The Gone Sounds of Jazz with Sid Gribetz

WKCR presents an annual marathon 24 hour tribute to trumpet virtuoso Clifford Brown on October 30, his birthday anniversary. Here is my segment from the 2024 edition. It begins with a half hour potpourri of Brown recordings.  That's followed by a detailed survey of Clifford's first commercial jazz records in 1953, when he flowered on the scene in sessions with Lou Donaldson and Elmo Hope; J.J. Joh...

Buck Clayton was a leading trumpeter and arranger of the swing era. Coming of age in the Southwestern Jazz Styles, Clayton moved to Los Angeles as a young man and made his name in the California Jazz circles.  In 1934, he assembled a band that moved to Shanghai, China, and brought American Jazz to the Orient. Escaping Shanghai just before the Japanese invasion, Clayton returned to the US and lande...

WKCR presents annual marathon broadcasts to celebrate the October 10 birthday anniversary of Thelonious Monk.  Here's my segment form the 2024 edition.  It begins with selections from Monk's appearances as a "sideman" on sessions with Clark Terry, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, and Sonny Rollins. Next is a lengthy survey of Monk's recordings for the Blue Note label from 1947-1952, his first...

WKCR presents a marathon broadcast celebrating Max Roach annually, on his birthday anniversary, January 10. Here's my segment from the 2022 program. The major portion of this episode samples recordings from Debut Records, the independent label owned by Roach and Charles Mingus, and includes material ranging from some esoteric ensembles to the legendary Massey Hall Concert.

George Wallington was one of the legendary pianists of the bebop era but never achieved great fame.  With his early retirement from a musical career, he remains a more obscure figure in jazz history and lore.  However, he was an especially swinging pianist and inventive composer who deserves continued attention.  Born Giacinto Figlia in Sicily in 1924 (some sources date his birth a little earlier)...

Vocalist Lorez Alexandria was a great interpreter of jazz and American popular song.  She sang with deeply felt presentation of the lyrics and a style of improvisational freedom and swing.  While originally from the church and informed by that soul, she was not a “shouter” or gospel singer.  Some records, like her hit version of “Baltimore Oriole”, employed exotic touches, and others had scat inte...

Benny Golson is one of the great eminences of jazz, best known as a composer of lyrical compositions that have become enduring staples of the modern jazz repertory.  A key performer in some of the most important jazz groups of the late 1950's and early 1960's, Golson added an element of elegance and refinement to the hard bop sound.  He imposed a steady sophistication and class to the ensemble pre...

WKCR presents an annual marathon broadcast celebrating the Coleman Hawkins birthday on November 21.   From the 2023 affair, here's a 185 minute long segment.  It begins with a brief sample of early 1960's recordings with Duke Ellington, and other mainstream sides.   Then the final 149 minutes contains an intensive survey of his career in the period from 1939 through 1944, after his return from Eur...

In his brief life, Fats Navarro was a fleeting spectacle of brilliance as a leading trumpeter in the history and development of jazz during the bebop years.   Nicknamed “Fats” or “Fat Girl” (befitting all in one his avoirdupois, his high pitched voice, and most important his fat musical tone on the trumpet), Theodore Navarro was born on September 23, 1923 in Key West.  He played music seriously si...

Dinah Washington called herself "The Queen Of The Blues", and she was that, and then some, a larger than life character and a dynamic singer of great jazz, pop, rhythm and blues, and the American Popular Songbook. Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and reared in Chicago (as Ruth Jones), influenced by gospel music she began singing professionally as a youth.  Lionel Hampton "discovered" her, and she featu...

WKCR presents annual marathon broadcasts to celebrate the October 10 birthday anniversary of Thelonious Monk.  From the 2023 edition,  here's 205 minutes of a segment I presented.  Begins with a potpourri of Monk's music, first some live performances, next piano music, featuring selections from, among other recordings, the French Vogue session, the Duke Ellington album, and the "The Unique Theloni...

