As I got started brooding on the subject of my best of 2007 list, I came across an oversight. I neglected to point TNLD readers to my last bit of musico-journalism at KCUR, namely an interview with guitarist Charles Gatschet. The interview was produced by Alex Smith and Sylvia Maria Gross (while I was busy filling cardboard boxes) and aired on KC Currents the week after I blew town for Chicago.
Gatschet is a Kansas City native whose classical training is more than apparent in both his playing and in his compositions. Step Lightly is definitely be one of my top local jazz albums of 2007, but that distinction deserves a footnote.
Gatschet currently splits his time between KC and Denver. On top of that, the musicians backing him on Step Lightly are all Denver-ites. All of which points to the growing clout of that mile-high metropolis, with its light-rail line and its jazz radio station. All of which should serve as nervous-making news for fans of jazz in old Kaycee.
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
As I got started brooding on the subject of my best of 2007 list, I came across an oversight. I neglected to point TNLD readers to my last bit of musico-journalism at KCUR, namely an interview with guitarist Charles Gatschet. The interview was produced by Alex Smith and Sylvia Maria Gross (while I was busy filling cardboard boxes) and aired on KC Currents the week after I blew town for Chicago.
