Going the extra mile, radio style

In my radio days, I've managed to keep my on-air composure while other people were making faces, mooning me, talking about lingerie and a host of other distractions. But my hat is off to the Greek dude in the video above. Still waiting for a translation of the parting remarks.

Via

Awarded

I made a brief trip back to Kansas City last weekend (by train - more on that later), to tie up a few loose ends from our recent move and also to collect an award. The Kansas City Association of Black Journalists selected a piece I produced about urban farmer Joe Jennings as best radio feature.

As is so often the case, it came down to luck. I was lucky to have come across Mr. Jennings during my brief-candle stint as producer of the Walt Bodine Show in the summer of 2006. I didn't have room for him on an urban agriculture show, but he was such a great talker that I kept him in my mental reminder file. Then last June, I spent part of day trying to keep up with him at his place in Wyandotte County. When it came time to put the piece together, the trick was staying out of his way. I was pleased with the results and apparently so was the KCABJ.

Have a listen for yourself:


Mr. Jennings is an award winner himself. The Pitch named him Best Urban Farmer in this year's Best of KC issue. Congrats, Mr. J!

Extra linkage:
KC Star story about the KCABJ awards (which featured a KCUR sweep of the radio category)

Radio: Up to Date jazz quickie - Friday

Another Up to Date update is upon us. Hope you can tune in.

Spinning

• Maria Schnieder (pictured) and her Jazz Orchestra's amazingly lush "Sky Blue"
  
• A jazz outing by Bruce Hornsby, formerly of the Range
  
• Lost Charles Mingus now among us
  
• Local jazz goodness TBA

When to tune in

• Friday, August 10 at somewhere between 11:45 and noon Central
  

Where to tune in

• KCUR FM 89.3 on your terrestrial radio
• kcur.org on your interweb ringading

As per usual, a post with notes and links will follow. As always, if you like these jazz segments, scream and shout at uptodate@kcur.org

Radio: New jazz update - Hello ladies!

Sorry for the short notice, but I'm doing another Up to Date update tomorrow featuring hot new jazz ladies.

Who

• Vocalist Sarah Gazarek and lovely lilting-ness
  
• The Waverly Seven, featuring jazz clarinetist of the year Anat Cohen
• Vocalist Deborah Cox and her tribute to Dinah Washington (no pressure there...)
  
• Keyboard phenom Hiromi Uehara, the brain and fingers behind Hiromi's Sonicbloom

When to tune in

• Thursday, July 19 at 11:50-ish Central
  

Where to tune in

• KCUR FM 89.3 on your terrestrial radio
• kcur.org on your web thingading

Updates to follow tomorrow-ish. As always, if you like these jazz segments, please let us know. Email the show at uptodate@kcur.org

Down on Joe's Farm

A veteran broadcaster I happen to work with told me once that the great thing abut being a reporter is that if you want to know about something you can just call somebody and ask them. In theory anybody can do this. But how would you react if, say, a plumber called you up and said she wanted to follow you around with a microphone for a few hours? That would have to be some plumber.

Which is by way of saying that I spent part of a day last week on an urban farm in Kansas City, Kansas. J-14 Agricultural Enterprises is run by Joe Jennings, a man to be envied for the satisfaction he takes in his work. I first talked to Mr. Jennings last summer when I was trying to book guest for a talk show on Urban Agriculture. The panel filled up pretty quickly and he got squeezed out, but I promised myself I'd try to do some kind of feature on Joe later on. Last week everything fell into place.

I prepared a profile of Joe for KC Currents, KCUR's urban affairs show. A slightly condensed version ran during Morning Edition on Tuesday.

> Listen to the full feature in all its glory here.
(Music geeks among you may enjoy the arcane reference at the end of the piece.)

I hope to get back later on this summer to cover one of the camps held there for inner city kids.

Radio: Up to Date June 5 Recap

TNLD returned to KCUR's Up to Date with Steve Kraske for another sampling of the new jazz on Tuesday June 5. Here's the List:

Artist - Bill Charlap Trio
CD - Live at the Village Vanguard - (Blue Note)
Track - Rocker
Notes - Talk about a pedigree: Bill Charlap's father was a Broadway composer and songwriter, his mother sang with Benny Goodman and later (Mr.) Perry Como. He grew up in New York City, surrounded by music. He's released tributes to George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Hoagy Carmichael and now his first live album, recorded at the Mecca of jazz performance, The Village Vanguard. And yet, and yet... Charlap is a wildly gifted performer, but in all of this tribute to the tradition I'm not sure I've come to know much about Bill Charlap.


Artist - Esbjörn Svensson Trio
CD - Tuesday Wonderland - (Emarcy)
Track - Dolores In A Shoestand
Notes - Swedes don't seem all that worried about the labels. Likewise extended solos. In this case, good for them. Scandinavian pop meets jazz and finds a groove or ten. Additional musings on EST here.


