The Gone Sounds of Jazz with Sid Gribetz

When McCoy Tyner passed away in March 2020, WKCR responded, as we often do, by pre-empting regular programming to present a memorial tribute, celebrating the legacy with a marathon broadcast of the artist’s music. Here’s segments of my contribution, first about 60 minutes of piano trio recordings, and then a presentation of more than an hour sampling his collaborations in groups with John Coltrane...

Here’s five hours on blues and jazz singer and pianist Charles Brown.  Charles Brown was born September 13, probably 1920 (usually listed 1922), on the gulf coast of Texas and raised by his educated and religious grandparents.  He played piano and sang in church, and excelled as a science student.  His high school chemistry teacher, who also moonlighted as a musician, took Charles under his wing,...

Five hours on piano legend Dodo Marmarosa! Michael Marmarosa was born on December 12, 1925 to a working class Italian immigrant family in Pittsburgh.  Dodo was a childhood nickname, and he began taking serious classical music lessons as a young child. He also befriended slightly older Steel City jazz pianists such as Billy Strayhorn, and especially Erroll Garner.  With Garner and other young music...

WKCR presents annual marathon broadcasts to celebrate the October 10 birthday anniversary of Thelonious Monk.  Here's my segment form the 2025 edition. This program includes a 2 ½ hour survey focusing on Monk’s association with Riverside Records.  It’s bracketed by a couple of potpourri tracks at the start, and some Gigi Gryce collaborations at the finish.

Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis (1922-1986) was one of the dynamic “tough” tenor saxes on our jazz scene. His full bodied approach was brashly swinging yet could be sensitive and romantic, too. Jaws had a wide ranging career, inspired by the big bands but also coming up at Minton’s and in the be-bop era as well, with an R&B tinge, and later a master of the organ-tenor groove.  Always blowin’. This close...

Johnny Hartman was the great romantic singer in our jazz universe. More than just a baritone crooner, Hartman could swing hard, and he imparted a wonderful jazz feel to his songs.  He sang with precise articulation but also invested the lyrics with deep inner meaning and emotional insight. The suave and debonair Mr. Hartman (1923-1983) came up on the Chicago scene.  Despite peaks and valleys of po...

The "Bird-Prez Birthday Broadcast", a 72 hour (and some years longer) marathon celebrating Lester Young and Charlie Parker around their birthday anniversaries, August 27 and August 29, is a long standing tradition at WKCR, and it is among our listeners' favorites. From the 2025 edition, here’s a segment where I presented a survey of Charlie Parker’s collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie.   Approxima...

Wardell Gray is a “forgotten tenor”, one of the lost masters of modern jazz.  Many critics aptly classify his style with a label of “Easy Swing”. This distinctive feature is a felicitous facility that imparts a rhythmic grace while maintaining an intensive communicative attack that conveys a soulful message.   Gray was born in Oklahoma on February 13, 1921 just a few months before the Tulsa massac...

Before Nat King Cole became “Nat King Cole”, he was a swinging and influential jazz pianist.  Additionally, he popularized the innovative format of the piano-guitar-bass trio which heralded an elegant “chamber jazz” style.  This program focuses on these jazz sides of his career, as well as recordings made with Lester Young, Harry Sweets Edison, Illinois Jacquet and other jazz greats. But fear not,...

The "Bird-Prez Birthday Broadcast", a 72 hour (and some years longer) marathon celebrating Lester Young and Charlie Parker around their birthday anniversaries, August 27 and August 29, is a long standing tradition at WKCR, and it is among our listeners' favorites. On the middle, swing, date, August 28, we play mixtures of Bird and Prez.  Here is my segment from the 2025 edition. It starts with an...

Herman “Junior” Cook was born on July 22, 1934 in Pensacola, Florida.  The tenor saxophonist came of age with the soulful aspects of modern jazz in the late 1950's. Cook’s first major engagement was with the classic Horace Silver Quintet, from 1958-1964.  Teaming with trumpeter Blue Mitchell as the front line, Cook contributed to the lasting legacy of the “Horace Silver sound” and the enduring LPs...

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. To close the 2019 edition, I presented a rousing set of highlights of Roy’s career from 1941-1970 for casual listening.  It ranges from Gene Krupa and Artie Shaw to the Newport Rebels and The Nifty Cat, with ple...

