CiTR -- The Jazz Show

The legendary recording is in so many people's collections and even though it was recorded on September 19,1955 and released on Columbia later that year it remains to this day the all-time best selling Jazz record. The concert took place in the Sunset Theater in Carmel, California. Piano master Erroll Garner was in top form with his tight Trio with the reliable Eddie Calhoun on bass and the brush...

During his years in Europe from 1968 to 1973, alto saxophone master was at his happiest and most creative. He had left the USA in 1968 discouraged by the political and social unrest and was greeted with open arms in Europe. He was a recognized artist and acknowledged as such. He was able to form The European Rhythm Machine and it was a perfect vehicle for where Woods was at in his musical quest. T...

Warne Marsh was an uncompromising artist and always stuck to playing only music he believed in. From 1948 on he studied with the great pianist/teacher/guru Lennie Tristano. He appeared on Tristano's ground breaking 1949/50 recordings and many thereafter. Marsh had a unique sound, acerbic and cerebral to be sure but still warm and full. His melodic ideas were all his own and his place since his dea...

This wonderful edition of Woody Herman's Band scores in a complete set of great tunes played before a responsive audience at this great Jazz club. The band was youthful and full of great soloists like trumpeters Don Rader, Dusko Goykovich, Bill Chase and Bobby Shew. Trombone virtuoso Harry Southall is also featured. The great tenor saxophonist Sal Nistico was really a star in this band and heard e...

This Jazz Feature tonight is a once-in-a-lifetime meeting between pianist Thelonious Monk and drum master Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers. It all took place in New York for Atlantic Records on May 14 and 15th, 1957. Monk and Blakey were best of friends and frequent musical associates and Blakey had been Monk's drummer on many of his important recordings but here the situation was reversed. This...

This date which took place in New York or Brooklyn to be specific at the Putnam Central Club was put together by bassist/composer Charles Mingus. It's not a Mingus styled date but more of an informal jam. Mingus who along with drummer Max Roach owned Debut Records decided to record this special evening and put it out. Mingus picked his four favourite Modern Jazz trombonists. Mingus loved the tromb...

Leonard Bernstein was one of the great institutions of American music. He was a pianist, conductor, composer and communicator. He was truly a "man for all musical seasons". Bernstein loved and respected Jazz music and the musicians that perform it. He drew no lines between Jazz and so-called "classical music".....in his eyes they were equals. He was unlike many of his contemporaries in the classic...

Today is is the 85th Birthday of Sonny Rollins, who was born in New York City on September 7,1930. Sonny of course is one of the major figures in the development of post-war Jazz music and without a doubt one of the most important saxophonists in Jazz history. His story is very evident in books and the internet and some wonderful interviews can be seen on iTunes that were conducted by Bret Primack...

Kenny Dorham was as Art Blakey once said "the uncrowned king" of Modern Jazz trumpet. This delightful album was a pet project of Kenny's as he loved the music of Jerome Kern and decided to do an album with a hand-picked all-star band of Kern's musical masterpiece "Showboat". Dorham selected his 6 favourite songs from the musical and delivers them with his beautiful sound, individual concept and to...

This was a band that recorded this wonderful album in March of 1964 and yet it was never released until 3 years after Stan Getz' death in 1994. The title track is "Nobody Else But Me", a great standard by Kern and Hammerstein. The reason why it was never issued was because Stan's popular bossa nova albums were selling like hotcakes and the powers that be didn't wish to dilute the market too much....

Modern Jazz pioneer Dizzy Gillespie thrived in front of a big band and he had several over his long career. This was what became known as "The State Department Band" and it was his second big band. It was called that because of two major tours sponsored by the US State Department, one to the Middle east and Greece and the other to South America. Dizzy toured the US too, playing clubs, concerts, fe...

Lou Donaldson is one of the true living masters of the alto saxophone and one of the last living disciples of Charlie Parker. Lou built his unique style based on Bird's concepts. This album is untypical of Lou's output as it is essentially a jam session type blowing date and it was even unusual for Blue Note to produce these types of dates but this one is exceptional! There are only four tunes her...

