In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond

Afternoon Fill-in

With my regular Saturday evening show pre-empted for sports, I dig out an afternoon fill-in I did back in March of this year. It is an eclectic mix of fusion, bop, Indian and classic rock. Hope you enjoy the variety of this mix.

Heard in Hartford

Jazz fans in the Hartford area are very fortunate to have access to great live music in such abundance. Lately we have our friend Andres Chapparo to thank for producing many of the concerts here. He has brought us the Pork Pie Hat Jazz series with shows every couple of weeks through the Fall and early Winter. Friday we saw the Avery Sharpe Trio, and in following weeks we will be presented with Ralph Peterson, Antonio Hart and more. Also of note are local jazz heroes Steve Davis and the Luques and Zaccai Curtis who continue to perform for us here in Hartford despite having a busy career traveling around the world playing jazz with their own ensembles and playing with some of the greats of the genre. All of the aformentioned jazz artists are represented here in this jazz podcast.

The Envelope

I was happy to fill-in for Joel Krut's Pushing the Envelope on WHUS one Thursday Evening in July. This podcast is a recording of a segment of that show.

Pork Pie Hat

This podcast celebrates tenor sax great Prez, Pork Pie Hat, Lester Young. This year is the Centenial of the Prez' birth. Lester Young was one of the influential jazz artists of the 1940's and 50's. He played with Count Basie and Billy Holiday and many others. His mellow full tone on tenor is featured on this podcast. Pork Pie Hat is also the name of a jazz series of live concerts going on now in the Hartford area. We feature some of the artists performing in that series on this show. Playlist Track * Artist * Album All of Me * Lester Young * Pres and Teddy Almost Like Being in Love * Lester Young * Tea for Two Goodbye Porkpie Hat * Kevin Mohogany * Another Time Another Place Matrix * Ignacio Berroa * Codes Bolivia * Cedar Walton * Eastern Rebellion Turn it Over * Ralph Peterson * The Reclamation Project Auditory Illusion * Antonio Hart * All We Need The Children and the Warlock * Harry Whitaker * Thoughts (Past and Present) The Temple of the Olympic Zeus * Eric Alexander * Temple of Olympic Zeus Necessity * Insight * A Genesis

Autumnal Equinox

This podcast celebrates autumn's equinox (September 22) in jazz music. At the same time, we are honoring what would have been John Coltrane's 83rd birthday (September 23). What better way to achieve both than by playing Coltrane's classic Equinox. We'll follow this by Steve Kuhn's rendition of Autumn Leaves.

Dave Holland Speaks to ITG

Prior to his performance at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival in Lennox, MA, I had the opportunity to interview jazz bassist Dave Holland. We spoke about the beginning of his career in jazz, working with Miles, his thoughts on composition and bass playing.

Summer Jazz Part 2

Labor day weekend marks the end of the summer and this podcast is second half of last weeks summer recap show. It was a great summer for catching live jazz music. Dig these tunes by Seamus Blake and the norwegian organ trio Solid led by guitarist Bjorn Solli. We saw these cats playing at Smalls Jazz Cafe in NYC. Jason Palmer is represented on two tracks in this playlist. A fine trumpet player and composer, he plays every weekend at Wally's Cafe and Jazz club in Boston. The first of these tracks also features Ravi Coltrane on sax. We saw Jason accompany Ravi's quartet this summer at the Zinc Bar in New York city this summer. Locally we heard pianist Nando Michelin and alto sax great Mike DiRubbo playing in jazz ensembles at here in Hartford and they laid us on to their latest CD's to share with you on this podcast. featured album Songbook on Amazon.com Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
Way Out Willy * Seamus Blake * Way Out Willy
Normy * Solid * Happy Accidents
Paula * Nando Michelin * Reencontro
The Shadowboxer * Jason Palmer * Songbook
Will there ever be employment for the Exonerated People * Jason Palmer * Songbook
Deja vu * Mike Dirubbo * Repercussion

Summer Jazz

Summer is the season of jazz. There are great festivals all over the country, outdoor concerts, and warm summer nights at hip jazz clubs. Its a great time to hang in NYC and go club hopping till the early morning hours. This summer was particularly fine for seeing great live music. Of course, Newport was the highlight, but we saw some great music here at the Monday night Jazz series in the park, at Black Eyed Sally's and in NYC. Next weekend is the Tanglewood Jazz festival in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. This radio show highlights some of the great artists who performed this summer in Southern New England.