CiTR -- The Jazz Show

This great band was based in San Francisco and was the brain child of tenor and soprano saxophonist Mel Martin who organized this band in the early 1980's. Mel is a well known teacher,lecturer,and a player who among others has worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Carter and so many others plus pop groups like Azteca, Tower of power and Cold Blood. Mel picked some of the very best pl...

A startling debut recording by a musician whose short life was musically very well documented. Born in Los Angeles but upon moving to New York in mid-1959 and leaving his employer, drummer Chico Hamilton, Eric joined Charles Mingus' bubbling cauldron of musical creativity, The Jazz Workshop. Through his membership in the Mingus organization, Eric was signed by Prestige (New Jazz) Records and made...

This oft recorded band was one of the best in Modern Jazz history. Led by the great alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, it featured his brother Nat on cornet plus the wonderfully versatile Yusef Lateef on tenor saxophone, flute and oboe on the front line plus the stellar rhythm section of Joe Zawinul on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Louis Hayes on drums. This band, even on an "off" night...

Composer,theorist, pianist, arranger George Russell occupies an important place in Jazz history. He wrote the influential theory book called "The Lydian Concept of Tonal Organization" and many influential musicians studied the ideas in that book. George Russell had a working band from the years 1960-64 and all of the players that passed through his band learned his theories. This rare date was onl...

In 1962 Lee Morgan was sick, drug addicted and destitute and without a trumpet yet at the beginning of the year he made this extraordinary recording by picking a great band, borrowing a horn and contributing 4 of the 6 tunes heard here. Morgan's story is well known and can be found in his harrowing, and candid biography called "Delightfulee" published by The University of Michigan Press. Despite h...

Tonight is a special Jazz Show as CITR is in the middle of it's annual Fun Drive to raise money for new equipment and keep the station happening. The Jazz Feature tonight is selections from pianist/composer Horace Silver and his Quintet. The personnel of this band (with the exception of the drum chair) was stable from 1959 through 1964.Richard "Blue" Mitchell was on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor s...

This album is one of alto saxophonist Jackie McLean's masterpieces. It is his first full-blown venture into some unknown territory. When McLean signed with Blue Note in 1959, he was basically a "straight-ahead" bebopper of the 2nd generation but the winds of change in Jazz were blowing in the early 60's with the arrival of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy et al. Mclean was hearing this a...

This was the third recording of this famous suite called "Black,Brown and Beige" which had it's genesis at Carnegie Hall in 1943. Ellington wrote this as a "tone parallel to the history of the American Negro"(sic).Ellington pared the suite down from it's original hour form to this 35 minute version by focusing on two main themes that recur throughout the suite. The marvel of this version is the ap...

This album was recorded in October of 1962 at the legendary Jazz Workshop in San Francisco as part of a two week engagement. Mr. Roach usually traveled with his girlfriend (who became his wife), singer Abby Lincoln but not this time. This writer was there for two nights but not on the evening of the recording. The same two pieces were played every night, among many others. By this time Max Roach w...

This album was recorded during a very turbulent time in American History.....assassinations, the Viet Nam War, youthful rebellion all rolled into one. For black Americans the assassinations of Malcolm X (1965) and Martin Luther King (1968) were uppermost in people's minds. Herbie Hancock was no different and for his final album for Blue Note records, Mr. Hancock had to make a sociological and poli...

On May 1,1962, Duke Ellington had booked his Orchestra into A&R Recording Studio in New York but had no idea what to record. He had written no new music for the date and was at a loss until his tenor saxophonist, Paul Gonsalves walked in, the first to arrive, looking fresh, energetic and happy. Gonsalves so many times was tardy and hung over but not today. This gave Duke his bright idea. He would...

Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco was the man who brought the clarinet into the Modern jazz era. DeFranco began and can be heard on very early recordings in the mid-forties sounding like a combination of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw but he soon was absorbing the musical language of Charlie Parker and his disciples and "modernized" his style and became the leading voice of the clarinet in...

