CiTR -- The Jazz Show

Today is the Birthday of Tommy Flanagan and The Jazz Show is pleased to present his first Trio recording. It was done in Sweden in August 1957 while he was on tour with trombonist J.J.Johnson. The Swedes brought Flanagan, bassist Wilbur Little and drummer Elvin Jones into the studio to record 9 tunes. 6 are by Tommy and there is one by Charlie Parker (Relaxin' At Camarillo) and one by Billy Strayh...

This unique trio was together for a few years and represents an important period in Ornette Coleman's musical life. It is pure unadulterated Ornette! He plays his alto saxophone here on a series of compositions recorded at Sweden's "Golden Circle" club. Coleman is accompanied by the virtuoso bassist David Izenzon who came to Coleman from a classical background. Drummer Charles Moffett went to high...

Miles Davis needs no introduction here as his music is as varied as his personality. He reflected the changes and the growth in his life by his music. He moved with the times on his terms and wasn't a slave to fashion except his own. No one told Miles Davis how to play or what kind of music to play he just did. So this evening will be a potpourri of the music of Miles Davis. Miles was and remains...

Don Thompson, one of Canada's most prominent Jazz musicians leads an all- Canadian quartet on 8 intriguing Thompson originals. The album is called "For Kenny Wheeler" (dedicated to the great trumpeter/composer who was born in Canada) Three of the participants are Members of The Order of Canada (Thompson, drummer Terry Clarke and saxophonist/pianist Phil Dwyer). Thompson is heard here mostly on pia...

The Jazz Feature tonight is Dave Brubeck's first Columbia recording and it's called "Jazz Goes To College". It was recorded in early 1954 during a tour of Midwestern colleges and it marks an early peak for Brubeck. They had arrived! Critical and audience recognition and that same year Brubeck on the cover of Time Magazine. All of this before the advent of "Take Five" and other major hits. The Quar...

Louis Smith briefly burst on the New York Jazz scene in the late 1950s. He recorded two magnificent albums for Blue Note(the second is the Jazz Feature tonight) and appeared as a sideman on several more for Blue Note and United Artists. He also was briefly a member of Horace Silver's Quintet replacing the departing Art Farmer. However for Louis and his family, security was important and the New Yo...

Sonny Stitt was in many ways a misunderstood Jazz giant and he, at least as far as his alto saxophone work is concerned, had to live with being referred to as a Bird imitator. Stitt had the same musical influences as Charlie Parker but despite some surface similarities, they were very different players. Stitt later took up the tenor saxophone and the baritone saxophone. His tenor playing was equal...

This is an award winning album that not only features Jimmy Heath's distinctive tenor saxophone and on one tune, his soprano saxophone but his compositions and arrangements. Heath, who is still alive and performing at age 88 was part and parcel of one of the most important era of Jazz music...the golden age of Modern Jazz or as it's more commonly known, Bebop. Seven of the eight tunes were compose...

John Coltrane's "Classic Quartet" with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and the incredible Elvin Jones on drums had reached a pinnacle of creativity when this concert was performed as part of an extensive European tour. Changes were afoot but during this period the band had reached a level of consistency and performance that was unequaled by any band of this instrumentation. They were...

This historic concert which Miles Davis and his Quintet performed at the brand new Lincoln Center on February 12,1964 (Lincoln's Birthday)was a benefit for the registration of African-American voters in Alabama and Mississippi as they were denied this even though the law said they were eligible to vote..The ticket prices were very high for the time yet the new concert hall was packed and Columbia...

This is one of the finest bands that tenor saxophone master Stan Getz ever led and yet it has not been very well documented on reissues. It began it's genesis on the East Coast but when Getz and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1953, Mr. Getz secured a long club engagement and brought this band out to the West. Norman Granz documented the band in the studio over several sessions and there is muc...

Sun Ra is one of the most charismatic and fascinating figures in Jazz music. He is a mystic, philosopher, writer,community leader,composer,arranger,bandleader and pianist among other things. He was a Jazz pioneer who was not in the mainstream of Jazz yet he was respected by all as being a major figure. Tonight's Jazz feature is an early Sun Ra date with his "Arkestra" done for his own label, Satur...

