RESCHEDULED FROM LAST WEEK: This week on The Soul of Jazz: saxophonist Ike Quebec's 1959-1962 jukebox singles for the Blue Note label. Although of the same generation as beboppers Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec (1918-1963) gravitated to the big, husky sound of swing era players like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins.
Discovered in 1946 by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff of the Blue Note label, Quebec recorded prolifically for the company until 1962. He also served as a talent scout for Lion and Wolff, for example bringing the little-known pianist Thelonious Monk to Blue Note in 1947.
In the late-1950s-early 1960s, juke boxes in African American neighborhood bars still included single records by jazz artists, and Ike Quebec was one of those artists. On The Soul of Jazz, this week's Feature Sets will focus on three Ike Quebec Blue Note recording sessions convened specifically to produce 45 RPM singles for the juke box trade.
Tune in Wednesday, 7 March between 7:30 and 10:00 pm Pacific time zone (Feature Sets at 8 and 9 pm). Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on The Soul of Jazz: saxophonist Ike Quebec's 1959-1962 jukebox singles for the Blue Note label. Although of the same generation as beboppers Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec (1918-1963) gravitated to the big, husky sound of swing era players like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins.
Discovered in 1946 by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff of the Blue Note label, Quebec recorded prolifically for the company until 1962. He also served as a talent scout for Lion and Wolf, for example bringing the little-known pianist Thelonious Monk to Blue Note in 1947.
In the late-1950s-early 1960s, juke boxes in African American neighborhood bars still included single records by jazz artists, and Ike Quebec was one of those artists. On The Soul of Jazz, this week's Feature Sets will focus on three Ike Quebec Blue Note recording sessions convened specifically to produce 45 RPM singles for the juke box trade.
Tune in Wednesday, 28 February between 7:30 and 10:00 pm Pacific time zone (Feature Sets at 8 and 9 pm). Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on The Soul of Jazz, Doug Anders will substitute for Carl. At 8 pm, Doug will observe a classic jazz recording made on 21 February 1954: Art Blakey's A Night At Birdland, featuring Clifford Brown, Horace Silver and others.
At 9 pm, Doug will celebrate the birthdate of pioneering modern jazz composer/arranger/pianist/bandleader Tadd Dameron (born 21 Feb. 1917).
Tune in Wednesday, 21 February at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on The Soul of Jazz: Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook. During February and March, 1956, singer Ella Fitzgerald and record executive Norman Granz began recording the first in a series of highly influential Fitzgerald "songbook" albums. The resulting multiple-LP vinyl set was in fact the first issue on Granz's newly-created Verve label.
Ella's songbooks, along with Frank Sinatra's concept albums for Capitol (Only the Lonely, Songs For Swinging Lovers, etc.) were pivotal in bringing back recognition of veteran songwriters of the 1930s-1950s (Porter, the Gershwins, Arlen, Rodgers & Hart, et al) and creating what is now called the Great American Songbook.
This week's two Feature Sets will focus on Fitzgerald Sings Porter recordings with small jazz backing groups (avoiding—for now—the lush string orchestras that were also part of the project).
Tune in Wednesday, 14 February at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on The Soul of Jazz: Duke Ellington in Los Angeles, 1941. Ellington's band of the period has become legendary; it was full of star musicians such as Jimmie Blanton, Ben Webster, and Rex Stewart, and this lineup recorded many timeless pieces for Victor Records.
Starting in January of 1941, Ellington and his band spent considerable time in Southern California and the West Coast. They concertized and played nightclubs in the area, and appeared repeatedly on radio.
Seriously affecting the band's repertoire on broadcasts was the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' ban on their members' songs being performed on network radio: "During a ten-month period lasting from January 1 to October 29, 1941, no music licensed by ASCAP (1,250,000 songs) was broadcast on NBC nor CBS radio stations." (Wikipedia)
This inspired Ellington to ask his composing/arranging partner Billy Strayhorn and Duke's son Mercer to write new pieces for radio that would not be published in connection with ASCAP. The most famous of those was of course Strayhorn's "Take the A Train."
