CiTR -- The Jazz Show

This group consisting of Keith Jarrett on piano, Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums is one of the most distinctive piano/bass/drum trios in the history of Jazz. Jarrett never calls this "The Keith Jarrett Trio" because, despite the fact that he is the leading voice, he feels that the other two are part of an organic whole. Tonight's Feature is the third recording done in January 198...

This earth shattering performance by pianist/bandleader Dave Brubeck's Quartet literally put Dave and his alto saxophonist Paul Desmond and the rest of the band on the Jazz map. This concert performed at Oberlin College in March of 1953 before an audience of mainly classical music students and faculty blew them away. It marked the beginning of Brubeck's pioneering efforts to tour colleges and univ...

This is an annual get together in which many of the artists appearing at The Vancouver International Jazz Festival(2008) are featured. The Media Director for the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society is John Orysik. The CJBS puts together the Jazz Festival. John along with regular host Gavin Walker discuss the artists and pick the music for tonight. Catch this once a year special and check out the great...

Bassist/leader Chalie Haden is an acknowledged great on his instrument.....not a virtuoso player but a bassist who concentrates on 'feel', judicious choice of notes and a huge sound that provides the necessary 'bottom' for his group called Quartet West. Haden has always had a great love for Los Angeles of the 1940's and 50's and Hollywood film music and 'film noir' and the works of Raymond Chandle...

As this great edition of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers only recorded one domestically produced album, the classic "Moanin'" on Blue Note in Oct. 1958, this set recorded before a live audience in Paris is especially valuable. This set, recorded at Le Club Saint Germain in December 1958 was done on Blakey's first tour of Europe. The newly re-organized Jazz Messengers had tenor saxophonist Benny Golso...

Oliver Nelson was a musical 'man for all seasons': a great saxophonist who played alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones as well as clarinet and flute. Nelson was a composer and arranger who had his own style and sound and was at his best playing with a large band of his favourite players. Some of them are here on this recording done with New York and Chicago players, people like Chicago born trumpet...

"Spring" was twenty year old Tony William's second album for Blue Note and it's a stunner in creativity. Williams surrounded himself with some of the most cutting edge players on the scene in 1965, when the date was recorded. Wayne Shorter and Sam Rivers are heard at length on tenor saxophones. Herbie Hancock is on piano and Gary Peacock is on bass. The players are assembled in various combination...

The late Elmo Hope who was born in New York, the only child of West Indian parents, on June 27 1923 and died quite young of a heart attack on May 19,1967. Elmo grew up with pianist Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk and reflects a little of each in his style but remains his own man. Elmo's compositions reflect his complex personality and range from happy and swinging to bittersweet and melancholy. Unl...

George Russell is one of the true pioneers of Modern Jazz. He is one of the great composers and theorists in this music and wrote an influential book called "The Lydian Concept of Tonal Organization" which most major musicians have studied and is still used in colleges and music schools today. Here Mr. Russell leads his own band which was together from 1960 to 1964. All the players were versed in...

Warne Marsh(born in L.A,Oct. 26,1927 and died Dec.18,1987) was one of the great individualists of the tenor saxophone. He was pianist/teacher/Jazz pioneer, Lennie Tristano's prize pupil and worked and played on Tristano's few recordings with altoist Lee Konitz. Marsh was true to Jazz throughout his career and never veered into any kind of commercial music devoting his life to playing music that he...

This recording, done live at the Village Vanguard in early 1962 marked a turning point in the evolution of alto saxophone master, Cannonball Adderley's band. Adderley had a very successful quintet for a couple of years with a permanent group of players. The only change in the band was the pianist, first Bobby Timmons then Barry Harris then Walter Bishop Jr. and Victor Feldman and finally Joe Zawin...

This was pianist Bill Evans' first recording with what was to be his quintessential trio with Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums. Standards are the basic bill of fare here as they had only played a few gigs and were dealing with the 'standard' repertoir. A few Evans' originals make their appearance here as well. A fine debut of an exceptional, one of a kind trio.

Bassist Curtis Counce was one of the first African-American musicians to be part of what was called in the 1950's "West Coast Jazz".....as part of the scene in Los Angeles, Counce worked with Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre and was for a couple of years a member of Stan Kenton's band. Counce died in 1963 at the young age of 37 of a heart attack but will be remembered for forming and recording with th...

