CiTR -- The Jazz Show

Roy Haynes is now 91 years' old and still performing and touring and has lost nothing to age. He has always when not fully committed to a band led a small group and usually a quartet with a horn, piano, bass and himself. We go back to Los Angeles for a very rare date done in May 1964 with his Quartet. Frank Strozier is one of the unsung giant of the alto saxophone possessing a sound and individual...

The mystery behind this little Chicago based band is simple. The MJT stands for the "Modern Jazz Two" This was bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Walter Perkins. They were the most sought after rhythm players on the Chicago scene in the late 50s. They recruited two horn players and a pianist and they comprised the "+3". After a few personnel changes, the band was set. Willie Thomas, a fine brass pro...

Tonight's Jazz Feature is possibly the final recording by virtuoso bassist Gary Peacock. Mr Peacock has been at the forefront of this music for many years and has explored many avenues of this music. He is perhaps best known for his work with Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette in that magical and profound trio. Peacock has ventured out on his own as leader a few times and this album will be perhaps hi...

Howard McGhee was one of the first trumpeters to play the new Jazz music of the 40s called Bebop. Howard came out of several big bands and played with Coleman Hawkins and even more importantly, Charlie Parker during Parker's time in California in 1946/47. McGhee was at the top of his game when he returned to New York and made some historic recordings with his friend Fats Navarro in the McGhee/Nava...

This was a gathering of a group of then young men, mostly in their 20s in January 1959 in New York for this informal get-together. All of these men were now living in New York and had established themselves on the national Jazz scene. Several were part of some great working bands and some were freelancing. They all came together on this recording. All of these men were born and had their first ear...

This was the album that showed guitar great Jim Hall the door to becoming the Jazz icon that he was. This was Hall's debut date under his own name and proved that this young man in January 1957 when this date was recorded was headed for greatness. Hall went on to become one of the most influential guitarists in Jazz History and had a long and very productive career. His partners here include the l...

Walter Benton was a fine tenor saxophonist who's career was long and productive, especially as a sideman but he remained in undeserved obscurity. His only recording under his name is tonight's Jazz Feature. He deserved more but it never happened. The recording was done when Walter had ventured to New York from his native Los Angeles to join Max Roach's band. He was given this date and hand-picked...

Thelonious Monk had a long and productive contract with Columbia records but in 1968 it was coming to an end. Soon after his saxophonist of 11 years, Charlie Rouse was leaving and Monk's health was a bit fragile as well. This was the penultimate Columbia album and the final documentation of Monk's working Quartet. The album was called "Underground" and it's iconic cover won more awards and attenti...

This edition of the Stan Kenton Orchestra was one of his finest and when this 7 part suite was commissioned by Stan for composer Johnny Richards, it was perfect timing. Richards was of Mexican and Cuban ancestry although born in the USA and this suite reflects his Latino heritage. Richards was a prolific writer and arranger and this suite is one of his finest works. The big Kenton Orchestra is aug...

This amazing edition of master drummer Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers was together with this same personnel from the Fall of 1961 until the Spring of 1964. This powerful band made many great albums both live and in the studio. Tonight's album was the final statement by this band with this group of players and the four tunes on this record captured the band at it's very best just like it would sound...

This modern classic album is arguably considered to be a "perfect recording". We all know that "perfection" in art is not possible but I must say this album comes very close to that ideal. There is a total unity of purpose in this band and in Hancock's music. Herbie Hancock had by the time of this recording established himself as one of the major piano players of the 60s along with McCoy Tyner. Ha...

This historic and ground-breaking record date was done on December 24, 1954 and was a meeting of all-stars. Miles Davis on trumpet was the nominal leader and he performs with Thelonious Monk on piano, Milt Jackson on vibes, Percy Heath on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. This record date has become a Christmas Jazz Feature on The Jazz Show and an annual tradition. It's not Christmas music per se bu...

Clifford Jordan is from Chicago and is a graduate of the legendary DuSable High School music program. Many many famous musicians and performers graduated from this school and the music program was under the venerable Captain Walter Dyett who taught, reading, discipline, tone and ability to blend with other instruments. Jordan worked with Horace Silver, Max Roach, J.J. Johnson and Charles Mingus an...

