CiTR -- The Jazz Show

St. Elmo Sylvester Hope Jr.was born on this day (June 27), the only child of hard working West Indian immigrants, in New York in 1923. Elmo was one of the unsung greats in Jazz music and he died on May 19, 1967 at age 43 of heart failure and pneumonia. Mr. Hope grew up with his two closest friends, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. Powell and Monk, despite the extreme difficulties in their lives ach...

The album "Out To Lunch!" was recorded on February 25,1964 and was Eric Dolphy's final statement recorded domestically. It was his musical vision with the people he wanted to work with. Eric died at 34 just a few months after this date in Berlin on June 29, 1964 as a result of diabetes. His collegues here are Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Richard Davis on bass and a young...

Tonight is a special program in that your host Gavin Walker takes a back seat and turns the show over to The Manager of Artistic Programming for the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, Rainbow Robert. Ms. Robert has picked all of the music for the show and talks about the artists and where they will be appearing at this year's Vancouver International Jazz Festival. This is a very special Jazz Festival...

Guitar master Grant Green emerged on the Jazz scene in the early 60's and along with Wes Montgomery were two of the most prominent exponents of that instrument. Grant Green, in the mid-60's made a conversion to a more funky organ based sound for his working group. He dropped the Gershwin and Porter standards for more contemporary material from black urban and crossover music. While still retaining...

Tonight The Jazz Show celebrates what would be the 102nd birthday of one of the icons of 20th Century music. The King of Swing: Benny Goodman. I'll be presenting as the Jazz Feature broadcast recordings from various locations where the tri, quartet and band played in the peak years of Goodman's popularity in 1937/38. The trio with Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, and Gene Krupa on drums...

The conclusion of The Jazz Show of May 23 and the Feature: The Final Recordings of Artie Shaw.

Tonight The Jazz Show is celebrating what would be Artie Shaw's 101st birthday. Arthur Jacob Arshawsky was born on May 23, 1910 and died at the ripe old age of 94 on December 30, 2004. Tonight on the Jazz Feature, I'll be playing a selection of his final recordings as a musician and one of the finest clarinettists in the world. These are small group recordings that show that Mr. Shaw was not resti...

Tonight we send birthday wishes to Woodrow Charles Herrman who became better known as Woody Herman, one of the all-time greatest band leaders and one whose place in Jazz history is secure. Woody was born May 16, 1913 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and passed away at age 74 on October 29, 1987. Woody led so many great editions of his bands that he called "Herds" that this one is no exception. Recorded ove...

Booker Ervin was one of the most identifiable voices of the tenor saxophone. He possessed a high, hard, keening sound and a rich blues based concept. He was also Charles Mingus' favourite saxophonist and worked with Mingus and recorded with Mr. Mingus on some of his most important albums such as "Mingus Ah Um", "Blues and Roots", etc. Ervin was born in Denison,Texas on Oct 31,1930 and died of kidn...

Richard Arnold "Groove" Holmes was born on this day, May 2, 1931 in Camden New Jersey and was one of the great masters of the mighty Hammond B3 organ. Holmes, unlike most of the great B3 artists did NOT start on the piano and then switch but began on the Hammond. He developed his own sound that separated him from the other greats on that instrument. His strong point was his magnificent bass lines....

Ella Fitzgerald wasn't called "The First Lady of Song" for nothing. Her clear diction and faultless intonation and her rich mezzo-soprano voice to this day is unequaled. Also she should be called "The First Lady of Scat" because evn though she didn't invent the art of scat singing, she perfected it and to this day no singer can match her abilities in this direction. To celebrate Ella's 94th Birthd...

Pianist/composer Cecil Taylor is today recognized as one of the world foremost artists and has received many accolades and honours for his work. His music has always been on the cutting edge and sometimes a great challenge for the casual Jazz listener. Taylor, like that other Jazz iconoclast, Thelonious Monk suffered at the hands of the so-called "Jazz police". He was fired from gigs and booted of...

This amazing music was recorded in performance at New York's "Fillmore East", which was at the time primarily a rock venue. Miles Davis had entered his post "Bitches Brew" stage and was entering his new phase and a very new context for his creativity. Miles always moved forward, according to his artistic muse and gone were the standards, and tunes like "Milestones", "So What", "All Blues" etc. His...

