CiTR -- The Jazz Show

Tonight is our second look at a major band from the early 70s that reflected many of the changes in Jazz Music. Weather Report was a co-operative band in every way and although they derived some of their concepts from Miles Davis, they established very quickly their own direction. They remained together for over 16 years. Saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Joe Zawinul were the spearheaders the...

Tonight begins a month of music that reflected some of the bands and the changes that were happening in Jazz music in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Rock and funk music and electric instruments were being absorbed into Jazz by various bands but the real mover and shaker was Miles Davis, whose music was undergoing a major transformation. Gone were the old tunes and the mainly acoustic instruments....

This is The Jazz Show's last installment on our tribute to the music of Thelonious Monk. This event was a well publicised concert at New York's Town Hall on February 28,1959. The first part of the concert was to be a short set by Monk's working Quartet with Charlie Rouse on tenor saxophone, Sam Jones on bass, and Arthur Taylor on drums. Three tunes played were all Monk staples then a short intermi...

Tonight's Jazz Feature is one of Monk's most powerful musical statements on record. It was recorded by an especially assembled septet with Gigi Gryce on alto saxophone, Ray Copeland on trumpet and Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane on tenor saxophones. Wilbur Ware on bass was Monk's favorite at this time and on drums was Monk's great friend an most sympathetic drummer, Art Blakey. Gryce helped Monk...

The title says it all. It was Monk's first album for Riverside Records. It was done over two nights in July of 1955. Monk's new producer, Orrin Keepnews wanted to move Thelonious into a bigger spotlight and have him record a trio album of more familiar material than his own tunes. Monk was good with the trio idea but lukewarm as to recording an album of Gershwin, Porter or Arlen tunes but Orrin Ke...

Pianist/composer Thelonious Monk was and still is one of the most important figures in Modern Jazz. In the 1950s he was neglected by the critics and many musicians. He did have his supporters in both fraternities but work was scarce and his records didn't sell and his music was never heard on Jazz radio. Tonight the Jazz Show presents two pivotal recording sessions that are now classics although t...

Jane Ira Bloom is without a doubt one of the most distinctive voices of the soprano saxophone. She is an accomplished and educated woman with a Master of Music degree from Yale and she is also a tenured professor at New York's School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. She composes as well. The soprano saxophone is her exclusive instrument and she has made it her own voice. The album on The Jazz featu...

The late guitarist Emily Remler is the third Jazz Feature with female instrumentalists. Emily's time here was sadly short-lived as she died at age 32. She was very prominent on the Jazz scene for about 9 years. She was praised by all the still living guitar greats like Barney Kessel, Tal Farlow, Charlie Byrd and especially Herb Ellis who loved her playing so much that he made sure she got a record...

This is a wonderful album by piano great Renee Rosnes who was born in Saskatchewan and raised in North Vancouver. Renee by the time this was recorded in 2003 in Vancouver had "made it" in New York. She had gone there earlier and by the time she returned to Vancouver to record this beautiful date she had played with trumpeter John Faddis, saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson and bassist Bus...

Mary-Lou Williams begins our month of Jazz Features spotlighting great woman instrumentalists and Mary-Lou Williams was the "first lady of Jazz". A musical pioneer, Mary-Lou was active as a pianist/composer and arranger from the early 1920s until her death at 71 on May 8, 1981, This album done in 1974 captures Mary-Lou at her creative best with younger energetic sidemen and playing her own composi...

This album was done in May of 1957 and represented a grand reunion of the solo ability of Miles Davis, who plays flugelhorn throughout the album and the arranging and conducting of Gil Evans. A perfect union of two great musical souls. The 18 to 19 piece orchestra is primarily brass with trumpets, trombones, french horns and a tuba and there are reeds, oboe, flutes, clarinets and bass clarinet and...

The great Sonny Stitt was a true master of the alto and tenor saxophone and yet was saddled by some critics as being "an imitator". On alto he bore some superficial similarities to Charlie Parker but that was as he said, "Bird and I listened to the same cats and were influenced by them". On the larger tenor his influences were less clear and he wasn't criticized as much but because of his flowing...

