In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond

We were honored to have Kenny Barron and Regina Carter, currently with the Monterey Jazz Festival Tour, come to the WHUS studios for a live interview. Kenny Barron, a true grand master of jazz piano, and the wonderfully talented violinist Regina Carter speak about music and the jazz scene with me in between concerts held at University of Connecticut. We start out the show with an inspiring recording form John Coltrane and a Connecticut favorite and friend of the show, pianist Craig Hartley.

Links: More pics, Jazz Note SDP



Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
Love * John Coltrane * Meditations
The Old Country * Craig Hartley, Bob Simonelli, Eric Nebbia * The Old Country
For Someone I Love * Regina Carter * Motor City Memories
Images * Kenny Barron * Images
Voyage * Stan Getz * Soul Eyes
Reverie * Regina Carter * Paganini: After a Dream
Traveler * Kenny Barron * Traveler

This is the first hour of last weeks radio broadcast. It's an eclectic mix of different styles. This is modern jazz music using different instrumentation and creative arrangements. We start out the show with Alice Coltrane's harp, followed by modern electric guitar, tuba, voice, and electronics. It brings to mind how diverse, modern and creative the jazz experience is.
Featured album

Ptah The El Daoud from Amazon.com

Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
Blue Nile * Alice Coltrane * Ptah, the El Daoud
Continuance * Adam Rogers * Apparitions
Lingala * SFJazz Collective * Sfjazz Collective
My Son Ra * Arthur Blythe * Focus on amazon.com
Found It * Jason Palmer * Songbook
Principle * Greg Osby * Nine Levels
Married Life * Dave Douglas * Moonshine

I had the pleasure of hosting tenor sax artist and composer Noah Preminger for an interview at WHUS on Saturday evening. Noah is one of the young creative jazz artists based in New York City that is defining the future of jazz music. He spoke with us about his background and influences, his method of composition, and some of his current projects. We get to hear from his critically acclaimed album Dry Bridge Road, and some yet to be released recordings. Noah also plays for us live in the studio. We also take the opportunity to promote a couple of live performances coming up this week in Hartford and NYC.



Dry Bridge Road from Amazon.com or iTunes

Track Listing
Today is OK, Dry Bridge Road
Rhythm for Robert, Dry Bridge Road
Sax of a Kind, Dry Bridge Road
My Blues for You, unreleased recording
untitled piano/sax duet
Polka Dots and Moonbeams, live in studio

No radio show this week, so I am republishing a podcast originally posted in August of 2008. This tribute was first aired on the anniversary of Bird's 88th birthday, but its great to hear these tunes any time of the year. This great alto player is often considered the founder of Be-Bop music. Before Bird in the 1940's, Jazz was primarily big-band music, dance music that was perhaps the most popular genre of it's time. Bird featured a hard driving quartet and quintet format with an emphasis on improvisation, freeing the soloist to stretch out. As I listen to the 2 Bird originals on this set, each under 3 minutes, it amazes me how much music is packed into these tracks. The rest of the set features modern day jazz artists that have covered Bird's compositions as well as artists that have been influenced by his music. Actually, every great jazz artist that has played this idiom since Bird, has taken some of his chops from Charlie Parker.


Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
Now's the Time * Charlie Parker * Original Recordings of CP
Donna Lee * Charlie Parker * Bird/The Savoy Recording
Yardbird Suite * Dwight West * Tribute to the Masters
Dewey Square * Barbara Dennerlein * Tribute to Charlie
Ornithology * Barbara Dennerlein * Tribute to Charlie
This I Dig Of You * Greg Abate Quintet * Bop Lives
Bop Lives * Greg Abate Quintet * Bop Lives
Arriving Soon * Cannonball Adderley * Plus
Confirmation * Jackie McLean * 4, 5, And 6
Scrapple From The Apple * Keith Jarrett * Up For It
Time's Lie * Joe Farrell * Moon Germs

This weeks program features guitarists from around the world. We start tonight's show with some rockin' guitar work from Mike Stern's new album Big Neighborhood. A great title that highlights that through music and the Internet, the world has become one big neighborhood. The second track I play from this album features Richard Bona whose vocals give the tune an African vibe. We hear from Belgium's Django, who perhaps brought the guitar to jazz music in the first place. We also get to hear the mid-eastern influence in guitar jazz from the Rudresh's Indo-Pak Coalition and Rez Abassi, and Faroud Haak. Other guitarists present on this podcast are Ben Monder and Adam Rogers.
Featured Album

Big Neighborhood on Amazon.com

Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
Check One * Mike Stern * Big Neighborhood
Reach * Mike Stern * Big Neighborhood
The Chant * Fareed Haque + The Flat Earth Ensemble * Flat Planet
Topsy * Django Reinhardt * The Best of Django Reinhardt
Palika Market * Rudresh Mahanthappa * Apti
Echolalia * Ben Monder * Oceana
Sax of a Kind * Noah Preminger * Dry Bridge Road
Continuance * Adam Rogers * Apparitions
El Cigarrito * Claudia Acuna * En Este Momento
The Jupiter Line * Seamus Blake * Live in Italy

We continue last weeks retrospective of 2009 releases. Even after 2 shows dedicated to last years music, I still have a stack of music that I did not have the time to get to. I guess you can say that it was a prolific year for new music. Despite reports that jazz is dead, it is indeed thriving with new music and new artists. Check out young talented players like Jimmy Greene, Mike DiRubbo and Lauren Sevian. They are represented here as well as more established artists like Joe Lovano, Steve Davis and Joshua Redman. We end the show with some of the great masters too, in Benny Golson and Mingus.

featured album

Mission Statement on amazon.com

Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
Hitchikers Guide * Joshua Redman * Compass
Powerhouse * Joe Lovano * Folk Art
Love in Action * Jimmy Greene * Mission Statement
Nelsonian * Mike DiRubbo * Repercussion
Not So Softly * Lauren Sevian * Blueprint
Padero Y Pagode * Migues Zenon * Esta Plena
Life Cycle * Sean Jones * The Search Within
Line of Flight * Steve Davis * Outlook
Grove's Groove * Benny Golson * New Time New Tet
Mood Indigo * Charles Mingus * Ah Um

Tonight's show begins paying homage to the holiday weekend with Coltrane's Spiritual. From there, I will play some of my favorite releases from 2009 as a retrospective. There were many great albums released, and I found myself not being able to get to them all. I will most likely continue to play these recent CDs in my next broadcast. I try to highlight some of the recordings that were nominated for Grammy Awards, though the grammy organization truly disrespects jazz artists in favor of popular trendy music. I guess America's only original art form doesn't fit with the glitz, glamour and money of popular music. In any case, here on In The Groove, I'll feature some of today's best jazz including some lesser known artists you will probably hear only on our show. Special mention to Miguel Zenon, Robert Glasper, John Funkhauser, Rob Garcia for outstanding CD's that are represented here.

This years pre-holiday show is designed to warm you up on a cold snowy winter eve and get you in the holiday vibe. We just play a short set of Christmas classics from Chris Potter and Marian McPartland. Those tracks are preceeded by a be-bop set featuring Greg Abate, Kent Hewitt and friends and are followed by a set of new modern jazz featuring the likes of Steve Slaigle, Rob Garcia 4 and Ingrid Jensen. Enjoy!