Bennie Green was as important as J.J. Johnson in the development of Modern Jazz Trombone but sad to say he died in 1977 in obscurity. We bring Bennie to life again with a working band comprising Eddy Williams on tenor saxophone, a schoolmate of Bennie's from Chicago, the legendary Sonny Clark on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and the unheralded Jerry Segal on drums. Bennie's approach to Jazz was swi...

When alto saxophonist Phil Woods relocated to Europe in 1968 it was not that his career was moribund but it was because of the negative political atmosphere in the U.S......assassinations, racism, the ongoing Vietnam War etc. Woods relocated in Paris and formed one of his greatest bands, The European Rhythm Machine. Tonight we hear them in concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1969. Woods on al...

Alto and tenor saxophone master Sonny Stitt(born in Boston Feb. 2,1924) was one of the most recorded musicians in Jazz. He liked to travel alone and pick up musicians to back him in whatever town be was in...he dealt in standard tunes and the blues and voiced them on either saxophone. He was a virtuoso and took no prisoners when it came to playing. Throughout his long career he was often called an...

The Bad Plus is an accoustic trio with Ethan Iverson on piano, Reid Anderson on bass and David King on drums. They all compose and they move in their own direction. In other words they are not your "standard' Jazz piano trio. They have carved out an niche for themselves through their original compositions and compositions by people outside the Jazz spectrum like Davis Bowie, Kurt Cobain etc. They...

Herbie Hancock's album called "Inventions and Dimensions" is one of his most unique. Almost every composition is 'off the top'....total improvisation, with the exception of one tune where Hancock wrote down a few chords to play. Mr. Hancock performs with the ex-Miles Davis bassist Paul Chambers and two Latin percussionists: Willie Bobo(William Correa) on regular drums and timbales and Oswaldo "Chi...

The 'classic' Brubeck Quartet with alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, bassist Gene Wright, drummer Joe Morello and of course, Mr. Brubeck on piano. Just coming off a world tour, the band was exhausted but found energy to deliver one of their very best performances at Carnegie Hall on this cold night in February 1963. Written off as 'old hat' by this time, Brubeck and the band reassert their authority...

Ornette Coleman's latest recording won the Pulitzer Prize and was the first Jazz recording to receive this great honour. Mr. Coleman has been recognized throughout the world as an important innovative artist who never gave up on his musical dream and never compromised his music. He appears here with Gregory Cohen and Tony Falanga on accoustic basses and Denardo Coleman(Ornette's son) on drums. Mr....

Drummer/composer Max Roach in conjunction with lyricist Oscar Brown Jr. created this suite in honour of the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and it reflected Mr. Roach's growing involvement with the Civil Right Movement that was taking shape in America in the late 1950's. This powerful and still controversial recording features Roach's working band that includes Booker Litt...

This is a unique album in Morgan's recorded legacy. It is more open and spacy than the trumpeter's usual output because of the presence of Wayne Shrter on tenor saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, and Ron Carter on bass plus Bobby Hutcherson on vibes and the restrained yet driving drums of Billy Higgins. A different Lee Morgan and a great addition to his prolific output.

Sal Nistico was a great tenor saxophonist who left us far too soon. He was born in Syracuse, New York on April 2,1938 and died at 53 in Berne, Switzerland. Sal was most famous for his off and on stay with Woody Herman's band in the 60's but he loved to just play in small clubs with a quartet and he found those clubs throughout Europe. We hear Sal with a great German trio with Joe Haider on piano,G...

Pianist/composer Lennie Tristano was an innovator and his concepts influenced many people. His ideas are carried on by Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Bill Charlap, Mulgrew Miller and so on. Tristano performed very rarely in public after he opened his school in 1951 but this date done in 1955 shows us a happy and swinging Lennie, who so many thought of as cerebral and cold. He grooves wi...

A magnificent perfomance by the beginings of the "Second Great Quintet" led by the incomparable Miles Davis. Davis on trumpet with George Coleman on tenor saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter, bass and young 17 year old Tony Williams on drums. Fresh from a European tour, this group stole the show at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1963.