Louis Armstrong birthday broadcasts, July and August 4

WKCR will be doing two 24 hour broadcasts to honor Louis Armstrong, the one who taught the world to swing.  Louis celebrated his birthday on July 4, 1900, but a baptismal document revealed that his real birthday was August 4, 1901.  So WKCR will do two broadcasts, one on each day.  See www.wkcr.org

Eric Dolphy's 84th birthday anniversary

 

Eric Dolphy was a multi instrumentalist who died much too young, but he left an amazing body of work.  He played the alto saxophone, bass clarinet, piccolo, flute, and baritone saxophone.  Dolphy collaborated with Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Booker Little, Ornette Coleman, Oliver Nelson and many others.  He also had a career as a leader.

 

 

What's In A Name?

I'm reminded of a time when I worked in a warehouse in Central New Jersey.  A small group of us were discussing the music we were listening to.  This is going back 30 years, but the two bands I remember in the discussion were Chic, who was a black band, and the Allman Brothers band, who were a mixed band (black and white).  A coworker of mine, who was black, was touting Chic.  One of the others in the discussion, who was white, was saying something like, "Chic is a good band, but my favorite band is the Allman Brothers Band." Etc., etc.   At the time I was listening to music by black bands, like Chic, and I didn't know anything about the Allman Brothers, other than what the top 100 a.m. radio stations had played.

As time went by, I learned about what the Allmans had done musically, and looking back on the discussion, it's ironic, because the Allmans had made more authentic "black" music than Chic, who at that time were making dance music, with a catchy beat, with guitar and bass as primary instruments.  Can't say who was a better band.  Certainly Chic was a great band, the co leaders being Nile Rodgers on guitar and Bernard Edwards on Bass.  The Allmans were primarily playing blues, which is the precursor to most of the "popular" music that most of us listen to.  And Duane brought his extensive experience as a session guitarist for folks like Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Arthur Conley, Clarence Carter, The Soul Survivors, etc. who were all black recording artists.

Duke Ellington said many years ago, "there are two kinds of music, good music and bad music."  I think the maestro nailed it with one sentance. 

Happy listening!!

Allman Brothers

Duane Allman

 

Chic

 

Bernard Edwards & Nile Rodgers

Grateful Dead With Ornette Coleman

More videos

A variety of videos

A musical guide from long ago.

I had a dream about someone I met about 30 years ago, who was a very strong early influence on broadening my musical horizons.  There isn't much to the dream, we were talking about music, but it's very fuzzy. 

The setting was  Newark Airport, in the early 80's. We met while working for an airline in the reservations department.  He was from Ohio, and his name was Jerry Brown, and he was a guitarist, who recorded with his own band.  I remember that he told me to listen to a show called Latin Jazz Sunday which was on a jazz radio station in Newark, N.J.   This was in the early 80's, before I had started listening to jazz, so I had never heard of this station.  Anyway, this Latin Jazz Sunday was hosted by Chico Mendoza, a Cuban composer, arranger, and band leader.  And he played quite a variety of music which would fall under the umbrella of Latin Jazz.  He played Machito, the Fort Apache Band led by Andy and Jerry Gonzalez, Tito Puente, Jorge Dalto, Ruben Blades, the Palmieri brothers, Eddie and Charlie,  to name a few.  He would also feature new unheard of musicians to try to get them much needed publicity.  Entire album featured were another great feature.  He was a kook too, always saying what was on his mind; a fun loving type of guy.   

Getting back to Jerry Brown, he would turn me on to many musicians of all genres and styles.  One band that he introduced me to was Weather Report, during the time when Jaco Pastorius was with the band.  He also talked about what he was doing with himself musically.  One time he made two cassettes, one of him and his band, and another of another musician he knew from Ohio, Lewis Misheff.  Lewis was a rocker at that time.   The other tape of Jerry's band had an improvisational version of My Favorite Things, in the ilk of John Coltrane's version.  I remember that the other tunes were a mixture of funk, ballads and straight jazz, with a lot of improvisation.  One of my regrets is that those tapes didn't last long; they must have been bad tapes. 

I have recently tried to locate Jerry, but not luck.  I did manage to find Lewis Misheff, who does remember him, but hadn't heard from him in over 10 years.  Lewis is still active and he has an account on face book.

It's been many years since then.  I knew Jerry Brown only very briefly, but he left a long lasting impression.  Also Chico Mendoza left only a couple of years after I started listening to his show, but he too left a lasting impression.  I will always remember these people for introducing me to this great art form known as jazz.