Tadd Dameron was born in Cleveland in 1917 and came of age towards the end of the Swing Era.  As the bebop revolution unfolded, Dameron was a key figure as a pianist in various bands,  arranger for Dizzy Gillespie and others, and composer of classics such as “Hot House", "If You Could See Me Now", "Our Delight", "Good Bait" and "Lady Bird". He’s been called the romanticist of the bebop era.  Certa...

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. For the 2024 edition, I programmed a set reviewing Lester Young's studio recordings for Norman Granz, on "Verve".

Eddie Jefferson was the progenitor of the style known as “vocalese”, the writing of lyrics to the improvised solos on jazz instrumental recordings. Jefferson was born on August 3, 1918 in Pittsburgh.  His father was in show business, and Pittsburgh back in the day was a jazz town of vitality.  Eddie began professionally as a child in song and dance acts with local friends such as Erroll Garner. As...

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 2023 edition, I programmed a set which included primarily a look at Bird's studio recordings of 1947, a magical period for beb...

Sonny Stitt was one of the greats.  Sonny possessed technical skill and fleet mastery as a musician, and he projected a tone full of warmth and human expression.  He excelled whether playing bebop, ballads or the blues, “rhythm” pieces or improvisatory excursions in the American popular songbook standards. Edward Boatner, Jr. was born February 2, 1924 in Boston.  He came from a musical family, as...

For this program I selected a narrow focus -- Ben Webster's activities in the 1950s. Webster is best known as the tenor saxophone giant from Duke Ellington's famous bands followed up with fame and renown as an ongoing swing legend of the 1940s.  In his much later years as a European expatriate, Webster achieved international stardom and respect as an “elder statesman”.  But often overlooked were h...

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. Here's a session that I put together for the 2023 broadcast. Two parts on Lester Young. First a brief random sample of his collaboratio...

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.   Here's a three hour set of mine from the 2021 edition, which includes an 80 minute long segment featuring recordings of Charlie Parke...

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.   In the 2020 edition of the show, I produced a segment that discussed Lester Young's court martial and confinement in US Army detentio...

To honor the centennial year of the jazz diva Sarah Vaughan, WKCR produced a multi-day marathon radio broadcast in March 2024.   For this broadcast I presented a historical segment focusing on Sarah's beginnings from the 1940s through the early 1950's.   This approximately 2 and 1/2 hour podcast concludes with a sample of recordings from later in the 1950's.

Illinois Jacquet is one of the tenor saxophone legends of jazz.  Nicknamed “The Beast”, his ferocious, meaty and swinging style set an exemplar for the “tough tenors” to come, while he also had a sensitive side and meaningfully deep and hearty approach on ballads and standards.   Most reference works list Illinois Jacquet’s birthday as October 31, 1922, and therefore many have called 2022 his cent...

A celebration of the birth of Jazz and Samba.   This program was originally produced by Sid Gribetz in July 2012.  The emphasis of the show was the 50th Anniversary of the Bossa Nova craze and the proliferation of jazz records throughout 1962 with the samba influence.    On February 13, 1962, Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd met in Washington D.C.’s  All Souls Church for a casual record session.  The re...

Sid Gribetz presented this program in 2020 exploring the collaborations of Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams.   Donald Byrd was one of the all-time greats of modern jazz trumpet, possessed of a fresh, crackling sound and a virtuosity that contributed to a long and successful career in various jazz styles.  Pepper Adams, while not as famous as Byrd, was a leading practitioner of the baritone saxophone,...

Oscar Pettiford was one of the leading innovative jazz bass players who came of age during the bebop era.  He unleashed a sense of dynamic swing that set the standard influencing bass styles to this very day, and his lyrical, free flowing solos on bass, and later in his career on pizzicato cello, have lasting beauty that transcends the conventions of these instruments.               Also, Pettifor...