CiTR -- The Jazz Show

Richard "Blue" Mitchell was one of the most distinctive voices on the trumpet. He came through various r & b bands and paid long dues on the road but in 1958 he joined pianist Horace Silver's great band and never looked back. He began recording under his own name as a leader and sideman and made a wonderful series of recordings for Riverside and Jazzland Records. After playing an important sideman...

Tonight's Jazz feature is a wonderful recording that was meant for private use. It was recorded by Dave Quarin, a great Vancouver saxophonist who also ran one of Vancouver's finest Jazz clubs: The Cellar. The original Cellar was in existence from 1955 to 1963 and run as a co-operative venture by musicians and artists. The staff was volunteer and only the musicians were paid. Local players were fea...

The music of pianist/composer Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea needs no introduction to most of you. He is a musician extraordinaire who has covered every musical base possible. From "free" avant-guarde Jazz to classical music, it's all the same to Corea. Tonight's Feature is called "Trio Music" and it is mostly that. This is a re-union of three musicians with special chemistry and they are: bassist...

Tonight's show is always a special one and it is The Jazz Show's tribute to the city of Vancouver's most famous and best attended cultural event: The 2010 Vancouver International Jazz Festival. As is tradition Gavin Walker's guest host and musical selector will be John Orysik, the Media Director for The Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, the organization that brings you The Jazz Festival. All the art...

Harold Floyd Brooks, better known as "Tina" (a nickname that he was given because of his small size is a corruption of "Teeny" or "Tiny") was one of the sadder stories in Jazz music. This well respected musician broke into the big time Jazz scene in 1958, after years in anonymous r&b and Latin bands, on a famous recording date with organist Jimmy Smith called "The Sermon". Brooks distinctive sound...

This hard driving blues based modern Jazz session was co-led by two great products of a Chicago high school named DuSable which had a great music program headed by the legendary "Captain" Walter Dyett. One of the co-leaders is Bennie Green who was one of the early modern trombone masters. Although he isn't treated with the same reverence as J.J.Johnson, Bennie should be recognized as one of the pi...

This album was the first domestic release of the music of Charles Mingus in the 70's. Mingus was inactive during the latter half of the 60's. Health and financial problems plus a lack of interest in continuing leading bands and creating music and a general sense of discouragement plagued Mingus during this time. He began playing toward the end of the decade and went on a tour of Europe with a grea...

This album aptly titled by Blue Note Records' owner Alfred Lion was called "Swing, Swang, Swingin'". "That's what the guys did and this was one of the most relaxed sessions I ever supervised". This was alto saxophone master Jackie Mclean's first quartet date for Blue Note, a label that he signed with in 1959 after several unhappy years with Prestige. Jackie was with BLue Note from 1959 to 1968 in...

Tomasz Stanko is not a household word among North American Jazz fans but I'm sure he'll become better known through his various concert appearances at this summer's Jazz festival season with his new band. Stanko is Poland's best known Jazz musician and he has played every kind of Jazz imaginable. He was born in Rzeszow Poland on July 11,1942 into a musical family playing piano and violin but began...

Pianist Jaki (John) Byard was a genius who played every instrument in the band more than well but we'll always remember him as a great piano player whose style covered the history of Jazz from stride and ragtime to the avant-guard and all the stops in between. Jaki was born in Worcester, MA on June 15,1922 and died in New York on February 11,1999. He was murdered and the case is still one of the N...

Gil Evans place in Jazz history was essentially made alongside Miles Davis. Beginning with the famous Miles Davis nonet that recorded for Capital Records in 1949-50 as "The Birth Of The Cool" and then later in the 50's and 60's with a trio of albums recorded by Miles Davis with the Gil Evans Orchestra: "Miles Ahead", "Porgy and Bess" and "Sketches of Spain" and to a lesser extent "Quiet Nights". T...

This album is one of Herbie Hancock's masterpieces and we are featuring this stunning recording to honour one of the most significant musicians of our time: Herbert Jeffery Hancock who was born 70 years ago on this day (April 12) 1940 in Chicago. A child prodigy, Hancock was destined for musical fame from a very early age when he played with the Chicago Symphony orchestra. He was 11 years old!! Ha...

