The Gone Sounds of Jazz with Sid Gribetz

Gene Ammons (1925-1974) was a master of the full-bodied deep sound on the tenor saxophone.  He was vigorous and free-flowing swinging the blues and presented a luscious and sensuous presentation in his touch on the sensitive standards.  We'll be "Hittin" The Jug" with great soul and heartfelt ballads as well, in tribute to the "Boss", hard hitting tenor saxophone who needs to be remembered. This p...

Blue Mitchell was perhaps the most melodic and lyrical of the coterie of “hard bop” soulful trumpeters, and best known for his work in the classic Horace Silver groups. Richard Mitchell was born in Miami, Florida on March 13, 1930.  “Blue” was a childhood nickname that became prescient as he later picked up the horn and became a professional jazz musician.  After high school, Mitchell began a care...

For the 2018 Billie Holiday WKCR Birthday Broadcast I had the closing shift.  So for a final salvo on a late Saturday night, I put together a group of recordings – Billie with Louis Armstrong, and then representative “hits" from the various stages of her career.  I played them with virtually no talk or interruption.  A sublime 77 minutes guiding the way towards a velvety, hushed, seductive midnigh...

Burton Lane (nee Burton Levy, 1912-1997) was one of the legendary masters of American popular song.  Lane’s signature masterpiece was his score for the Broadway musical "Finian's Rainbow", and he also has lasting fame for the show "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever”.  Lane was a figure in tin pan alley and Hollywood musicals, as well as the Broadway stage.  He was the composer of enduring standar...

Etta Jones was one of the greatest jazz vocalists in the truest meaning of the word.  She sang with a strong personal style, digging deep into the lyrics to reveal their inner meaning and invest them with keen emotion.  Etta also swung!  She possessed the great rhythmic and improvisational sensitivities of a jazz soloist, and she delivered the blues and the American popular songbook with unmitigat...

The big band era died out in the post World War II years as musical tastes in both jazz and popular music changed in our culture.  As another factor, the economics of the music industry were transformed, making it difficult to sustain the financial footing of a large touring ensemble. Yet Count Basie managed to stem this tide and not only survive, but thrive in this new milieu. First, in 1950 he t...

This five hour show features the vigorous tenor saxophone of Jimmy Forrest. Forrest was born in 1920 and raised in St. Louis, coming of age in the tail end of the big band era.  For a time, he was a major figure both in rhythm and blues and also mainstream jazz. His first key jobs, in the 1940's, were in the orchestras of Jay McShann, Andy Kirk, and, notably, Duke Ellington towards the end of the...

WKCR presented a marathon broadcast celebrating the centennial of drummer Philly Joe Jones on July 15, 2023. From my shift, here are segments including a survey of his collaborations with Tadd Dameron, 35 minutes or so sampling of Jones recordings with Elmo Hope, and an obligatory finish with “Blues For Dracula”.  For Philly Joe was a child of the night, who made such beautiful music.

Bill Hardman was a crisp trumpeter with the brashness and elan of the bebop and hard bop ethos, colored also by a lyrical and even romantic aspect in his tone.  While perhaps not achieving tremendous fame, he was a valued figure in our jazz scene of his time. Bill Hardman was born in 1932 (or 33 depending on the source) and raised in Cleveland, where he came up with musicians such as Tadd Dameron....

Tenor saxophonist Paul Quinichette was born in Denver in 1921 (some say earlier) and as a youth met his mentor Lester Young.  Paul adopted Young’s style, and played the sax with the same creamy, free-flowing, lithe tone, although he also had his own very personal invention and attack. While Paul was college trained, he also was a product of the vernacular western swing tradition.  His first major...

Stuff Smith was an innovator of jazz violin and a leading figure of small group combos and jumpin’ entertainment in the 1930's. Stuff Smith derived a deep, driving, sound on his fiddle, with unique voicings, heartfelt tones, and a fluid, driving sense of rhythm and swing that enraptured the soul. He was a dynamic showman, a humorous vocalist with hit novelty songs such as “I’se A Muggin’”, “You’re...

WKCR presented a special marathon broadcast celebrating the 93rd Birthday of Sonny Rollins on September 7, 2023.  I produced this three hour shift.  It begins with a close look at Sonny's recordings as a member of the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet, and then some casual sets featuring Rollins on RCA Victor in the 1960's, and Rollins with Thelonious Monk.

