Discovering Jazz

Latest Episodes:

Episode 164, More from my CD Collection Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

I’m picking out a few tunes from a few favourite cd’s. Lots of music, not too much talk for this episode.

You’ll hear a few familiar favourites such as Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Dave McKenna and Buddy DeFranco, Stanley Clarke and Friends (with Billy Cobham and Najee), Bob Dorough. I also play a few artists with whom most of you probably aren’t familiar: Carri Coltrane, Eugene McDaniels, Bill Coon & Ron Peters, and Paul Novotny & Robi Botos.

But I can assure you that every track is excellent—or at least interesting.

Episode 163:More of the Musicians Jazz Critics Love. Oct 19, 2021

Show notes

Part two features some more of the musicians rated in the 69th Annual Jazz Poll from Downbeat Magazine.

This week I start out with Kris Davis (with Nels Cline), and follow it with the vocal-less Nels Cline Singers. You’ll also hear Freddy Cole, Laila Biali, Sinne Eeg, Aaron Diehl, and Charles Lloyd and The Marvels.

There are a few interesting combinations of great musicians. There is Redman,Meldhau,McBride,and Blade, and all four of them have individually been ranked high. And one of my favourites is a trio of Bill Cunliffe, Vinnie Colaiuta, and John Patitucci on a brand new label called LaCoq records.

Bassist Marcus Miller and a recording he made of one his compositions with Miles Davis is also featured.

Episode 162: Critics Poll from 2021, Part 1 Oct 12, 2021

Show notes

The results of Downbeat’s 69th Annual Critics Poll inspired me to discover and listen to a few artists. And to re-listen to a few others.

You’ll hear some of what I discovered on this episode.

I start with some new members placed into the ‘hall of fame. This year it was Kenny Barron. And the jazz ‘veterans’ committee made another choice: somebody I’d never heard of, a trumpeter who died in 1961 at the age of 23. Anybody familiar with Booker Little?

I also play selections from the Big Band category, male vocal, and some so-called ‘rising stars’.

Quite a few Canadian jazz artists made the critics lists as well, and I play something by two of them: both women.

Episode 161, Discovering Carla Bley Oct 05, 2021

Show notes

Carla Bley, at the age of 85, was just voted onto Downbeat Magazine’s Hall of Fame. There is an article in the August 2021 issue where she talks about having found her ‘voice’—a voice that has endured through all the twists and turns.

In this episode we explore that voice, playing recordings from 1957 to 2020. She is a prolific composer and arranger, as well as a fine pianist.

I play some of her compositions as interpreted by Canadian pianist Paull Bley, Gary Burton, The Liberation Music Orchestra, The George Russell Quintet, and Toronto’s Jane Bunnett. There are also a few by groups she leads, as well as a bit of her jazz opera, Escalator Over The Hill. That opera, by the way, was released on a 6-sided album, and Stylus Magazine referred to it as “the greatest record ever made”.

EPISODE 160: From My CD Collection Sep 28, 2021

Show notes

This week I go to my cd collection and pick out a few with which I was familiar at one time, and give them another spin. The recordings span the years 1955 all the way to 2021.

Included are three Canadian cd’s. One is by Dave McMurdo out of Toronto. The second is vibraphonist Peter Appleyard with some of the most famous jazz players ever. And last but not least, an amazing and obscure cd (you won’t find it anywhere online) by a Penticton/Kelowna B.C. jazz-funk groups called The Mammals.

Going from oldest to newest, I play Chet Baker, Thelonious Monk with Coleman Hawkins, Peter Appleyard with Benny Goodman’s Jazz Giants, french hornist Tom Bacon, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dave McMurdo, The Mammals, Patricia Barber, Betty Carter and DJ Spinna, Sweden’s Aaly Trio with Ken Vandermark, and Anthony Joseph with Shabaka Hutchings.