One of the most important records in Jazz History is our regular Christmas Jazz Feature and it's the Christmas Eve recording session in 1954 of The Miles Davis All-Stars. Mr. Davis is the nominal leader here with Milt Jackson on vibes, Thelonious Monk on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. A beautiful incandescant spirit pervades the session and it feels Christmasy even though no...

This is an incredible debut album by a great trumpeter who was very briefly on the Jazz scene in the late 1950s. He left the Jazz world to teach at the University of Michigan. Louis Smith was a major trumpet player. He performs here with Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on alto saxophone, Duke Jordan on piano for the first 3 tunes and Tommy Flanagan on the last 3. Doug Watkins is on bass and Arthur Ta...

Composer Wayne Horvitz put together this amazing band of young men and women from Seattle's junior colleges and high schools and picked the cream of the crop to perform these 13 compositions. The playing is extraordinary with many fine solos by these young unknowns. The compositions are superb and demonstrate Mr. Horvitz' influences: Basie, Ellington, Mingus, Evans but most of all the originality...

This is one of the most overlooked albums in the Mingus legacy. It is from a relatively stable period musically and personally in Mingus' volatile life. The band is one of the longest he was able to keep together and lasted from 1956 through the latter part of 1958 with basically the same personnel except for the revolving door of pianists. Pianist were hard to keep in those days as they were alwa...

This great band played only in the Los Angeles area yet it gained international fame because vibist/leader Terry Gibbs was astute enough to record the band's infrequent gigs and record them well with the genius engineer Wally Heider. The band consisted of the cream of the crop of Jazz playing Hollywood musicians. These were men who loved playing Jazz but also made a great living doing studio/movie...

This album is one of the most iconic Blue Note releases in that it represents four young men who are advancing the Jazz Tradition by not abandoning that tradition. Most prominent is the leader, Hammond organist Larry Young who is taking the instrument beyond blues and greasy funk and into other musical realms. The two horns are representative of modern thinking and both are innovators and importan...

Richard Williams (1931-1985) was an incredible trumpeter and a powerful voice in his chosen horn. Richard recorded with John Handy, Booker Ervin, Yusef Lateef, Oliver Nelson and was a member of the hottest Jazz cauldron of the time: The Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop. He played in numerous big bands, symphony orchestras and Broadway pit bands and did studio work but he only made one album under his...

William "Sonny" Criss had a career that seemed to go in fits and starts. Sonny emerged early on the 1940's L.A. Jazz scene with his full-bodied sound and passionate approach and played with all the important players then went on to play with Norman Granz' Jazz At The Philharmonic travelling jam session and shared the stage with Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Hank Jones, Shelley Manne and others. He...

This five movement creation by composer extraordinaire George Russell is his tribute to New York City. It was written and recorded in late 1958 and 1959 and played by an all-star orchestra with many many great Jazz stars as soloists. People such as John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Bob Brookmeyer, Phil Woods, Art Farmer, Bill Evans, Max Roach are all heard extensively. Mr, Russell incorporates several...

This is an historic record date with Thelonious Monk joining Art Blakey's 1957 edition of The Jazz Messengers. Monk had one important request when he agreed to do this date and that was it must include mostly Monk tunes. Monk and Blakey were best of friends and their Birthdays were one day apart Oct.10(Monk) and Oct 11(Blakey) so it was a fun date for all concerned. Blakey's Messengers included Cl...

Elvin Jones was one of the most compelling and inventive drummers in the history of Jazz. In 1965 he left the John Coltrane "Classic Quartet" and struck out on his own leading his bands that he dubbed "The Elvin Jones Jazz Machine". These were groups of various sizes that he led until his passing in May of 2004.This was one of his first records post-Coltrane and Elvin put together a fine band for...

Phillip Wells Woods is still to this day one of the foremost exponents of the alto saxophone and a Jazz Master. Woods was born in Springfield Mass. on November 2,1931 and moved to New York to attend The Julliard School of Music in 1948. By 1954 he had began recording for Prestige/New Jazz under his own name and he also made sideman appearances but tonight's Jazz Feature recording made in November...

William "Red" Garland was one of the finest and most distinctive pianists of his generation. He rose to fame with Miles Davis from 1955 through 1958 with a few short layoffs. Garland through being employed by Davis got a recording contract with Prestige Records and made a whole series of good selling trio albums that established his sound away from Davis. Garland was also a frequent sideman on man...