Brian Nation
Aug 28, 2006, 10:59 AM
Gavin Walker's "The Jazz Show" is heard Mondays 9PM to midnight on CITR (http://www.citr.ca/) 101.9 FM and online (http://www.citr.ca/default.asp?id=19&mnu=19). Each show features an entire album at 11PM.
Sept. 4: Tonight we celebrate the 88th birthday of trumpeter/composer/arranger and most importantly bandleader Gerald Wilson. Wilson is still very much with us directing his band and recording and he has been subject of a superb re-issue package by Mosaic Records (the complete Pacific Jazz Recordings of Gerald Wilson). Our feature is from one of these sessions called “Moment of Truth” that contains mostly Wilson originals including his “Hit” “Viva Tirado” and with a band that had many starts like tenor giants Harold Land and Teddy Edwards, trumpet great Carmell Jones, guitarist Joe Pass and drummer Mel Lewis and so on. Wilson’s recorded output has been remarkably fresh and consistent. Wilson’s creativity and imagination seem to have no bounds and yet his respect of the jazz tradition is always evident. Gerald Stanley Wilson was born on September 4, 1918 in Shelby, Mississippi and began music on piano picking up the trumpet (which he no longer plays) in Detroit where his family had moved. He joined the Jimmy Lunceford Band (1939-42) as a player/arranger/composer and did some very advanced charts for that band (“Yard Dog Mazurka” and “Hi Spook” especially) and settled in Los Angeles. He worked in Benny Carter’s Big Band and then was inducted in to the Navy. After service he formed his own big band at the end of 1944 and continued with it to this day. He also wrote for Dizzy Gillespie’s ground-breaking big band (e.g. “Dizzier and Dizzier”), Basie’s band and Eillington’s band and subbed in the trumpet sections of all three. Wilson worked as musical director for singer Nancy Wilson (no relation) and trumpeter Al Hirt and others and had his own Jazz radio show where he was host. Indeed a man for all seasons. Happy 88th birthday Gerald and I hope you and our listening audience enjoys your “Moment of Truth”.
Sept. 11: Yes, yes it’s that time of year again – back to school, work or the grind etc. and it’s once again time for the Jazz Show’s annual two –part educational foray with Leonard Bernstein and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. First the Bernstein which is tonight’s feature. His famous recording of “What is Jazz” is still relevant as an entertaining and enlightening introduction to the mysteries of jazz and why it is so distinctive from other forms of modern music. Bernstein loved jazz and had great respect for its practitioners. First he shows us how the music is put together and what separates it from other music and also the various styles using examples played by well known artists. He even does a little playing and singing(?) himself. Maestro Bernstein made a classic with “What is Jazz” and it’s still very much worthwhile. Entertainment and education.....what a concept! Join us tonight.
Sept. 18: Julian “Cannonball” Adderley was one of the great voices of the alto saxophone and his place in jazz history is secure but Adderley was also a lucid and well educated man who before he became famous was teaching college in his home state of Florida while still in his teens! The album which is part-two of our educational series (an annual event) is called “An Introduction to Jazz” and it has Mr. Adderley talking about jazz history (with recorded examples) and then discussing many of the contemporary artists who were alive and performing when Adderley made this album in 1961. His easy way of talking and his charm is still captivating and this album can still enlighten the ears of today as jazz, despite all of the changes that have taken place, is still a music based on a rich tradition. Cannonball is so hip without sounding hip and that was always the key to his success as a player, educator and bandleader.....and now a legend.
Sept. 21: The “Pepper-Knepper Quintet”) was one of the best short-lived groups in modern jazz and had just one record in their history (a reunion album was done twenty years later but we don’t count that as it was not a working band at the time of the reunion). Park “Pepper” Adams was born in Highland Park, Illinois on September 10, 1930 and died in New York on September 10, 1986, a victim of lung cancer. Adams was one of the great voices of the baritone saxophone and played with a big, deep sound that filled the room and needed no electronic amplification to make himself heard. Jimmy Knepper was one of the most easily identifiable voices of the trombone (one of the most prominent sounds of Charles Mingus’ records of the late fifties and early sixties was Knepper’s trombone) and someone who unlike most modern trombone players did not play like J. J. Johnson. James Martin Knepper was born in Los Angeles on November 22, 1927 and died on June 14, 2003. Knepper and Adams met while working some gigs with Mingus and decided that their sounds were so compatible that they formed this band for some one-nighters and a few week-end gigs around the New York area. Their rhythm section comprised the great pianist Wynton Kelly, Detroit bassist Doug Watkins and emerging great, drummer Elvin Jones (all were freelances at the time of the dates and the recording). Jazz critic/producer, Leonard Feather heard the band at a one-nighter and decided to record them for his label “Metrojazz” on March 25, 1958. Not very long after the record session, the band broke up for lack of gigs and everyone went on to other things. The date itself consists of originals by Adams and Knepper and one by producer Leonard Feather plus a couple of Duke Ellington ballads. On “I Didn’t Know About You” Kelly makes a surprise switch to the organ (one was in the studio) but plays piano (superbly I might add) on all other tunes. As all the members of this band have passed on this important document of the “Pepper-Knepper Quintet” deserves to be heard by all jazz fans and tonight is the night!