Episode 159: From my LP Collection Sep 21, 2021

Show notes

To start off the 2021-2022 season of Discovering Jazz, I thought I’d play some familiar (and a few not so familiar) tunes from my lp collection. I play a few ‘regulars’ whose music has appeared on this program over the years: Don Shirley, Vince Guaraldi, Sounds Orchestral (Johnny Pearson), Fraser MacPherson, Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett & Bill Evans, and Bob Dorough. You’ll aso hear cuts from albums by Eddie Cano, Franco D’Andrea, Mel Torme with Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, Buddy DeFranco and Tommy Gumina, and Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66.

I have lots more lp’s that I want to revisit. I look forward to playing them on future programs. But next week I’m going to dip into my cd’s.

Archives, Episode 88: Absolute or Perfect Pitch Sep 14, 2021

Show notes

This is an episode that is near and dear to my heart. Absolute Pitch (sometimes inaccurately called ‘perfect’ pitch) is something I had, then lost. And its something that people who don’t have it can never understand. When you have it, it seems as ‘normal’ as being able to identify the colour of your socks….and it’s a mystery why others aren’t able to do that.

In this episode I talk about my own experience. But it’s mostly about various musicians who have or had it, and how it affected them. And, like all my episodes, I play recordings by some of these musicians.

Only about one in 10,000 people are said to have it…..and it’s generally considered something you are born with….or at least learned at a very early age. It’s not something you can learn to have as an adult—despite certain online courses that claim to teach absolute pitch.

It’s very different from relative pitch—which we need to learn (even if you have absolute pitch). I talk about that difference.

Next week my summer reruns will end and I’ll begin posting new episodes for the 2021-2022 season.

Archives (2020), Episode 91: Real Book Obscurities Sep 07, 2021

Show notes

You go to a jazz jam session with students or amateurs. One of the most common musical guides that almost every player uses is The Real Book, 6th Edition, Volume 1.

The original Real Book was put together in the mid 1970’s by some Berklee College of Music music students in Boston, partly as a way to make some money and probably also so they could have some standard melodies and chords to use during jazz jams. No royalties were paid.

In 2004, Hal Leonard obtained the rights to most of the tunes in the real book. He deleted some, added others, and that’s how the Real Book 6th Edition came into being.

I’ve gone through that Real Book a few times. Here are a few tunes that are relatively obscure. Some of them I’ve selected because I really like. Others are just curiosities.

I’ll play a commercially recorded version of 9 of them. They are: Equipoise, Las Vegas Tango, Chelsea Bridge, Como En Vietnam, Yes and No, Blue Room, Unity Village, Django, and Duke Ellington’s beautiful “African Flower”.

From the archives: Episode 84, Discovering New Jazz Vocalists (w. Angela Verbrugge). Aug 31, 2021

Show notes

This is an episode I posted November, 2019…..before my guest, Angela Verbrugge, won the listener’s poll in Jazz Times magazine for favourite female vocalist.

Angela sent me (upon my request) some recordings from jazz singers I probably never heard of. These recordings are the subject of this week’s and next week’s podcast.

I make it an exchange by presenting one or two to her that she’s probably never heard of.

This week you and I will discover the delightful singing of Lucy Yeghizaryan, Gabrielle Stravelli, Greta Matassa, Camille Thurman, Susannah McCorkle, and Dave Tull. Recordings I chose to present to Angela are by Lorraine Nygaard, Alex Samaras (with Chelsea McBride’s Socialist Night School), and …….Angela Verbrugge.

Hearing some of Angela’s insights about these artists and about these recordings is definitely a highlight of this Discovering Jazz episode.

I invite any of you who are interested in reviewing this program to go to the itunes or Apple site, click the ‘ratings and reviews’ tab, and post a comment. It would be much appreciated

Archives, Episode 77: Jazz French Horn Aug 24, 2021

Show notes

One of my favourite Discovering Jazz podcasts. I used to play French Horn and tried to play blues on it. Even used it in a rock-blues group, with questionable success.

But there is quite the tradition of truly great jazz french hornists, and I’ve discovered a few of them. I play some of them on this program. It’s all great jazz…..I assure you.

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