Charlie Parker Tribute

Yesterday would have been the 88th birthday of Charlie "Bird" Parker. 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 idium 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

Heard Only Here

This show will start out with a set of tracks that can only be heard on In The Groove. Bassist Rob Duguay, Trumpeter Josh Evans, and Alto player Greg Abate have all recently layed us on to some tracks they have recorded, and are not published on any commercially available CD. After listeneing to those tunes, I've got a few tunes I had queued up from last weeks show but never got to play from Empirical and Esperanza Spaulding.

Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
Ketch Yo Last Metro * Rob Duguay Quartet * Pulo-Du-guay-to
Track 5 * Josh Evans Quartet
Star Eyes (alt 1) * Greg Abate
The Deep * Empirical * Empirical
Cuerpa Y Alma (Body and Soul) * Esperanza Spaulding * Esperanza
Time Out * Hiromi * Hiromi's Sonic Boom. Time Control

Newport Jazz part 2

Last Sunday I attended the Newport Jazz Festival for first time. It was an incredible experience. Three stages, with jazz artists performing simultaneously throughout the day. This show features those artists that we got the chance to see at the Festival. They run the gamut from jazz legends, Herbie Hancock and Sonny Rollins to newcomers Esperanza Spaulding and Lionel Loueke. Perhaps that best performance for me was the Chris Potter Underground. The amazing tenor sax player was seen all day playing with nearly every act, running from one stage to the next. (due to technical problems in the studio, the Newport feature starts halfway into the show).

Check out these links to read my blog entry about the Newport Jazz Fest, and to see my photo gallery. If you have pictures from the jazz fest, I invite you to upload them to the gallery.

Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
No Smokin' * Horace Silver * Stylings of Silver
United * Ravi Coltrane * In Flux
Triple Dance * Dave Holland Big Band
Vater Time * Wallace Roney * Jazz
Fat Cat * Empirical * Empirical
Mela * Esperanza Spalding * Esperanza
Virgin Forest * Lionel Loueke * Virgin Forest
Sonny Please * Sonny Rollins * Sonny Please

Newport Jazz Festival

Guest DJ-in-training, Kirk joins me this week to assist with microphone duties and engineering this broadcast.

We will be attending the Newport Jazz Festival this Sunday. To celebrate, this show features artist performing at this years event. This is a small sampling of the artists that will be appearing on the weekend long show. There are three stages and 5 sets on each stage. Over the weekend, that brings 30 different performances by some of todays greatest jazz artists.

Update: Photo Gallery of our trip to the Newport jazz festival is here.

Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
Go * Wayne Shorter * Footprints Live
Crooked Creek * Brian Blade * Perceptual
The 9 * Christian Scott * Anthem
Oam's Blues * Aaron Goldberg * Worlds
The Wheel * Chris Potter * Underground
Edith and the Kingpin * Herbie Hancock * River: The Joni Mitchell Letters
Where or When * Sonny Rollins * Without a Song
Equinox * Dwight West * Tribute to the Jazz Masters

reprise: Something Old, Something New (part 1)

Due to a technical problem, my August 2 show was not recorded (like I forgot to hit the Start button on the CD-R). So, I resurrected a recording of an old show, that I thought was interesting. This is the first hour of a show was originally broadcast in July of 2006. I may post the second hour of the show in the near future.

Another eclectic mix of old and new. Starting off with an old classic from the 70's from Les McCann (Dig the relevant lyrics), to new releases from Joey DeFrancesco. We'll conclude this hour with some modern Miles from the In A Silent Way and Jack Johnson Complete Sessions sets.

Playlist
Track * Artist * Album
Compared to What * Les McCann & Eddie Harris * Swiss Movement
Speak Low * Joey DeFrancesco * Organic Vibes
Softly as in the Morning Sunrise * Michal Urbaniak * Live at The Village Vanguard
Dual Mr. Anthony Tillmon Williams Process * Miles Davis * Complete In a Silent Way Sessions
In A Silent Way (unreleased) * Miles Davis * Complete In A Silent Way Sessions
Ali take 3 * Miles Davis * Complete Jack Johnson Sessions
Right Off - unreleased take 10 * Miles Davis * Complete Jack Johnson Sessions