Discovering Jazz

A jazz bassist from Peterborough, Ontario, Craig Paterson talks about the music that ‘formed’ him, turning him into a jazz fan. He selected 10 albums, and in this episode he talks about five of them. And we play parts of them for you. At the

From the Archives, some 78rpm records from my collection. 78’s were popular from the turn of the century up into the late 1950’s. One unique thing about 78’s is that you could eat them.   Technically at least!  As well as some great music, you’ll hear Al

Continuing with my summer re-runs of some of the best from past podcasts. Today, Part 4 of a series on Jazz and Politics. It’s mostly music—featuring a few long tracks, such as the whole Freedom Suite by Sonny Rollins. A lot of this music is

A few years ago I put together a series of four Discovering Jazz Podcasts on jazz musicians who played on pop recordings. For these archives, I’m posting Part 3, Episode 26. (You may want to also listen to Episodes 24, 25 and 27 if you like this on

This week, as part of my ‘summer re-runs’, I feature Beatles tunes that have been adapted to jazz. Most are exquisitely done; some maybe not so much. And not only that I interview John Lennon. Okay—not really! What it is is interesting

A program from January of 2018. A lot of real jazz lovers express a rather loud indifference—bordering on contempt—for the role of ‘vocals’ in jazz. Comments like ‘cheesy lounge singers’, ‘they keep the instrumen

For my final podcast of the season (but don’t worry—I’ll be posting ones from the archives weekly), I play more artists performing at this year’s Victoria Jazz Fest, 2022. Lots of music this episode, and not much talk. You’l

Putting together these three episodes allows me to find the time to listen to a bit of every performer coming to the upcoming Victoria Jazz Fest, Jun 24th to July 3rd (2022). And what a stellar line-up! In terms of straight jazz—this episode includ

Jazz is best enjoyed live! Watching musicians interacting with each other on stage, as well as with their instrument can be quite exciting. Coming up is The Victoria Jazz Festival June 24th to July 3rd. My plan is to listen to recordings of all the perfo

Jazz has continuously evolved as a result of freeing itself from constraints. According to Steve Haines, jazz bassist and director of the Miles Davis Jazz studies program at the university of North Carolina, jazz as taught in music institutions today is

Steve Haines, professor and interim director of the Miles Davis Jazz Studies program at University of North Carolina talks about what he sees as the most essential elements of jazz. And we play music to illustrate some of those elements. What are the ess

If somebody asks you if you like jazz, how can you answer? There are so many sub-genres of jazz around today: hard-bop, be-bop, swing, fusion, Bossa Nova or Latin, funk, free jazz, Cool jazz, Afro-Cuban, world jazz, smooth jazz, astral jazz, etc. etc. et

Some of the music in this week’s episode is new, a lot of it’s old; they are from lp records, cd’s, and downloads that I’ve recently acquired. Or, in some cases, about to acquire. The lp tracks are by Marian McPartland, H.B. Barnu

I’m always on the look out for music that inspires me. I may find it through going into thrift stores, perusing emails and facebook mesages from friends and Discovering Jazz listeners, and even by looking at current jazz releases. It might be vinyl

Oscar Peterson is described by one of his former students, Victoria’s Louise Rose, as being “driven”…yet still “without ego”. And in the 1972 documentary about him called In the Key Of Oscar, he expressed mixed feeling

Here in Victoria we are blessed with having a marvellous pianist, singer, and arranger teaching and giving delightful concerts. Her name is Louise Rose, and she studied composition and arranging with the great Duke Ellington. This week’s I present

Part 1 was about its invention and the 9 different types of saxophones. Part 2 was it’s evolution in jazz as well as its use in classical, r’n’b, and rock ‘n roll. This episodes features more great jazz saxophonists, plus the inst

This is Part 2 of my three part series on the saxophone. I take you through the early days of jazz, then talk about how Coleman Hawkins transformed the tenor sax from “mooing and rubbery belches” into a purveyor of musical art. I also touch o

Beginning a 3 part series on the saxophone…it’s development and use in jazz and other forms of music. In this first episode I play recordings featuring each of the 9 saxophones–from the highest pitched sopranino to the lowest pitched su

It’s mostly from my jazz section…but not all. Some you might call ‘world music’, some ‘gospel’, a bit of funk, and one ‘pop; vocalist. But it’s all pretty good, I think (except for maybe the last one). And

As I say in my introduction to the podcast, I do play lots of ‘jazz’ that is on the fringes of the genre. A lot of those can be found in my record collection. This week and next I’ve dipped into that collection and I’m spinning a

I played some records by some great female instrumental jazz artists last week….and this week I have some more (plus a vocalist or two). I remember only a few years ago when people so often spoke about the dearth of women in the jazz world. And jus

March 8 is International Women’s Day. It falls on a Tuesday–the same day I upload these podcasts. It turned out to be so easy to find great female jazz instrumentalists; much easier than when I did a similar podcast four years ago. And the in

From solo bass to bass in a big band. From free jazz to Gypsy Jazz. And lots more. You’ll hear more bassists in this episode. They include Christian McBride, Victoria’s Joey Smith, Eberhard Weber, Stanley Clarke, Charlie Haden, Ron Carter, Br

For all you Jaco fans…two tracks from his Weather Report days. I play a track from another electric bassist you’ve probably never heard of…Bill Takas. Another lesser known bassist is Victoria B.C. born Neil Swainson….and here I pl