Grant Green was one of the all time greats of jazz guitar.  His flame burned brightly for a time, but he is to a certain degree a “forgotten” star. Green’s approach to the guitar was like that of a horn player.   He played single note lines that were melodic and improvisational.  His playing was free flowing and swung with a soulful spirit and deep grooves.  He presented a crisp, uncluttered sound...

WKCR presents a marathon broadcast celebrating Max Roach annually, on his birthday anniversary, January 10. For my segment on the 2025 edition, I prepared a set focusing on Max Roach’s contributions to great piano trio recordings.  It includes sessions with Bud Powell, George Wallington, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, John Dennis, Sonny Clark, Duke Ellington, and the legendary Hasaan. This episo...

When Billie Holiday left the original Count Basie orchestra in 1938, how could she be replaced, and who could replace her?  The musical answer is the incomparable Helen Humes, a major figure in her day but long overlooked.    Helen was born in Louisville, Kentucky June 23, 1909 (a date sometimes made younger in press releases and reference books) to a middle class black family, her father a lawyer...

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 2024 edition.  Three and a half hours, comprised of individual segments highlighting Roy’s associations with Oscar Peterson, Mildred Bailey, Tiny Grimes, Billie Holiday, Artie Shaw, Gene...

JR Monterose possessed a very strong and personal emotional tone on the tenor sax, and he is one of the underrated masters of the modern jazz era. Frank Monterose, Jr. was born in 1927 and raised in Utica, NY.  The moniker JR comes not from initials but from being a Jr. but he usually spelled it without punctuation. Monterose started his professional career briefly in the big bands of Buddy Rich a...

Milt Jackson was one of the all-time jazz greats on the vibraphone.  First, he was an innovator bringing this esoteric instrument to the bebop revolution of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.  Additionally, he possessed superb musicality that added to the popularity of the instrument.  Beyond utilizing the percussion role of the vibes, Jackson played with fleet, free flowing lines suitable to mod...

WKCR presented a marathon special broadcast saluting Donald Byrd, in December 2024. For my contribution, I prepared a set surveying Donald Byrd’s intersections with John Coltrane. In the period 1956-1958, only shortly before each in their own way were to burst forth separately to a next level of stardom, Byrd and Coltrane appeared together (though not "in tandem") on several recording sessions.  T...

Some of the best in jazz derives from its interpretations of the great American popular songbook, and Jimmy Van Heusen was one of its composer-giants.  In 2013, the centennial of Van Heusen’s birth, we added this jazz flavored element to its commemoration. Van Heusen was born in Syracuse, NY on January 26, 1913 as Edward Chester Babcock.  He began a musical career in high school and worked as a ra...

Sid Gribetz features Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers “From Moanin’ To Kyoto”.  Art Blakey is the dynamic drummer and band leader who nurtured many young jazz stars and inculcated the “hard bop” sound in the groups he organized over the many decades of his career until his death in 1990. Even in a five hour program, we will have time to focus only on a limited aspect of Blakey’s prolific career. Thus,...

During the 2019 Billie Holiday WKCR Birthday Broadcast, I put together a segment of an erstaz sampling of live performances, some famous, some obscure, including, among others, Count Basie, Stan Getz, A Yiddishe Momma, and The Sound Of Jazz TV broadcast.  A nice listen....   88 minutes

 Born in Texas October 6, 1908, Sammy Price began his career as an entertainer on the black vaudeville TOBA circuit as a dancer and singer as well as pianist.  He then became a fixture as a pianist in the Southwestern swing and blues jazz scene in Kansas City and its territories in the burgeoning years of jazz in the 1930s. Price moved to New York City in 1938, working for over a decade as the hou...

In jazz history, Houston Person is one the great purveyors of the deep throated tenor saxophone sound --dynamically powerful and swinging, but also sultry, bluesy, sensitive and romantic.  Houston Person was born on November 10, 1934 in Florence, South Carolina.  He was musically inclined as a child, and then studied at South Carolina State University.  After college, Person entered the service an...

Ike Quebec was a deep-toned, dynamic saxophonist, instrumental in both the swing styles and the modern jazz era.   Born in Newark, NJ in 1918, Quebec began his artistic career in show business as a dancer, and then a pianist, but during the World War II years he came of age as a saxophonist.  Quebec’s early roots were in the swing styles, both as a key member of Cab Calloway’s big band in the 1940...