Discovering Jazz

This program, originally posted January of 2019, features tracks from 2018 albums that Downbeat Magazine reviewers–and a few others–raved about. You’ll hear: -singer Stacey Kent -Polish bassist Wojtek Masolewski and his Quintet –

More from my archives of old programs while I take a bit of a summer break. IMPORTANT NOTE: Because this program had been recorded directly off a feed from Trent Radio, the sound quality isn’t up to my usual Discovering Jazz podcast standards. But

This is the Trent Radio program that spawned the Discovering Jazz podcast. In February 2016 my partner and I had recently moved to Peterborough, Ontario and I decided I wanted to do a program on Trent Radio, Call letters CFFF-the community and university

Some more New Discoveries from The Real Book. Some are songs written by jazz musicians, others are Broadway ‘standards. I play music by artists as diverse as Bing Crosby and Roland Kirk. I also try to look at what exactly is a “Charlie Parker

As I go through this ‘jazz bible’ for students and jammers, I keep discovering new tunes. This leads me to listen to some versions of them. And this week and next I’m sharing some of my ‘discoveries’. I start the podcast wit

The last of my series on the upcoming Edmonton Jazz Festival. This week I explore some history—touching on the fore-runner of this festival, Jazz City. That festival became Canada’s first Internationally renowned Jazz Festival….beginnin

Today’s podcast starts with an amazing ‘jam’ led by pianist Emmet Cohen. Other jazz artists featured this week are The Leon Phal Quartet from France, flautist Naissam Jalal, The Ostara Project of Canadian women ‘superstars’,

There are some great artists coming to the Edmonton Jazz Festival, June 28 to July 02nd. And many of them are touring and going to other festivals as well….so hopefully many of you will get a chance to hear and see them. This three part series feat

I’m one of these people that like to touch and see whatever music I’m playing. So I prefer cd’s and lp’s to downloads. I especially like them when I order them by mail or browse through one of those rapidly dwindling cd and record

I’ve started listening to some of the new music that artists and publicists have been sending me, and have made some great discoveries. In this episode I share with you a few of them. The episode starts with a trumpet player from Vancouver (Daniel

This is the final program of this four=part series where I play records that have been rated as being good ones to turn a jazz ‘newbie’ into a fan. This week you’ll hear a track from 8 albums. They are: Mingus Ah Um, where I also talk a

The highlight of this week’s episode is the great pianist Bill Evans and his trio from the late 50’s. What is it about that trio and his playing that makes it stand out? I give a few hints….and you can hear it in the two tracks I play f

Part 2 of essential jazz albums for those of us still in the beginner ‘discovery’ process. Which, I suspect, most of us are—considering the wealth of amazing jazz recordings out there! This week, I start off with a track from Dave Brube

What you’ll be hearing is tracks from great jazz albums. I’m continually being introduced to jazz, even though I’ve been doing this podcast for over five years. So, here I am again being a ‘newbie’ and listening to (or re-li

Although most of my episodes of this podcast seem to have themes, sometimes I like the flexibility of not having any theme whatsoever. This week I’m playing a few recordings that have come into my consciousness recently. Most are new discoveries an

It’s often really difficult for a podcaster, interviewer, or mc to know how to pronounce a particular jazz artist’s name. Sometimes the artist themselves might even ‘change’ the pronunciation to accommodate the more ‘common&

This week’s and next week’s episode focuses on right and wrong ways to pronounce the names of certain jazz artists. I demonstrate lots of mis-pronunciations, then try to correct them. And it gives me an excuse to play some great music, by the

This is the last of my three part series on great new historical releases. I start off with a previously unreleased Miles Davis performance from the Montreal Jazz Festival, 1983. Then follow it with some Miles Davis alumni—Bill Evans and John Coltr

The recording quality of some of the live performances that have been recently unearthed, restored, and enhanced is incredible! Two of the best are from The Charles Mingus Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s, and Dave Brubeck Trio (sans Paul Desmond) Li

New Discoveries and re-releases are represented in this three part series. Some have been recently ‘unearthed’…and new technology used to make the tapes sound so good! Others have been reissued and remastered. For Part 1, you’ll h

We lost a true jazz great March 2nd: composer and saxophonist Wayne Shorter. In this episode I play music from his earliest to his latest years, with a few clips from fans, other musicians, and one from Mr. Shorter himself.

For this episode I play some music from some modern big bands: You’ll hear The Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra with John Pizzarelli, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, and Kansas Smitty’s. One somewhat older big band too–Maynard Ferguson Orche

What if Bebop never happened? And ‘swing’ evolved into something very different from the swing of the 30’s, 40’s, and even 50’s? That’s the question I asked of jazz musicians and aficionados who frequent the JazzWorld

Bebop, Part 2, tells you more about what it is, why it happened, and why it ‘took over’ jazz—despite it never really catching on with the public. I play older bebop recordings by Charlie Parker, Bob Dorough, Ornette Coleman, John Coltra

Bebop was the ‘modern jazz’ of the early to mid 1940’s. And it’s still considered ‘modern jazz’. It is a genre that has lasted! And developed….with most new recordings being described as ‘post bop’ or