This album which received raves from the critics and public alike was bassist/composer Charles Mingus' debut on a major label, Columbia Records. It was Mingus' breakthrough from the Jazz underground. Not only was the music great and played by one of Mingus' best bands but it was beautifully recorded. Mingus was given free reign to hire and do what he wished and was also allowed to program the reco...

Our first Jazz Feature for the New Year! We begin a month of Features that are classics and also raved about and praised by the Jazz critics and press. In November we featured albums that were dismissed by the critics but despite that became Jazz classics. This month's Features are classics and critically acclaimed. Dexter Gordon's "Go!" is a classic. The great tenor saxophonist is in top form and...

This music is forever and is some of the most wonderful classic Modern Jazz ever made. It was recorded on December 24,1954 and that is why we feature this album every year on The Christmas Jazz Show and this year it's also our final show for 2017. Not to fear for we return on January 8,2018. The Miles Davis All-Stars are of course, Milt Jackson on vibes, Thelonious Monk on piano, Percy Heath on ba...

This is the second of our "soundtrack" Jazz Features for the month of December. This time the legendary Miles Davis and his famous score for the French mystery film noir entitled "Elevator to the Gallows. Miles Davis is on trumpet with the great American ex-pat drummer Kenny Clarke and three wonderful French musicians. They are: tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen, Rene Urtreger on piano and Pierre Mic...

Tenor saxophone icon Sonny Rollins composed his first film score in 1965 for the movie that put Michael Caine in the map. The movie was "Alfie". Caine played a British cad who used his looks and charm to manipulate women until he met his match and had to grow up. Rollins composed and played the music that was used throughout the film and the score was issued on a fine recording that you will hear...

Harold Floyd Brooks was nicknamed "Tina" (pronounced "Ty-na") as a corruption for "tiny" as he was a small man. A small man with a big talent! Brooks is the last of our Jazz Features of albums that were dismissed initially by the Jazz critics. The other three that we featured were not really affected by these bad reviews and their albums went on to be treated as classics. Tonight's Jazz Feature di...

Continuing in The Jazz Show's series of underrated recordings when they were first reviewed, this one is the most surprising as it is considered one of this artist's best and best loved dates. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean's third album for Blue Note called "Capuchin Swing" is on tap tonight. Jackie McLean's Blue Note period is considered his best as he was now a mature artist rather that a "prom...

This edition of drum master Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers was said to be his favourite of all. The band included the young trumpet virtuoso Lee Morgan, tenor saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter who brought his original sounding tenor to the band AND his composing and arranging talent. Wayne soon became the "musical director" of the band. Pianist/composer Bobby Timmons was a great star in this band a...

The title here explains it all. Julian "Cannonball" Adderley in 1959 left the Miles Davis Sextet after making music history with the band, especially the album "Kind of Blue" and others of course but Adderley and his cornet playing brother Nat were ready to re-form their quintet. The first one was not too successful financially and Nat joined Woody Herman's band and later trombonist J.J.Johnson an...

Hank Bagby is a name few people would know and is our last obscure but talented musician/leader in this month's series of Jazz Features. Hank Bagby was born in Denver, Colorado in 1923 and began is musical life as a singer in his home town then he ventured to the West Coast and worked in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He took up the saxophone in the late 40s and soon was playing in the Los Angeles...

Wilbur Harden continues our Jazz Feature series this month on unknown or obscure musicians. Wilbur Harden fills the bill nicely. He was a wonderful player whose career was cur short by illness so he was only on the Jazz scene from 1957 until his final recording in 1960. Harden was born in Birmingham, Alabama on Dec. 31,1924 and was a self-taught trumpeter. He began playing in R&B bands and when he...

Brian Barley was a great Canadian musician who died very young at age 28 as a result of a severe car accident. He only made one recording under his name for CBC Records in Montreal in June 1970. Barley died a year later on June 28,1971. Barley was a fine classical clarinettist who for years played Jazz on the side. He took up the saxophone at age 13. After playing in The National Youth Orchestra a...

Valdo Williams continues this month's obscure and lesser known names as the Jazz Feature presentation. Valdo Williams is a pianist/composer who although he played with many artists including Charlie Parker and Lester Young among others made only one album of his own music under his own name. It was recorded in December 1966 for Savoy Records. Valdo lived a good long life as he was born in New York...