Certainly this band's most famous project of 1941 was the socially-conscious stage review, Jump for Joy, that premiered at the Mayan Theater in July 1941.
Tune in Wednesday, 24 January at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
Benny Goodman's legendary Carnegie Hall concert took place 80 years ago this month (16 January, 1938, to be precise). Amazingly, it was the first full-length jazz concert to take place at a major U.S. concert hall.
For the occasion, Goodman not featured his well-known big band, he also spotlighted his racially-integrated quartet with Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, and Gene Krupa.
This week on The Soul of Jazz, the second of two shows featuring some of the highlights from the concert. Not only will we hear the Goodman quartet, we'll of course have to finish with the legendary "Sing Sing Sing" that ended the concert on an ecstatic note.
Tune in Wednesday, 17 January at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
Benny Goodman's legendary Carnegie Hall concert took place 80 years ago this month (16 January, 1938, to be precise). Amazingly, it was the first full-length jazz concert to take place at a major U.S. concert hall. For the occasion, Goodman not only brought in his well-known big band, he also invited a host of virtuoso friends including Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges and Cootie Williams.
This week on The Soul of Jazz, the first of two shows featuring some of the highlights from the concert.
Tune in Wednesday, 10 January at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz--Milt Jackson: The Last Chapter.
Vibraphonist Milt Jackson's recording career lasted lasted from 1945 to 1999, an amazing span. He recorded in nearly every setting, from backing up singers, to his long tenure in the Modern Jazz Quartet, to scores of albums under his own name.
This week's two Feature Sets will focus on Jackson's last jazz recordings, 1993-1998. Joining him will be an all-star cast of characters, including Ray Brown, Cedar Walton, Oscar Peterson, Mike LeDonne, Joshua Redman, and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.
Tune in Wednesday, 3 January at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: the third of a 3-part series on the career of Horace Silver.
Horace had recorded exclusively as a leader for the Blue Note label for all of his career, from 1952 to 1979. After his contract expired, Horace spent a few years recording for his own Silveto label. These were lean times for elder statesmen of straight-ahead jazz. After the jazz market resurged, he began recording once again for nationally-distributed labels. This week's show will focus on Horace's last CDs, made for the Columbia, Impulse, and Verve labels between 1993 and 1998.
Tune in Wednesday, 20 December at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: the second of a 3-part series on the career of Horace Silver.
In early 1964, Silver's longest-lived quintet broke up when trumpeter Blue Mitchell and saxophonist Junior Cook left the band. Silver formed a new quintet with a fresh sound, based around tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson and trumpeter Carmell Jones (later Woody Shaw). The group promptly recorded Silver's best-known piece, "Song for my Father." The recording was edited and released as a 45-rpm single that enjoyed popularity on jukeboxes that year. This week, the 8 pm set will focus on this Henderson/Jones/Shaw group.
In the 1970s, Silver increasingly turned to Coltrane-influeced tenor saxophonists such as Michael Brecker and Bob Berg. Trumpeters Randy Brecker and Tom Harrell had extended stints with the band. The 9 pm set will feature these groups, including an album with a brass ensemble added to the basic quintet.
Tune in Wednesday, 13 December at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: the first of a 3-part series on the career of Horace Silver.
Pianist/composer/bandleader Silver was one of the most prolific artists in jazz, recording under his own name from 1952 to 1998. Over that period, he produced around 40 albums, each one filled with new Silver compositions.
This week's show will begin with Silver's work as a "sideman," under the leadership of Stan Getz, Lester Young, and Art Blakey, progress through some of Silver's earliest sessions as a leader, and end with his longest-lived quintet featuring trumpeter Blue Mitchell and saxophonist Junior Cook.
Tune in Wednesday, 6 December at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: Sonny Rollins at the Village Vanguard. Sixty years ago this month (3 November 1957), Sonny Rollins made the first live jazz recording at New York's legendary Village Vanguard night club. Wikipedia lists 78 subsequent jazz releases recorded there, but the most famous recording might be the first. Joining Rollins in this piano-less trio are bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Elvin Jones.
Vanguard owner Max Gordon played host to Blue Note Records partner Alfred Lion and recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder. Blue Note partner Francis Wolf took the cover photo, and Leonard Feather wrote the liner notes.
