Discovering Jazz

One skill we can develop when putting together radio shows, podcasts, or ‘mix-tapes’ is a way of allowing the energy to build. I think that, just like a great jazz solo, this episode seems to have a nice ‘arc’. It starts fairly lo

It was a busy December! I searched for all the ‘best jazz of 2023’ articles online and tried to listen to at least part of many of the albums. And there were lots! In fact, so far, I’ve found 85 different lists. And a total of 573 album

This is a podcast I put together in 2020 when living in Victoria. It’s NOT Christmas music (although it starts with one of my favourite Christmas songs). It celebrates a few winter holidays: Kwanzaa, Diwali, Channukah, Winter Solstice, New Years, L

And I really do mean the greats! There are the ones you all know like Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Diana Krall, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan Artie Shaw, Phil Woods, Earl Hines, and Tony Bennett. But I also include Toronto pi

This week the recordings I play with awesome intros are: -Nardis, by the 1980 version of the Bill Evans Trio, recorded shortly before Evans died. -Jeanine by the Dave Young Terry Promane Octet out of Toronto. -All The Things You Are, where I play a versi

We are approaching the end of one year and the beginning of a next. That’s a good time to talk about beginnings and endings of jazz recordings. I asked for ideas from a few jazz sites, and received great response from jazz fans and musicians from J

This week I play tracks from: =Bill Evans classic Sunday At the Village Vanguard. Two compositions by Scott Lafaro. -Jane Bunnett’s first album, In Dew Time—the title referring to the presence of the great tenor saxophonist, Dewey Redman. -Pa

Modern Jazz Quartet, Julie London, Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner, Nina Simone, Nellie Lutcher, Lalo Schifrin, Paul Horn, Gene Bertoncini w. Michael Moore, Jim McHarg w. Lonnie Johnson. Those are records I dug from my storage locker: great albums I played f

I haven’t had much chance over the past few years to play many of the lp records I have stored in my storage locker. This series of episodes remedies some of that. I’m listening to a few of them and digitalizing some favoured cuts so I can pl

More on the Edmonton Jazz scene, including a call out to CKUA radio. Also more on the thriving Yardbird Suite jazz club, including Marc Vasey’s story of how he discovered and secured their current venue. Great music too! You’ll hear Rubim de

It’s located at the gateway to Northern Alberta, Canada—the city of Edmonton. And it’s been billed as Canada’s longest running volunteer-run jazz club, having first started in 1957. This episode explores its history, and features

I really love listening to this podcast—even if I did put it together myself. I went through a few of the albums currently (as of Oct 12, 2023) on the Jazz Week Charts. Those charts reflect albums on the playlists of various jazz radio stations in

Having just heard the news of the passing of one of my favourite jazz musicians, pianist and composer Carla Bley, I thought I’d re-visit a past podcast from 2021.

Last week I talked about modes used in jazz. Modes are really nothing more than a scale. This week I’ll talk about some other scales, and play tunes that illustrate that scale. I talk about the bebop scale, diminished scale, various minor scales, t

I usually try to avoid talking about jazz theory in this podcast. That’s partly because of it’s complexity, as well as my own limited knowledge. I do believe its possible to love a piece of jazz without understanding the theory behind it. At

“Tis Autumn! There have been some wonderful jazz, big band, broadway, and even ‘folk’ oriented tunes written about the Fall season. In this episode I play a version of ten of my favourites. They range from Paul Bley to Frank Sinatra&#82

Still lots of cd’s I need to listen to and file, discard, or listen to again. I played a few last week….and this week I have a few more. Some are old some are new. Some of the compact discs I’m playing and from which I’ll include

Time to listen to and sort out some of the cd’s that are surrounding me right now. And I’ll play some tracks from the most enjoyable—or at least the most interesting–ones.

How did North America’s first International Jazz festival get established in Edmonton, Alberta? Why Edmonton? And who is the Kansas City Bluesman, Big Miller, after whom a park in this city has been named? And lastly…what famous jazz musician

It’s been claimed to be North America’s first International Jazz Festival. In a city of only half a million. Festival founder Marc Vasey talks about how Edmonton, Alberta, Canada became known as ‘jazz city’. And he talks about som

This is the last of my 4 part series on folk songs ‘jazzified’. I also introduce you to some Western Swing—which combines so many different genres. I play jazz recordings by The Stanley Clarke Trio with Hiromi, John Coltrane, Vince Guar

The first 12 minutes of this podcast takes you to Sweden. Three tracks with Swedish jazz musicians playing folk music from Russia, U,S,A,, and Hungary. That’s followed by Django Reinhardt playing a traditional Russian tune. Then we have more jazz i

Did you know that Sonny Rollins didn’t actually write “St. Thomas”. And that Randy Weston recorded this traditional folk song before Rollins, but under the name of “Fire Down There”? And another piece of information: Thelonious Monk’s “Japanese Folk Song

A lot of folk songs—and I’m talking mostly about traditional tunes—have been adapted into jazz. And in a lot of cases the results have been spectacular! Right from the earliest years of jazz when Louis Armstrong with Earl Hines had the

I’m back with new episodes after a three week break. There have been many well-deserved tributes to Tony Bennett, who we lost July 21st of this year. Here is another one, focusing mostly on his ‘jazz’ side. A number of great jazz musici