earland, Don Patterson, Jack McDuff,  and George Benson. 

 

 

 

 

The Wednesday Night Special

Wednesdays at 6:00pm

Cory Wong on the Main Stage

With one week to go before the 2024 Iowa City Jazz Festival, we’re taking one more listen back to main stage acts from Jazz Fests past. This week, we jam to Cory Wong, one of the hottest guitarists on the scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Night in America

Thursdays at 11:00pm

Endea Owens Giving Back

Christian McBride hangs with bassist Endea Owens at a Community Cookout. We’ll hear the bassist with Wynton Marsalis, Jon Batiste, and trace her Detroit roots to learn how she’s giving back to her community with free meals and free concerts on the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black And Blue Discography | DiscogsJazz Corner of the World

Saturdays from 12:00 noon to 4:00pm

The Easy Going Side of Black & Blue

Craig spins some laid back fare from the French jazz and blues label Black & Blue. We’ll hear from great musicians like Arnett Cobb, Lockjaw Davis, Lloyd Glenn, Illinois Jacquet, Don Byas, Milt Buckner, and many others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

KCCK’s Midnight CD

Every Night at Midnight Each night, KCCK lets you hear a new CD played start-to-finish.

BEATitude by David Bixler on Monday; Suite for Africa by Amina Figarova on Tuesday; The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner by Conrad Herwig on Wednesday; Soul Jazz by Something Else! on Thursday; Brown Eyed Blues by Jeff Pitchell on Friday; Down at the Juke Joint by Gerald McClendon on Saturday; Blackwater Sessions by Lenny Marcus Washington on Sunday.

Big Mo Pod Show 015 – “Absorbing Influences”

In another weekly installment of the Big Mo Pod Show Noah and John both enjoy and discuss some select tracks from Friday’s show. They take a particular interest in the different influences blues artists draw from, and delve a little into the artistic process of finding and building upon one’s influences as a creator. Songs featured in the episode: 

  1. Eric Bibb – “Blues Funky Like Dat”
  2. Miller and The Other Sinners – “Black Water Fishin” 
  3. Ana Popovic – “Fencewalk” 
  4. Memphis Slim – “Mother Earth” 
  5. Gov’t Mule – “Shake Our Way Out” 

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 933 “This Weird Encounter”

Classmates turned collaborators Akwi Nji and L.D. Kidd have teamed up to breathe new life into “enuf,” a poetry album released last year by Akwi. This one of a kind live performance will feature vocalist Alicia Strong and percussionist EJ Swavv, as well as Akwi and L.D., as they invite you to explore what it truly means to be “enough.” The event is hosted at the Mirrorbox Theatre in Cedar Rapids on June 22, 7:30pm. Tickets are going fast, so get yours now at www.mirrorboxtheatre.com.

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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Talking Pictures 6-19-24

“Hit Man” (Netflix 2023) and  “Under Paris” (Netflix 2024) with Hollis Monroe, Phil Brown and Denny Lynch.

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Culture Crawl 932 “Unsung Heroes”

This week the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band features its Horn section, performing a piece that Steve Shanley describes as “flashy” to highlight a section of the band that doesn’t always get an opportunity to shine. Also on the program is young artist competition winner Emma Bennett performing the Artie Shaw Concerto for Clarinet, and music from Star Wars.

Wednesday at McGrath Amphitheater and Sunday at Bever Park. All shows at 7:0pm. Livestream at facebook.com/crmuniband.

More information at crmuniband.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 June 17, 2024

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify

Azerbaijani-born, New York-based pianist and composer Amina Figarova was inspired to write her new “Suite for Africa” by her experience traveling to meet students in South Africa. A travel mishap placed her on the same flight as the Matsiko World Orphan Choir, an ensemble of orphaned and at-risk children from war-ravaged Liberia. The masterpiece that ensued forms the core of Amina’s new album. The three-movement suite is bracketed by five complementary Figarova originals inspired by African rhythms and the folk music traditions of her native country. An addition to the 24-voice choir, Amina is joined by her longtime band featuring saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, flutist Bart Platteau, trumpeter Alex Pope Norris, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and drummer Rudy Royston.

 

The new supergroup Something Else brings together a superb septet that matches impeccable virtuosity with a bottomless feel for the music on the band’s debut release, “Soul Jazz.” Spearheaded by alto sax great Vincent Herring, the band includes trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, guitarist Paul Bollenback, pianist David Kikoski, drummer Otis Brown III and bassist Essiet Essiet. As Herring explains, “Everybody in the band grew up on soul jazz. The music of the day was soul and R&B…I think it’s a feeling that we were all craving in our own music.”

 

                                                                                                                            

Also this week, trombonist and arranger Conrad Herwig offers up the newest in his Latin Side series with “The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner”; pianist Lenny Marcus and his trio were inspired by working in a wonderful studio located in a magnificent setting in Southwestern Virginia, right off Smith Mountain Lake, for their new album, “Blackwater Sessions”; and saxophonist and composer David Bixler, who cut his teeth working in the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Toshiko Akioshi and Chico O’Farrill’s Afro-Cuban Big Band, drops a new quartet release, “Beatitude.”