The Gone Sounds of Jazz with Sid Gribetz

Teddy Charles was a hard swinging master of the vibes and also a sophisticated composer and arranger of forward looking sounds. Theodore Charles Cohen was born in 1928 to Jewish immigrant parents in Springfield, Mass.  He loved music as a child, noodled on the piano and took drum lessons.  As a teenager during the World War II years he played professional gigs filling in for those drafted overseas...

Frank Strozier, a powerful and dynamic player on the otherwise softer instruments of alto saxophone and flute, was born in 1937 and came of age in Memphis the 1950's among an influential group of young musicians who combined the soulful Southern rhythms with the intricacies and sophistication of bebop to create a style and sound that has a lasting impact in the development of modern jazz.  Strozie...

Shirley Scott was born in 1934 in Philadelphia and was raised in a musical family.  As a schoolchild she played both trumpet and the piano.  She began playing jazz professionally on the then-robust and creative Philadelphia jazz scene.  Upon embarking in earnest in her professional career, in the mid 1950's Shirley turned to the Hammond B-3 Organ and established herself as one of the primary figur...

For the Miles Davis Centennial (May 26, 1926) WKCR presented a series of marathon programming over several days. Here's one of my segments.  It includes selections of Sonny Rollins, Miles with Bob Dorough, and then over two hours of an in depth listen to the Bill Evans association with Davis.

Mark Murphy (1932-2015) was an unsung hero among modern jazz vocalists, a cult figure who deserves wider recognition, a primary influence for new generations of jazz singers. He was a risk taker of musical invention.  Murphy was a masterful scat singer and a champion of vocalese with compositions such as Stolen Moments and Red Clay.  Mark’s outlook is that of a wide ranging humanist, including his...

WKCR presents a marathon broadcast celebrating Charles Mingus annually, on his birthday anniversary, April 22.   From my segment on the 2026 edition, I presented a variety of sounds, among them a selection of early Debut recordings, and a feature of live concerts of the 1964 ensemble with Eric Dolphy (about an hour towards the end).

Saxophonist Teddy Edwards was born in Jackson, Mississippi on April 26, 1924.  His grandfather and other family members were leading local musicians, and Teddy began playing the alto sax as a youth. By age 12 he had played in some professional settings himself.  As a teenager he went to Detroit to live with an uncle and began participating in the vital Motor City scene. In his development, he forg...

For the 2026 WKCR Billie Holiday Birthday Broadcast. I prepared a survey of Lady Day's recordings with Prez, Lester Young (about 2 hours).  The epitome of sublime intimacy and heartfelt companionship.  The episode opens and closes with several other Holiday tracks for casual listening, not so shabby in their own right.

John Coltrane is a major figure in our culture.  The majesty, grandeur and passion of his saxophone communicates with the soul and has inspired the reverence and spiritual devotion of his listening audience. It would be difficult to profile his widespread body of work in a single radio program.  Therefore, this episode focuses on one discrete portion of his career, his recordings on the Prestige r...

WKCR has a long standing tradition of celebrating Roy Eldridge, “Little Jazz”, with a marathon 24-hour broadcast tribute every year on the trumpet giant's birthday anniversary, January 30. Here’s my shift from the 2026 edition.  We begin at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival, followed by 70 minutes of Roy in the 1950s, including his Verve session with Art Tatum and other goodies.  Next comes a detail...

We continue an occasional series of programs focusing on the American Popular Song, examining the impact of the legendary composers on the jazz repertory.  For some of the best in jazz improvisation derives from its interpretations of the musical forms, melodies and harmonies of these great treasures. For this show I did something different, and fun, and less intensive.  I surveyed songs that won...

Howard McGhee, a renowned trumpeter of both the big band and be-bop eras, also was a leading figure and mentor on the New York jazz scene in the 1960's and 1970's.  Born in Oklahoma in 1918, and raised in Detroit, McGhee gained attention in his youth in the big bands of Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, and, notably, Andy Kirk.  Settling in Los Angeles in the 1940's and working in Coleman Hawkins sm...

Serge Chaloff was a fleeting star on the baritone saxophone during his brief lifetime, one of Woody Herman’s “Four Brothers” and a bebopping legend as well.   He was a sophisticated musician and swinging performer.  Serge possessed a lithe, fleet, flowing conception propelled with a lighter tone and nimble execution on the big horn. Raised by his prominent classical musician and educator parents i...