This album is on so many people's "desert island discs". This classic was recorded over two dates in May of 1962. The band worked a few engagements around the New York area then went into the studio. Roy Haynes, who is now 86 years old is one of the wonders of the world as he is still playing as well, if not better than he was when he was much younger. He is amazing, as usual on this recording. Mr...

Thad Jones was better known as a bandleader/composer arranger but he was also a magnificent trumpeter. Thad was from the famous Detroit Jones family that produced older brother Hank, the great pianist and the youngest brother, Elvin, one of the most innovative of Jazz drummers. Thad, born in Pontiac, Michigan on March 28, 1923 was the "middle brother". Thad was 63 when he passed away in his adopte...

Rusty Bryant was an authoritative voice of the tenor and alto saxophones. Because of his love for Columbus, Ohio he never ventured very far from that city, where he was a local musical hero. He usually went to New York or L.A. only to record. He had some recorded successes in the mid-50's where he displayed a smooth style and a light Getz-like tone but stayed around Columbus and was rediscovered b...

Quincy Delightt Jones needs no introduction to anyone even remotely interested in music. Whether you taste is Jazz,pop, or whatever...Quincy Jones has influenced to way we listen to music. Quincy Jones in the mid-50's had established himself in New York as an instrumentalist, arranger, contractor, composer and a musical influence all before his 25th birthday! Today he is 78 as he was born in Chica...

The name Grachan Moncur might not immediately register with Jazz fans but he was one of the movers and shakers of Modern Jazz in the mid-60's and he was one of the young musicians who pushed the boundries of the music at that time. His trombone work owes little or nothing to J.J. Johnson and co. and he developed an individual concept on that difficult horn. It was his compositions that were unique...

This album recorded in August of 1959 marked a turning point in the recording career of one of the greatest Modern Jazz tenor saxophonists: Johnny Griffin. Up to this time Griffin's recordings had been casual quartet or "blowing dates" with loosely put together arrangements. This date is different and was also greeted warmly by the critics. What makes this date special is the arrangements and the...

One of Jazz music's greatest drummers was Joseph Rudolph Jones who was better known as "Philly Joe" Jones to distinguish him from the older drummer who was associated with Count Basie: Jo (Jonathan) Jones. One of Philly Joe's last major projects was organizing a 10 piece band to play and revive the music of one of the most important composers in Jazz: Tadd Dameron. The band was called "Dameronia"...

Trumpeter Joe Gordon was a great player who like many others didn't get the recognition that he deserved. His recorded documentation is short with a number of important sideman performances with Dizzy Gillespie, Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker et al. He only made two albums under his name: one in 1954 and tonight's Feature in 1961. This album is special as it was to be the last und...

Guitar master Grant Green and Wes Montgomery were two of the most influential voices of their instrument in the 1960's. They seemed to come out of nowhere to Jazz fame and in a way they did. Both honed their skills in their respective home towns...Montgomery in Indianapolis and Green in St. Louis. Cannonball Adderley discovered Wes and brought him to the attention of Riverside Records honcho Orrin...

This is arguably Charles Mingus' last great recording. It was done at two separate sessions. One composition was done in 1976 with his working band of the time with Jack Walrath (trumpet), George Adams (tenor saxophone), Danny Mixon (piano) and of course Dannie Richmond on drums and Mingus on bass. The band was augmented by some fine Italian musicans as well. The piece was to be used in a film cal...

January 24 is the birthday of one of the great unsung drummers....his name....Leonard Louis McBrowne. He was born in New York on Jan. 24,1933 and passed away after a short illness in San Francisco in the mid-90's. Lenny had played with many people of note: Billie Holiday, Sonny Rollins, Randy Weston, Thelonious Monk,Paul Bley, just to name a few. Lenny studied with Max Roach and reflected Roach's...

A significant recording in the long distinguished history of Modern Jazz pioneer, drummer extraordinaire Max Roach. Today, January 10 is Mr. Roach's Birthday and The Jazz Show celebrates this event by presenting the album "Max Roach Plus Four" recorded in September 1956.. This was Max's fist recording after the tragic end to the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet. Brown and the band's pianist, Richa...