CiTR -- The Jazz Show

Tonight's music is swinging, lyrical and elegant and played by a group of Jazz masters under the leadership of one of the pioneers of Modern Jazz, vibraphonist Milt Jackson. After Lionel Hampton and to a lesser extent, Red Norvo, it was Milt Jackson who brought the vibes into Modern Jazz. He predominated on that instrument throughout his lifetime. As the primary member of The Modern Jazz Quartet h...

Pianist/composer Freddie Redd occupies a small but important place in Modern Jazz. A self-taught and resourceful musician, Freddie Redd worked hard throughout the 1950's to establish himself on the New York Jazz scene. His breakthrough came when he signed with Blue Note Records and recorded his "Music For The Connection" with his quartet. The Connection was an off-Broadway play put on by The Livin...

A "desert island" disc. This was a short-lived band that performed a few gigs in the New York area then for two afternoons in May of 1962 went into the studio to record this date. The leader was the redoubtable Roy Haynes with Henry Grimes on bass and Tommy Flanagan on piano. They are at their very best but what makes this date unique and special is the front man...Rahsaan Roland Kirk on tenor sax...

This intimate get together between two musically related people became an instant classic. It was a true meeting of minds by two of the most prominent Jazz players. Pianist Bill Evans and guitarist Jim Hall are not only known for their individuality but their musicality. They are both virtuosi who don't need to show off their chops on every tune. They are humble to the MUSIC, first and foremost. T...

To celebrate the 114th Anniversary of Duke Ellington's birth, The Jazz Show presents one of his true musical masterpieces....The Far East Suite. The music was written by Ellington and his alter-ego Billy Strayhorn after two tours. The first was a tour of the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan etc,) and India and Sri Lanka. There followed a second tour to the Far East: (Japan, South Korea, Hong Ko...

Tonight The Jazz Show honours and celebrates the 91st Birthday of one of American's most individual and iconic geniuses of this music referred to as Jazz....the one and only Charles Mingus. Mingus was a wonderful pianist and a virtuoso bassist but one of this music's greatest composers. He ranks with Ellington and Monk at creating a huge body of work. Today Mingus' compositions are played by the M...

This well organized session featured two great Chicago-born musicians who went to the famous DuSable High School and learned the nuts and bolts of music from the redoubtable Captain Walter Dyett. Green went onto play with the great Earl Hines' band in 1943 and Ammons became a star in the famous Billy Eckstine band in 1944-45. Ammons' birthday was April 14 (1925-1974) and Green's was April 16 (1923...

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...