This great album and concept comes from the ever changing musical mind of Miles Davis, a man who not only was one of the most individual stylists of the trumpet but a man who constantly altered his music to make it fresh and new not only for him but his followers. Sometimes he lost his followers as they could not adapt to his changes but he always gained new ones. This album is from his early 70's...

There is really no need to describe this classic date. I consider this date an essential listening experience. This date defines Modern Jazz in a way that no other does. It is also a tradition on The Jazz Show as this is the last show of 2012 and the show closest to Christmas. This date was recorded on Christmas Eve 1954 and although it's not stated in the music the SPIRIT of Christmas is here. Th...

This famous recording put alto saxophonist/composer John Handy back on the Jazz map. After a great beginning in New York as part of The Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop and pianist Randy Weston's band and his own group, John moved back to the Bay Area to complete his music degree at San Francisco State. His career was a bit in limbo after leaving New York but this Quintet came together with the additi...

This obscure artist who rarely if ever played his music in public (he made his living playing in Dixieland and show bands) was able through the graces of Blue Note Records' Alfred Lion to record a series of dates with hand-picked sidemen playing his own compositions. Lion released Herbies first two albums on two 10" LPs called "The Prophetic Herbie Nichols" Volumes 1 & 2. Tonight we hear his first...

This great edition of the Kenton band performs one of composer/arranger Johnny Richards' masterpieces. It's a seven part suite called "Cuban Fire". Richards was born in Mexico of Spanish and Mexican parentage and this suite reflects not only his influences from the great modern classical composers like, Bartok, Stravinsky, Hindemith etc but also his Latino background. This edition of the Kenton ba...

One of the most unique and interesting musicians to ever visit our humble planet. Kirk began perfecting his mastery over three saxophones played at once, a concept that came to him in a dream. Kirk was sightless from a very young age so he lived in a world of sound. He played the tenor saxophone (his main horn) and the manzello (a soprano saxophone) and the stritch (an elongated alto saxophone) pl...

This is an unusual recording by these two major Jazz voices. Their association went back to the days when they were both in Miles Davis' sextet. By the time of this recording they were both leaders and poll winners. This date done in early 1961 brings out different characteristics of both musician. Adderley is more lyrical and gentle than his usually hard-driving self. Contrast this with the usual...

Today would have been the 87th Birthday of John Haley Sims better known as "Zoot", a nickname that he acquired when he was a teenager and he kept for the rest of his life. Zoot Sims was one of the finest exponents of the tenor saxophone. he played and recorded on the alto and soprano horns but it's his tenor that stands out. He was one of the original "four brothers" in Woody Herman's legendary Se...

Two of the finest and most innovative trumpeters in Jazz are on tap here. Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge and John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie. Roy was the elder of the two and came up in the 30's during the "swing era". It had been said and it is a generalization with some merit that Roy is the link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy Gillespie needs no introduction as he is one of the pion...

Tonight's Feature is a true Jazz summit meeting. It took place in a New York studio for United Artists Records on September 17,1962. The people involved are Duke Ellington on piano, Charles Mingus on bass and Max Roach on drums. All the compositions are by Duke Ellington and they are all newly created for this date with two exceptions: Juan Tizol's and Ellington's "Caravan" and Ellington's and Edd...

Today, October 8 is the birthday of one of the great masters of the big baritone saxophone, Park Frederick Adams 111 better known as Pepper. He was born in Highland Park, Michigan (near Detroit) and began playing in Detroit. He emigrated to New York in the mid-50's along with many players from Detroit. This Feature is about a very short-lived band co-led by Adams and trombonist Jimmy Knepper. It's...

This was the first recording by the newly expanded band led by the great alto saxophonist, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. The core band included Julian's brother, Nat on cornet, Joe Zawinul on piano and the stellar rhythm section of bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes. It was the addition of multi-instrumentalist, Yusef Lateef that gave the band it's new sound and distinction. It was now the...

This is a wonderful relaxed recording between two great tenor saxophonists who displayed widely different styles. John Coltrane is here on this date done in May 1957 in his first full maturity and he displays a concept and confidence that caused musicians and critics to declare him to be the newest important voice on the tenor saxophone. Paul Quinichette was ten years older than Coltrane and was t...