The title really explains it all. This great self-taught guitarist is considered one of the finest players of his instrument in Jazz music. In 1956 Talmadge "Tal" Farlow had several long club gigs in New York with this drumless trio comprising of piano virtuoso Eddie Costa and bassist Vinnie Burke. They took the Farlow Trio into the recording studio on May 31, 1956 and recorded this wonderful upli...

Little is known about Fred Jackson except he was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929 which today would make him 87 or 88. if he is still with us. He dropped out of the music scene around 1965 and nothing since. He came from a Rhythm and Blues background and worked with Little Richard, B.B. King and especially Lloyd Price where he was Mr. Price's musical director. Jackson is a tenor saxophonist in the...

George General "Gigi" Gryce was one of the most important Jazz musicians in the 1950s and early 60s. He collaborated with most of the major musicians as an alto saxophonist, composer or arranger. He wrote some memorable tunes and they are often played to this day. In around 1962, he quit music altogether and for the rest of his life became an inspiring inner-city school teacher. He began to use hi...

Drummer Chico Hamilton led a very successful Quintet through the late 50s that was one of the most popular groups in Jazz. The music he played was fun but very stylized and tightly arranged and it allowed some freedoms but with restrictions. Chico grew restless and was growing tired of this style of Jazz despite it's commercial success. Hamilton was hearing and being exposed to some different soun...

Tonight's Jazz Feature is our small celebration to Halloween as tonight is October 31st! Joseph Rudolph Jones aka "Philly Joe" a nickname he adopted to distinguish himself from the older Basie drummer Jo Jones. Philly Joe came to national fame as part of Miles Davis' "first great quintet" and became one of the most in-demand sideman and appeared on so many classic recordings in the 50s and 60s and...

Alto saxophonist William "Sonny" Criss was undeservedly overlooked for most of his rather frustrating career. He truly is one of the very greats on his instrument and a powerful emotionally direct player with a beautiful full singing tone. Sonny's most prolific recording period was the 1960s when in 1965 he was signed with Prestige Records. The seven or so albums he did for that label are all real...

This album came about because of Miles Davis. Gil Evans who was a composer/arranger collaborated on a trio of Miles Davis recordings that became instant classics: these were "Miles Ahead", "Porgy and Bess" and "Sketches of Spain". Through these albums, Gil Evans' name became a household one in the late 50s and early 60s and through his notoriety he was able to form his own orchestra and the magnif...

Tonight on The Jazz Feature we present a group pf recording sessions that feature two great iconoclasts of Jazz music.: Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk who are celebrating their Birthday Anniversaries on Oct 10 (Monk) and Oct. 11 (Blakey). Blakey and Monk not only shared musical empathy but a lifelong friendship. Blakey was the drummer on Monk's very first recordings in 1947 and they continued that...

This album was recorded at the legendary Jazz Workshop in the North Beach area of San Francisco in October of 1962. In 1959 Max Roach declared that his music would from that time on reflect not only his musical stance but his political stance as regards civil rights for his people of African-American heritage. After this recording, Mr. Roach was boycotted by many booking agents and the record comp...

This is a classic John Coltrane recording to celebrate his 90th Birthday Anniversary. The album was his only date for Blue Note Records and it occupies the position of Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue", Brubeck's "Take Five" or Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" as being an essential Jazz album. Coltrane was given rehearsal time and was able to hand pick the personnel. He chose a young Lee Morgan on trumpet wh...

This classic recording done in the mid-50s is our second Jazz feature into the "back to school" idea with an educational and entertaining lecture into what Jazz music is and what it isn't. Leonard Bernstein loved, understood and respected Jazz music and was a master communicator. This is less a history of Jazz but an analysis in a non-academic fashion of many of the unique musical elements that ma...

This Jazz feature is a long time September tradition on The Jazz Show as it is entertaining and educational. It celebrates the usual September time of "back to school, back to work" and so on. Julian "Cannonball" Adderley was one of the leading alto saxophonists in Jazz music and a great bandleader and Jazz communicator. He was a former school teacher before embarking on his fabled musical career....