Sept. 4: Tonight we celebrate the 88th birthday of trumpeter/composer/arranger and most importantly bandleader Gerald Wilson. Wilson is still very much with us directing his band and recording and he has been subject of a superb re-issue package by Mosaic Records (the complete Pacific Jazz Recordings of Gerald Wilson). Our feature is from one of these sessions called “Moment of Truth” that contains mostly Wilson originals including his “Hit” “Viva Tirado” and with a band that had many starts like tenor giants Harold Land and Teddy Edwards, trumpet great Carmell Jones, guitarist Joe Pass and drummer Mel Lewis and so on. Wilson’s recorded output has been remarkably fresh and consistent. Wilson’s creativity and imagination seem to have no bounds and yet his respect of the jazz tradition is always evident. Gerald Stanley Wilson was born on September 4, 1918 in Shelby, Mississippi and began music on piano picking up the trumpet (which he no longer plays) in Detroit where his family had moved. He joined the Jimmy Lunceford Band (1939-42) as a player/arranger/composer and did some very advanced charts for that band (“Yard Dog Mazurka” and “Hi Spook” especially) and settled in Los Angeles. He worked in Benny Carter’s Big Band and then was inducted in to the Navy. After service he formed his own big band at the end of 1944 and continued with it to this day. He also wrote for Dizzy Gillespie’s ground-breaking big band (e.g. “Dizzier and Dizzier”), Basie’s band and Eillington’s band and subbed in the trumpet sections of all three. Wilson worked as musical director for singer Nancy Wilson (no relation) and trumpeter Al Hirt and others and had his own Jazz radio show where he was host. Indeed a man for all seasons. Happy 88th birthday Gerald and I hope you and our listening audience enjoys your “Moment of Truth”.
Sept. 11: Yes, yes it’s that time of year again – back to school, work or the grind etc. and it’s once again time for the Jazz Show’s annual two –part educational foray with Leonard Bernstein and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. First the Bernstein which is tonight’s feature. His famous recording of “What is Jazz” is still relevant as an entertaining and enlightening introduction to the mysteries of jazz and why it is so distinctive from other forms of modern music. Bernstein loved jazz and had great respect for its practitioners. First he shows us how the music is put together and what separates it from other music and also the various styles using examples played by well known artists. He even does a little playing and singing(?) himself. Maestro Bernstein made a classic with “What is Jazz” and it’s still very much worthwhile. Entertainment and education.....what a concept! Join us tonight.
Sept. 18: Julian “Cannonball” Adderley was one of the great voices of the alto saxophone and his place in jazz history is secure but Adderley was also a lucid and well educated man who before he became famous was teaching college in his home state of Florida while still in his teens! The album which is part-two of our educational series (an annual event) is called “An Introduction to Jazz” and it has Mr. Adderley talking about jazz history (with recorded examples) and then discussing many of the contemporary artists who were alive and performing when Adderley made this album in 1961. His easy way of talking and his charm is still captivating and this album can still enlighten the ears of today as jazz, despite all of the changes that have taken place, is still a music based on a rich tradition. Cannonball is so hip without sounding hip and that was always the key to his success as a player, educator and bandleader.....and now a legend.
Sept. 21: The “Pepper-Knepper Quintet”) was one of the best short-lived groups in modern jazz and had just one record in their history (a reunion album was done twenty years later but we don’t count that as it was not a working band at the time of the reunion). Park “Pepper” Adams was born in Highland Park, Illinois on September 10, 1930 and died in New York on September 10, 1986, a victim of lung cancer. Adams was one of the great voices of the baritone saxophone and played with a big, deep sound that filled the room and needed no electronic amplification to make himself heard. Jimmy Knepper was one of the most easily identifiable voices of the trombone (one of the most prominent sounds of Charles Mingus’ records of the late fifties and early sixties was Knepper’s trombone) and someone who unlike most modern trombone players did not play like J. J. Johnson. James Martin Knepper was born in Los Angeles on November 22, 1927 and died on June 14, 2003. Knepper and Adams met while working some gigs with Mingus and decided that their sounds were so compatible that they formed this band for some one-nighters and a few week-end gigs around the New York area. Their rhythm section comprised the great pianist Wynton Kelly, Detroit bassist Doug Watkins and emerging great, drummer Elvin Jones (all were freelances at the time of the dates and the recording). Jazz critic/producer, Leonard Feather heard the band at a one-nighter and decided to record them for his label “Metrojazz” on March 25, 1958. Not very long after the record session, the band broke up for lack of gigs and everyone went on to other things. The date itself consists of originals by Adams and Knepper and one by producer Leonard Feather plus a couple of Duke Ellington ballads. On “I Didn’t Know About You” Kelly makes a surprise switch to the organ (one was in the studio) but plays piano (superbly I might add) on all other tunes. As all the members of this band have passed on this important document of the “Pepper-Knepper Quintet” deserves to be heard by all jazz fans and tonight is the night!