Discovering Jazz

This week’s podcast starts with a guitarist who played on a couple Monkees hits.  I include a nice ‘smooth jazz’ recording by him.  Also some ‘smooth jazz’ from Chet Baker (followed by his soloing on an Elvis Costello track)

What do Herman’s Hermits and ‘Mahavishnu’ John McLauglin have in common?  Listen and find out. This program introduces you to more jazz artists who have played on pop/rock, singer-songwriter, and even classical recordings. Some of the j

This is part 1 a series of three, maybe four, programs featuring contributions made by jazz artists to non-jazz recordings—-mostly in the pop and rock genres. It may be a jazz musicians only success in becoming a ‘rock and roll star’.  

New York comes to Peterborough April 29, when Brandi Disterheft (originally from Vancouver) and her quartet perform for International Jazz Day.  This week’s Discovering Jazz program features her plus the three accomplished New York musicians she is

To help celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8 here is a program on Women in Jazz.  Yes…there are a lot of great female vocalists.   The most heralded jazz singers are women: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Sheila Jord

The feature this week is a 1972 jam session–18 1/2 minutes long– of Dizzy Gillespie’s Night in Tunisia, featuring Dizzy, Stan Getz, Mary Lou Williams, Percy Heath, Kenny Burrell, Milt Jackson and others.  Then you’ll hear two

More interesting jazz arrangements of Beatles compositions. It begins with some very early jazz-fusion, and ends with some later jazz fusion. Inbetween…..two Latin jazz renditions of Yesterday, two tracks that feature the trumpet of Lee Morgan, and a sim

Were The Beatles jazz artists?  Of course not!  But then neither were The Gershwins, or Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc. who wrote those great tunes that have become ‘jazz standards’. Jazz musicians have quite enjoy

Great vocals can actually be some of the purest forms of jazz….despite what some jazz snobs might think.  We all have some kind of *voice*…..and how we use it is a form of ‘improvisation’.  Vocals can also serve as a translator of

Many real ‘jazzies’ express a rather loud ‘indifference’ to the jazz ‘singer’.  “Cheesy lounge singer”, “not needed”, “waters down the music”, “reduces the musician to role of

I was asked to make a playlist of jazz songs for a non-jazz event—a ‘cabaret’ put on by Peterborough Podcasters, where podcasters are hilighted and their great work presented.  So the challenge is to both challenge and appease….so

Happy New Year to all of you!  I appreciate knowing there are some listeners out there in podcast land.  Comments, feedback, or questions is always welcome. I’m still making lots of ‘discoveries’ about jazz…..enjoying the fact tha

This last program of 2017 includes lots of Christmas and winter holiday music. Some great renditions of familiar and not so familiar tunes.  Also one for Ramadan, Hannukah, and Chalica (tune in to find out what the latter holiday is). You’ll hear:

Today’s program starts with B.B. King and Kenny Burrell playing together…..along with organist Jimmy Smith and a host of other great musicians. Then Emilie-Claire Barlow rhythmically transforms a Donovan tune into …what’s the time

An illustration of how some people learn and learn about jazz.  We hear the perspective of Peterborough jazz saxophonist, Sean Hully.  Sean tracks the development of jazz, from King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker.   He then m

Live from Trent Radio Studios (92.7 fm in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada), more 2nd hand vinyl records I bought this fall.  You’ll hear some great vibes from a 1962 British film about jazz, Mel Torme with Janis Ian, an incredible trumpet blowout wit

Today….from a live feed from Trent Radio in Peterborough….I play some 2nd hand jazz lp’s I bought at a pawn shop recently just to see which ones I’ll put in with my collection and which ones I’ll give away.  I’ll try o

There is a great jazz instruction blog and podcast called LearnJazzStandards.com, hosted by a guitarist named Brent Vaarstra.  One of his posts was called “92 Modern Jazz Albums You Need to Listen To”, with ‘modern’ being anything

Special guest for this episode is jazz bassist and ethnomusicologist, Michael Morse, talking about the great pianist and composer, Thelonious Monk, in honour of the 100th year of his birth.  He addresses why people who don’t think he’s a grea

We celebrate youth, and Peterborough’s youth jazz group, LMJC, because it is youth taking up the art of jazz who are going to keep it as a living and growing thing.  And also because they are good musicians.  We’ll hear jazz (and one classica

This episode and the next one are about keeping alive this form of music that we love.  Its about youth.  I interview five of them from a Peterborough group of mostly high school age, asking them what sparked their interest in jazz.  Then I play some of

Jarret Prescott talks more about Keith Jarret, and we play music associated with him.....including the last time he played electric piano, before he decided to carry on an anti-electric music crusade. Well hear him with bassist Charlie Haden.....and you

The first of two programs where Peterborough  composer of works for the Piano-forté, Jarret Prescott, takes us on a journey exploring the works of pianist Keith Jarrett.   I start out with a composition that Jarret says “sums up what I like to say

Starting with an amazing Toronto pianist…..one who is as fine a composer as he is an instrumentalist.  Then an explanation as to why Frank Sinatra is considered so great (at least sometimes).  You’ll also hear an obscure Swedish jazz singer n

This program starts out with Peterborough bassist, Wesley Collett-Taylor, and a recent project where he and some Toronto musicians recorded some of his own compositions, based on stories and poems.  This particular selection is inspired by a poem by W.H.