Artist - Kendrick Scott Oracle
CD - The Source (World Culture Music)
Track - Mantra
Notes - Kendrick Scott is the leader. Oracle is the band. Scott is 26 years old, four of them spent as Terrance Blanchard's drummer. If his album is any indication, the experience was very influential. And that's not smack talk. On his first outing as a leader, Scott has gathered some of his fellow Blanchardians (bassist Derek Hodge, guitarist Lionel Loueke, vocalist Gretchen Parlato) as well as some of New York 's finest (pianist Robert Glasper, guitarist Mike Moreno, multi-reed specialist Myron Waldrin). Scott and Hodge were the rhythm section for Blanchard's 2005 album Flow, and The Source feels in many ways like a later iteration of Flow, minus the trumpet (insert cheap Oedipal reference here). There's much to enjoy here, a collection of songs (all but one composed by Scott) that are by turns meditative and soaring.


Artist - Joel Frahm
CD - We Used to Dance (Anzic Records)
Track - Song for Abdullah
Notes - Analogy Man vacillates between "buttery goodness" and "a ripe juicy peach" when faced Frahm's delicious tone on the tenor sax. Your cardiologist probably has a clear preference but you can't go wrong as far as I'm concerned. Frahm gets equally delectable support here from Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid and Victor Lewis on his fourth outing as a leader. Needless to say they're not serving ribs at this joint and you'd be forgiven for wanting to make off with the flatware. But don't. The staff is keeping an eye on you.

Listen to the segment

• June 5, 2007 - streaming audio - segment starts ~35 minutes in
  (Mac friends may need to check out KCUR's Mac cheat sheet).
  

As always, if you like these jazz segments, please let us know. Email the show at uptodate@kcur.org

Radio: KCUR's Up to Date

TNLD returns to KCUR's Up to Date with Steve Kraske for another sampling of the new jazz tomorrow.

Tentative list

Artist - Bill Charlap Trio
CD - Live at the Village vanguard - (Blue Note)
Track - Rocker

Artist Esbjörn Svensson Trio
CD: Tuesday Wonderland - (Emarcy)
Track: Dolores In A Shoestand

Artist: Kendrick Scott Oracle
CD: The Source (World Culture Music)
Track: Mantra

Artist: Joel Frahm
CD: We Used to Dance (Anzic Records)
Track: Song for Abdullah

When to tune in

• Tuesday, June 5 at 11:45-ish Central
  

Where to tune in

• KCUR FM 89.3 on your terrestrial radio
• kcur.org on your web whatsit

Updates to follow tomorrow afternoon. As always, if you like these jazz segments, please let us know. Email the show at uptodate@kcur.org

Radio: Swinging the Mo Valley

Originally uploaded by audihertz

When I was in college, I made the 370-mile trip in a green between Sioux Falls and Kansas City in a green Plymouth Valiant almost as old as I was. No air conditioning, no cruise control and a radio with (gasp) no scan function. A trip in the heat of summer would leave me windblown, stunned and partially deaf and I remember the experience, now, with great fondness.

I still make the trip several times a year to visit my father in Sioux Falls and for nervous-making reasons I've made the trip four times in the last two weeks.

Nothing makes the northern half of the trip any better than being able to catch Swingtime with Robin Buchanan on KWIT. I came across the show last summer on my way north to a wedding. From 6-8 weeknights Robin plays a great mix of classic swing and modern reconstitutions of the form. Last July, I was impressed by when she followed up a set of Andrews Sisters with a tune by The Boswell Sisters, a group that was a huge influence not just on Patty, Maxine and Laverne, but also on a young Ella Fitzgerald.

KWIT's signal comes out of Sioux City and, given the Missouri Valley's long gentle slope, you can listen for hours. Driving back to KC last week, the signal was strong for almost three hours, so I got to hear the last hour of Swingtime and most of PRI's American Routes before finally losing the signal in a cloud of static around Percival. Here's a handy map link for map-loving dorks (you know who you are).

For me there was only one clinker in the hour I heard, Manhattan Transfer's Scotch and Soda. To be fair to the host, it was a listener request and bound to suffer coming as it did in the midst of a salute to two immortals, Artie Shaw and Rosemary Clooney.

Terrestrial jazz radio these days is in a tough state, with the pod and the disc and the satellite all stacked against it. So if you're passing through Northwest Iowa, lend an ear to Robin Buchanan.

> Or check her out online at the KWIT website.

Public Radio Talent Quest

I'm officially entered. I uploaded my first-round entry in the Public Radio Talent Quest.

» You can listen to my "audition" here. (You'll need to register to vote - it's easy)

The first round of the Talent Quest is a little like Amercan Idol: You listen, then you vote (early and often).

Voting for Round 1 continues through Saturday June 2nd, so you will be hearing from me again.

Hiatus

hi·a·tus noun
A break in something where there should be continuity; A gap where something is missing, especially in manuscripts.

...and in blogs, I guess.

As all four of you may have noticed, I've been neglecting this blog in favor of off-line pursuits. That, and my camera died.

Chief among my current pre-occupations is figuring out how to inveigle myself into this:



Check it out. And then sign up. And then vote for me (assuming you like what I post once the contest begins next week).

There are three categories: Talk, entertainment and music.

Any suggestions?