Tina Brooks was a lyrical tenor saxophonist with a yearning, introspective, yet soulful sound. He attained a brief measure of recognition on several Blue Note albums in the late 1950's and early 1960's but never achieved great fame. Harold Floyd Brooks was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on June 7, 1932, into a musical family. (His older brother David “Bubba” Brooks, also a saxophonist, was a...

Trumpeter and vocalist Hot Lips Page was a key figure in early jazz, the swing era, and rhythm ‘n’ blues. Oran Page was born in Texas on January 27, 1908. As a teenager, he began a career with the “territory bands” and the southwestern swing tradition.  From a young age he possessed a sizzling style and command of the trumpet, which perhaps was the source of his nickname, although his friends note...

WKCR presents a marathon broadcast celebrating Max Roach annually, on his birthday anniversary, January 10. Here’s my segment from the 2020 edition.  It begins with a survey of Sonny Rollins collaborations with Max (81 minutes), then takes a relaxing visit to the Royal Roost to hear the Charlie Parker Quintet in live performance (18 minutes), and finally over an hour of selections of Max Roach as...

Johnny Griffin earned the nickname “The Little Giant” for his short physical height but big powerful sound on the tenor sax.  Coming out of the blues and swing of his Chicago roots but also informed by the sophisticated developments of the bebop era, Griffin’s proficiency on his instrument and the fleet and darting lines of his attack make him one of our greats. Griffin was born in Chicago on Apri...

Tiny Grimes was one of the innovators of the early days of the electric guitar, and he was a significant figure in the development of both jazz and rhythm and blues. His first major professional engagement was with the popular novelty vocal group “The Cats and the Fiddle” in the early 1940's.  Next, he became a key figure in the regular piano trio of the legendary Art Tatum. After his experience w...

WKCR presents an annual marathon 24 hour tribute to trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown on October 30, his birthday anniversary. From the 2021 edition, here are two thematic segments – Clifford Brown with vocalists (Sarah Vaughan, Helen Merrill, and Dinah Washington), about 85 minutes, and Clifford Brown in California in the spring and summer of 1954, about 50 minutes – along with several tracks of cl...

Ben Webster was nicknamed “The Brute” due both to his sometimes tempestuous temperament and also for his vigorous power on the tenor saxophone.  But he was “The Beautiful” as well, with a personal sensitivity within his soul, and an elegant, romantic approach on the softer numbers, projecting  a breathy tone with “air to spare”. Webster (1909-1973), coming out of Kansas City,  was already recogniz...

Celebrating the Centennial of Dexter Gordon on February 27, 2023, WKCR presented a marathon broadcast. From my segment, here’s a detailed survey of Dexter’s early work in the 1940s.  About 115 minutes, bookended for casual listening by a potpourri of some 1970s recordings upon his magical return to the US.

Miles Davis is one of the “superstars” of jazz, a dynamic trumpet master renowned throughout the world for many varied achievements during his decades long career. For this radio program, I isolated a lesser remembered period, to put a sharp focus on his activity during the years 1953 and 1954. Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois May 26, 1926.  A teenage wunderkind, he arrived in New York in 1...

We celebrate the centennial of Gigi Gryce (Basheer Qusim). Gryce became a leading figure in his brief career in the 1950s. as a saxophonist, composer, arranger, music publisher, and teacher and mentor to many musicians. Gryce was born November 28, 1925 in Pensacola, Florida.  His parents owned a clothes cleaning business, but his father died when he was seven.  In the midst of the Great Depression...

WKCR presents an annual marathon broadcast celebrating the Coleman Hawkins birthday on November 21. From the 2025 edition here are segments from my contribution -- 60 minutes of a potpourri of Hawkins favorites, followed by a 105 minute survey of his recordings from the period 1945-1949.

Five hours of Harold Arlen.   This program is one in my occasional series examining the impact of the legendary composers on the jazz repertory, as some of the best in jazz derives from its interpretations of the great American popular songbook, .   Harold Arlen was born in 1905 in Buffalo, New York, the son of an orthodox cantor.  He began his musical career singing Jewish melodies with his fathe...