Charles Earland is one of the primary “Hammond Heroes” of the original generation of soulful jazz organists on the B-3. Earland swings brightly with his easy-going, syncopated, dance able rhythms on great pop tunes, but that sets things up for his hard-driving intensity on searing, adventuresome numbers.  His dynamic power earned his nickname “The Mighty Burner”. Born in Philadelphia on May 24,194...

Sonny Clark was a pianist with a bluesy sound combined with crisp and swinging technique.  His style also embodied an element of “cool” suited to the modern jazz of his period.  As a composer, his songs were angular and sophisticated, but melodic enough to be accessible.  Many of his tunes, such as “Sonny’s Crib” and “News For Lulu”, endure in the standard jazz repertory. Conrad Yeatis “Sonny”Clar...

From the 2025 Fourth of July Louis Armstrong traditional WKCR special, here’s a segment starting with 85 minutes or so of a casual listening potpourri of the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, a Fleischmann’s Yeast radio show, and other diverse goodies, followed by a curated survey of Armstrong’s 1929-1932 OKeh recordings of popular songs, also about 85 minutes’ worth.  Oh memory!

Here’s a five hour treat of Charlie Rouse. Best known for his long association with Thelonious Monk in the 1960's, tenor saxophonist Rouse also had an extensive and varied career in modern jazz.  He expressed a tone of warmth and lyrical sensitivity on his horn, which lent a suave element to the rhythmic and harmonic creativity of his performance.    Rouse was born in 1924 and raised in Washington...

This program presents the vocal magic of  Lambert Hendricks and Ross. Lambert Hendricks and Ross brought the art of ensemble group vocals to a higher level.  Bebop singers Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross each individually were pioneers of vocalese, the style of writing lyrics to recorded instrumental solos to create new songs.  The synergy of the group was even more remarkably creative....

Arnett Cobb was a full-bodied, hard swinging musician with a warm, soulful sound that exemplified the tough, Texas, tenor tradition.  During his career, Cobb overcame deep personal setbacks, experiences that lent an emotional insight and intensity to his artistic expression.  He was born in Houston, Texas on August 10, 1918 and began playing all sorts of music as a child.  Cobb was proficient enou...

My segment from the 2025 edition of WKCR's annual Billie Holiday birthday special:  The first hour is a potpourri of recordings for casual listening pleasure.  It’s followed by a two hour presentation of a detailed survey of Billie’s sessions for the Commodore and Decca labels in the 1940s.

Five hours of the soulful jazz pianist Harold Mabern. Mabern was born March 20, 1936 in Memphis and raised in that Southern town, surrounded by many great young jazz players.  Mabern’s own mentor and friend, only a couple of years older, was Phineas Newborn.  His schoolmates and lifelong associates included Frank Strozier, George Coleman, and Booker Little. Shaped by the indigenous rhythm and blue...

WKCR presents a marathon broadcast celebrating Duke Ellington annually, on his birthday anniversary, April 29.  From my segment in the 2025 edition, here’s 40 minutes of Ben Webster features with Duke, followed by a two hour set of selections from Ellington in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Although less well known today, tenor saxophonist Leon “Chu” Berry was one of the most vital and vibrant improvising musicians of the Swing Era. He was an innovator and progenitor of modern saxophone styles, cited as an influence by many insiders.  Berry was a leading figure in big bands such as Fletcher Henderson’s, and the featured soloist in Cab Calloway’s famous orchestra.  Chu also recorded l...

Freddie Redd is perhaps best known for his association with Jack Gelber’s groundbreaking 1959 off-Broadway play “The Connection”.  Redd is perhaps least known as an active jazz musician for the following 60 years of his long life.  For, he never sought publicity, traveled frequently, and, not favoring the constrictions of the recording studio, did not leave a long discography of commercial recordi...

WKCR presents a marathon broadcast celebrating Charles Mingus annually, on his birthday anniversary, April 22.   For my segment on the 2025 edition, I prepared a program first featuring 70 minutes or so of a casual sampling of his classic 1959 recordings, and then followed by a two hour survey of Mingus collaborations with Teddy Charles.

Jimmy Rushing, “Mr. Five by Five”, was a robust and hearty singer, making full use of his husky frame to deliver lusty presentations whether shouting the blues or imparting his vivacious yet heartfelt style to popular songs. Rushing was born in Oklahoma City to a middle class, musically inclined family, and his development ranged from proper musical lessons to the sounds of the sporting house. He...