A double Feature tonight. We are celebrating what would be tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine's 76th birthday, He died in September of 2000 of a stroke. He was born in Pittsburg on April 5,1934. The first part of the Feature will be the title selection from Max Roach's album done in Paris in 1960 called "Parisian Sketches". It was in Roach's band that Stanley and his older brother Tommy, a fine...

This recording done by Miles Davis and his "Second Great Quintet" was the first recorded evidence that a musical change was in the air. The quintet, of course, consisted of Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and the amazing Tony Williams on drums. There are only four long tracks on this recording and we'll hear them in chronological order as they were don...

George Benson is known today as one of music's superstars. A great instrumentalist/singer/entertainer who began his career as a pure Jazz player but successfully, after adding vocals to his repertoire, crossed over into funk and pop music. He had many major hits and won Grammy Awards and achieved not only fame but fortune. For all that let it be said that when motivated and under the right circums...

This recording was the second album recorded in 1966 for Blue Note by the iconoclastic pianist/composer Cecil Taylor. Taylor's music has always posed a challenge to the listener as his music is dense and often seems arrhythmic. His ensembles or bands that he calls "Units" pose even more of a challenge. Not only does the listener have to hear Taylor's always busy playing but one has to hear the bas...

This Feature is a tribute to National Woman's Day and this Orchestra led by Maria Schneider is one of the leading Jazz organizations of today. Maria's music reflects her creativity and her influences which include the great master Gil Evans. Her orchestra is full of all-star players like trumpeter Ingrid Jenson,Steve Wilson on alto and soprano saxophones, tenor saxophonist Rich Perry, guitarist Be...

This short-lived quintet led by tenor saxophone master Hank Mobley and pianist Cedar Walton constituted one of Mr. Mobley's final documentation on record. It was done in New York on February 22,1972. Hank was one of the most prolifically consistent musicians of the 50's and 60's and recorded dozens of fine albums mostly for Blue Note Records and also for Prestige and Savoy. Hank was a charter memb...

This Feature is a large orchestral piece written by Boris (Lalo) Schifrin that features Dizzy Gillespie as chief soloist. It was Lalo's last contribution to Dizzy's music after spending two years with Mr. Gillespie as his pianist and arranger. Lalo, of course had written the more famous "Gillespiana Suite" for Dizzy but this six movement piece is much more of an orchestral excursion and is much mo...

This album which was recorded for a small independent label on October 21,1955 was alto saxophonist Jackie McLean's first under his own name. The label was "Ad-Lib Records" and it was the only album ever issued on that label. A pristine copy of the original LP commands several thousands of dollars on the collector's market. It was re-issued several times on LP on Jubilee, Roulette, Josie and Trip...

Charles Mingus' "Tijuana Moods" is one of his acknowledged classics. It was recorded in July and August 1957 by one of his best "Jazz Workshops". Mingus called all of his bands "The Jazz Workshop". Strangely it was not released until 1962 on RCA Victor and Mingus called it "the best record I ever made". The original LP was full of rather ham-fisted edits but the music was so strong that we lived w...

The Jazz Show's tribute to Black History Month is the famous Max Roach recording called "The Freedom Now Suite". This was one of the first politically charged albums that reflect the leader's growing awareness of the civil rights movement that was erupting in the U.S. in the late 1950's. Mr. Roach's basic ensemble includes trumpeter, Booker Little, tenor saxophonist Walter Benton, trombonist Julia...

The late Wynton Kelly was one of the best loved pianists in Jazz. His chief era of fame was when he replaced Bill Evans in Miles Davis' ground breaking quintet. Kelly joined in 1959 and played through to 1962. He then toured with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb after they both left the Davis fold. Kelly had a beautiful touch on the piano and there was an innate joy and lyricism in his...

This is considered to be Clifford Jordan's debut album. His earlier appearance on the Blue Note label was a co-led two tenor saxophone session with John Gilmore. This rare recording has never had a domestic re-release but was first issued as Blue Note 1565 and called "Cliff Jordan". It features the very distinctive sound of Jordan's tenor saxophone with the young teen-aged trumpet sensation Lee Mo...

Bassist/composer Charles Mingus was one of Jazz music's icons and an amazing larger than life musician and character. His working bands were called "The Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop" and the personnel changed sometimes very quickly. The term "Jazz Workshop" gave Mingus carte blanche to experiment on the bandstand sometimes stopping in mid tune to berate a soloist or change a part. If a member of t...