This is the debut album by this incredibly talented and still quite young man (he's now 51)recorded in 1988. Marcus was discovered and mentored by Wynton Marsalis and Marcus appeared on many of Wynton's best loved recordings. After his association with Wynton, Marcus went on to teaching and mentoring other musicians. He currently lives in Florida where he was born and keeps busy. The only reason t...

This underrated master of the trombone is still with us at age 80 and for this we are grateful! This date done in 1960 was Julian Priester's first under his own name. Priester is from Chicago and like so many Chicago legends, he graduated from DuSable High School in the Jazz program conducted by Captain Walter Dyett. Julian first worked with Sun Ra then Lionel Hampton and ended up in New York at t...

This is a fine straight forward set from the mid-50s that is led by one of the most original guitarists to come up in that era from the late 40s to the 50s and beyond. The set is not music that is re-inventing the wheel or pushing the envelope but it has it's own kind of basic swing, melodic invention and creativity. Guitarist Raney appears here with his musical soul-mate, valve trombonist Bob Bro...

This is one of Bill Evans' last formal recording dates and was done in 1979. Evans died in 1980. Evans recorded often with horns but either in an all-star setting or as a sideman but he rarely recorded under his own name with horns. This date was different and he chose two stellar voices to work with because of how well they played together and blended. Trumpeter Tom Harrell has in the years after...

This Jazz Feature stems from a series of dates in New York that marked the official inception of this magnificent trio of geniuses. They are not referred to as the Keith Jarrett Trio but referred to equally and musically as Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. They came together as a working trio after their first outing in 1977 on a Peacock recording for ECM called "Tales of Another"....

This fine little band existed in from 1960 to 1963 and was an important working group of this period. It was co-led by trumpeter Art Farmer and tenor saxophonist/composer/arranger Benny Golson. They wanted a three-horn front line for more compositional flexibility and sound and chose as their first trombonist, Curtis Fuller. The pianist was Golson's choice and it was a young McCoy Tyner who makes...

Two great musicians here that were frequent musical partners on what was their last recorded appearance. It is also a fine way to celebrate the Birthday of pianist extraordinaire, Jaki Byard. Jaki would have been 93 today (June 15). Sadly he left us in 1999 the victim of a shooting. This great album also features the legendary Rahsaan Roland Kirk on a variety of horns, the tenor saxophone, the man...

This is an important edition of The Jazz Show as it celebrates the 30th anniversary of The Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Gavin is here as usual but the music is programmed and narrated by John Orysik who is the Media Director for the producers of The Jazz festival, The Coastal Jazz And Blues Society. John is one of the founding fathers of the Jazz Festival and his presence on tonight's pr...

Tonight's Jazz Feature are two of Charlie Parker's last great studio recordings. They were done in 1953 when Bird's creative energy was burning. His last studio recordings from 1954 were not as good but there are many broadcast and concert recordings from Bird's last year that were much better than his studio recording of "Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter" However these recordings from 1953 featur...

This was the debut of a brand new band formed by drummer/pianist/composer Jack DeJohnette and it reflected his multi-direction approach to the music. This was the first band that DeJohnette led that garnered not only recognition from the fans but by the critics as well. Many of DeJohnette's earlier attempts at bandleading seemed too scattered and had no unifying concepts. This band, although eclec...

Trumpeter Kenny Dorham had to live with the term "underrated" for most of his life but he was anything but. Now considered one of the leading lights of Modern jazz trumpet along with Miles, Dizzy, Fats and Brownie......"K.D's" place in Jazz is now assured. This date has just been discovered and it's a fine broadcast recording from the morning of January 15,1963 and it marks the first documented ev...

The music of Abdullah Ibrahim is always intriguing and impressive and this band of his called "Ekaya" (South African for "home") reflects his compositional skills over his magnificent piano playing. He takes on the role that Duke Ellington did with his band....leading and accompanying rather than featuring his piano stylings. The band consists of a whole raft of great players beginning with trombo...