Radio: Eldar and Alaadeen

Sorry for all the dust around here. The times, they are a changin'. More on that in a later post. In the meantime, let's catch up on recent radio adventures.

Eldar

The Russian-born pianist was in Kansas City at the end of last month for a pair of concerts with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra. This preview aired on KCUR Friday September 28, but you can listen to it here:

• Eldar Returns to Kansas City

I was out of town for the shows and apparently no one at the Star could be bothered. So if you went and have an opinion I'd love to hear it. Happy in Plastic covered Eldar's last appearance in KC in his review of last summer's Jazz in the Woods festival.

The following Sunday, KC Currents aired this interview with Eldar about his new album, "Re-Imagination," released this summer on Sony Classical. Listen to it here:

• Eldar's "Re-Imagination" takes pianist into new territory

Alaadeen

I also interviewed Kansas City saxophonist Alaadeen recently about his new album, "And the Beauty of it All - Ballads." A dazzlingly crafted version of it airs on KC Currents tomorrow night (7 October) at 5 PM with a repeat Monday at 8. (Seriously, I was really pleased with the result.) A slightly shorter version will air next week during Morning Edition.

Where to tune in

• KCUR FM 89.3 on your terrestrial radio
• kcur.org on your kom-poo-tor

Final note, both Alaadeen and Eldar were featured in my most recent appearance on KCUR's Up to Date. Check it here.

Radio: September 21 Jazz Update - notes and links

Here are the tracks and links from last Friday's jazz update on Up to Date. I'll update this post with notes over the next few days.

If your eyes are tired, you can listen to the segment instead (runs 11:30).




Louis Armstrong and the All-Stars
CD - Live at the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival (Monterey Jazz Festival Records)
Track - Now You Has Jazz

The Monterey Jazz festival turns 50 this year (with this year's fest kicking off this weekend). To mark its golden anniversary, the festival has teamed with Concord to release a series of live performances recorded over the last half century. The first batch includes performances by Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis and the aforementioned Satchmo. There's also a festival sampler disc with additional cuts by Jimmie Witherspoon, Pat Metheney, Dave Brubeck and Dianna Krall et alia.

Re-issues bring with them an quandary for the ethical jazz fan: is it better to shell out your hard-earned jazz dollar for music by a past (i.e., dead) master, or to spend it in support of a corporeal artist trying to make a living in the here and now. Concord and MJF Records bridge the gap by donating all the profits from the series to the MJF's jazz education programs. The ethics of jazz education are also a subject of much debate. Ben Franklin has this take; the IAJE would undoubtedly beg to differ.

But I digress... The rest of the selections all have a Kansas City connection, with the first two living and working here, and the second pair spending some of their formative years on the scene (and passing through on a somewhat regular basis).

Charles Gatschet
CD - Step Lightly
Track - Caracas

Alaadeen
CD - And The Beauty of It All - Ballads (ASR)
Track - And The Beauty of It All

The Harold O'Neal Project
CD - Charlie's Suite: Cries and Whispers From My Great-Great-Great Grandfather (PME Records)
Track - Felix Bebop

The Harold O'Neal Project is Harold O'Neal on piano with Rick Gibbins on guitar. Harold will be making three appearances in KC in October.

• October 9: w/ The Dan Thomas Quintet at Epperson Auditorium, Kansas City Art Institute
• October 13: w/ Alaadeen and Group 21 at The Blue Room
• October 26: The Harold O'Neal Quintet at Rush Hour at Mutual Musician's Foundation
• October 31: w/ The Dan Thomas Quintet at Crazy Olives

Eldar
CD - Re-Imagination (Sony)
Track - Prairie Village

• Eldar appears next Friday and Saturday with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra at Unity on the Plaza.

Parker's Birthday

Today would have been Charlie Parker's 87th birthday. Happy birthday, Bird, wherever you are.

Of course in Kansas City, and elsewhere, the celebration got started last Sunday. Every year on the Sunday closest to Parker's birthday, local jazz folks gather at his grave in Blue Summit's Lincoln Cemetery to play his music and remember. After failed attempts in 2005 and 2006, I made it to the event this year, fancy recording device in tow. I'm editing a piece about the event that should run on KCUR's KC Currents this Sunday at 5 (with a repeat on Monday at 8).

Update: Listen to "Jazz Fans Gather to Celebrate 'Bird'"




By most accounts, this year's turnout was good. The KC Star's Rich Montgomery put it at around 150 and I'm no good at those kinds of estimations so I'll go along. (For one local Casandra, it was cause for more yet more grousing about the dwindling audience for jazz. More flies with honey, Mr. Bag...)

The weather was good, as in not life threateningly hot, and spirits were generally high.

A nice moment came after the event was starting to break up. Local sax man and educator, Ahmad Alaadeen was showing off an alto sax he'd brought with him. He said it belonged to John Jackson, who played in the Jay McShann band with Parker. Since Parker was notorious for either losing or pawning his horns for drug money, Jackson often loaned this particular horn to Bird for gigs.

Bobby Watson, Gerald Dunn, Dennis Winslett and several other local sax players were standing around. Alaadeen handed the horn to Watson, who fingered the keys and declared to it to be "like butter." He blew a single note and handed it back to Alaadeen, then immediately made a show of rubbing his hands on his horn, as if trying to transferring the Parker mojo.

Can you blame him?

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Photo above from talented flickr user yngrich used under a Creative Commons license.