Tune in Wednesday, 29 November at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: Cannonball Adderley, 1958. Alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley visited New York City in 1955, just months after the death of Charlie Parker and caused a major musical sensation. The next year, he moved to the city and began a national career. In 1957, he accepted Miles Davis's invitation to join the trumpeter's combo. But it was in 1958 that Cannon's career took off. That year alone, he entered the recording studio no less than 20 times under his own leadership and that of Miles Davis and Gil Evans. This week, we'll hear just a few of Adderley's many highlights of 1958.
Tune in Wednesday, 22 November at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: organist Shirley Scott. In the first set, we'll hear her in trio and quartet settings, without any horn players. Set two will feature her in a big band setting with arrangements by Oliver Nelson, and in quartet setting with her husband, saxophonist Stanley Turrentine.
Tune in Wednesday, 15 November at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: America Dances: Count Basie and Duke Ellington. America Dances was a late-1930s/early 1940s radio program produced by CBS radio that brought live recordings of great US jazz artists to Great Britain airwaves via the BBC. We'll be hearing a classic Count Basie lineup from the Famous Door club in 1939, and a legendary Duke Ellington band from the CBS studio in 1940.
Tune in Wednesday, 8 November at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: virtuoso bassist and composer Scott LaFaro (1936-1961). Building on the work of earlier bass virtuosi from Jimmie Blanton to Charles Mingus, LaFaro first recorded with pianist Pat Moran (McCoy), now of Oregon. After Los Angeles recordings with Victor Feldman and Hampton Hawes, LaFaro eventually relocated to New York City and came to fame in Bill Evans' legendary 1959-1961 trio. Gigs with Ornette Coleman and Stan Getz enlarged his scope.
Tune in Wednesday, 1 November at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: Clarinetist-saxophonist-composer Jimmy Giuffre. Giuffre's long career was marked by experimentation and change. After coming to fame in the late 1940s with his composition "Four Brothers" for Woody Herman's band, he In the 1950s led a series of drummerless trios, first guitar/bass/reeds, and then the even more unusual guitar/valve trombone/reeds. In the 1960s, he embraced the "Free Jazz" movement with three increasingly radical albums using a piano/bass/clarinet lineup.
Tune in Wednesday, 25 October at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: In anticipation of Dizzy Gillespie's 100th on Saturday (born October 21st, 1917), guest host Larry Koenigsberg will be highlighting the legendary partnership of Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
Tune in Wednesday, 18 October at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: In honor of Thelonious Monk's 100th (born October 10th, 1917), two sets from his legendary 1959 Town Hall concert. In consultation with Monk, composer Hall Overton wrote arrangements of six Monk pieces. A one-time-only ten-piece band then spent many late nights nights and early mornings rehearsing at Overton's loft. These sessions were photographed and recorded by Overton's neighbor W. Eugene Smith. Recently, a book and movie have been released about the loft and the Monk rehearsals. Also recently, Trumpeter Charles Tolliver has recreated and pianist Jason Moran has re-imagined the Town Hall Concert. See earlier posts here for links.
Tune in Wednesday, 11 October at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
This week on KLCC's The Soul of Jazz: two Miles Davis radio broadcasts featuring John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, and other all-stars.
At 8 pm, we'll be getting into Carl's time machine and setting the dial for 1958 and New York's Café Bohemia (15 Barrow Street, near Sheridan Square). Joining Davis will be Bill Evans on piano; drummer Philly Joe Jones is particularly fiery.
Then at 9 pm, we'll time-travel to 1959 and New York's Birdland (1678 Broadway, north of 52nd Street). Julian "Cannonball" Adderley will be added to the front line, Wynton Kelly will be on piano, and Jimmy Cobb will be on drums. This is an infamous gig because Davis was assaulted and arrested at the Birdland entrance for merely taking a break at the sidewalk at his place of work. A shameful moment in US race relations.
Tune in Wednesday, 4 October at 8 pm and 9 pm Pacific time zone. Available via the KLCC app and also streaming live at klcc.org.
