Time-Life surveyed a number of jazz scholars and as a result put together 28 three-record album sets dedicated to one jazz ‘giant’. Each one includes a 30 to 40 something page booklet. I subscribed to this series and would get one set each couple months in the late 1970’s to early 80’s. I’m now going back to those records and giving them another listen and the booklets another read, and will present a tune or two from each one in a series of Discovering Jazz programs. They are virtually all from...
Oct 29, 2019•Season 1Ep. 80
My 3-part series of programs on the jazz solo last year invoked a lot of positive response. I already re-broadcast the first one on an earlier archives program, and now I’m going to present you with part 2. This is for those of you who either missed it the first time, or want to hear it again. I start it out with John Coltrane’s classic solo on Giant Steps. So many ways this solo has been described—and jazz critics are so good at finding wild words so they don’t keep having to say ‘it’s terrific...
Oct 22, 2019•Season 1Ep. 53
It seems to be increasingly hard to find good second hand vinyl jazz albums at low prices through thrift stores or used record stores. But I found some, and I finished listening to them. I play at least one track from each. They include albums by Shorty Rogers, Pat Martino, Peggy Lee, Jeremy Steig, The Steve Kuhn/Sheila Jordan Band, Jack Teagarden, Moe Koffman, Uzeb, George Shearing with French Hornist Barry Tuckwell, and one album with 12 versions of a single jazz standard. I talk about why I b...
Oct 15, 2019•Season 1Ep. 79
Since we’re in the midst of a federal election here in Canada, I thought I could revisit part 1 of my four-part series from last year on the role of jazz in promoting social and political activism. I address topics of civil rights, diplomacy during the cold war, the interconnectedness between motherhood, mother earth, and social justice or the needs of the people. Also Cuba, the domination of money over everything and the lack of empathy on the part of the powers that be for the population, are ...
Oct 08, 2019•Season 1Ep. 38
Today I’m playing and talking about some jazz tracks that I recently discovered—some are new recordings, some are older. And I’m letting them inspire me to create ideas for future podcasts. There appears to be quite the Peterborough-Victoria connection here, as I reflect on my wonderful years listening to (and occasionally playing) jazz in Peterborough, and now continue to discover new and amazing musicians and singers in Victoria. Much of that is thanks to Hermann’s Jazz Club—a club that I’ll t...
Oct 01, 2019•Season 1Ep. 78
Here is a rerun of the first of a 3 part series I recorded a few months ago on the jazz solo—trying to explore what makes a great one—-and why people ‘in the know’ consider them great. I also wonder how much of those solos are spontaneous and thought of in the moment, and how many might be a repeat of something they did before. More and more I’m becoming a ‘believer’—-that the great solos truly are ‘in the moment’, even if they are capitalizing on the brilliance of their own playing, and the pla...
Sep 24, 2019•Season 1Ep. 52
When you think of jazz the vision is of saxophones, trumpets, crazy drum solos, guitarists moving all over the fretboard, hot piano, funky or walking bass players, etc. You don’t envision french horns. This episode will change all that! Some really amazing playing with solos by the likes of Tom Varner, Vincent Chancey, Giovanni Hoffer, John Graas, Willie Ruff, David Amram, Mark Taylor, and maybe the most astounding: John Clark. You’ll also hear the roles that Miles Davis, Claude Thornhill, and G...
Sep 17, 2019•Season 1Ep. 77
According to Wikipedia, Jan Randall, a Canadian composer, pianist, and arranger, has made a career of composing soundtracks for films, theatre, radio, and television. He combines playing by ear with his formal classical and jazz training. He is now teaching an Introduction to Jazz course at the University of Victoria. For this week’s program, Jan talks about that course, playing some of the music he plays in order to help everybody expand their minds. And he expanded mine! Never before had I tho...
Sep 10, 2019•Season 1Ep. 76
This week, just a few jazz artists by whose name I put a check mark as I went through Downbeat Magazine’s 2019 Critics Poll. As a followup from last week’s podcast on internationally recognized Canadian jazz musicians, I play a track by Vancouver cellist Peggy Lee and one by B.C. violinist Jesse Zubot. I start the program with this year’s selection for the Jazz Hall of Fame—Nina Simone. Then, staying with veterans, 93 year old ‘snap crackle’ drummer, Roy Haynes is still going strong. I play a 19...
Sep 03, 2019•Season 1Ep. 75
Every year 150 or so critics rank what they consider to be the top jazz artists in 63 categories, and this is presented in the August issue of Downbeat magazine. Sometimes Canadian jazz musicians are represented. This year I found 9 who I knew to have Canadian roots. I’m sure there are more but I don’t know that they are Canadian. If you find some I’ve missed, please advise me through my “Discovering Jazz” facebook page. I play a track from seven Canadian artists, and with one of them, I even pl...
Aug 27, 2019•Season 1Ep. 74
Here is another favourite episode of mine that I thought would be more popular than it was. Originally posted last November, this is all about new melodies that were written over chord sequences of another tune, and then became famous. Did you know, for example that 46 jazz tunes are listed in wikipedia as using the chords to “I Got Rhythm”? It’s so common that in a jazz jam it’s not unusual for somebody to simply call out “rhythm changes”. And everybody knows what they mean. Another one is Fats...
Aug 20, 2019•Season 1Ep. 46
The Downbeat Jazz Critics poll, published in the magazine’s August issue, summarizes the assessments of some top jazz critics as to the ‘best’ in various categories. One of those categories is the Jazz Album of the Year. This year’s picks truly stretch the boundaries of ‘what is jazz’. I play a track from six of the chosen ‘top 10’, as well as one from this year’s Juno winning album by Robi Botos.
Aug 13, 2019•Season 1Ep. 73
This episode, recorded the Spring of 2018, features a discussion with Toronto voice coach and singer, Micah Barnes. Micah was a rock and soul singer who made the transition to jazz, and he talks about the differences. I ask the question “what makes it jazz” in terms of vocals………..and he does a great job in trying to answer that. We also play music by some of the singers who most inspired him. Micah talks about ‘breaking free of the melody’, and that leads nicely to a conversation between jazz si...
Aug 06, 2019•Season 1Ep. 36
A very knowledgeable jazz bassist from Peterborough named Craig Paterson sends regular emails of great jazz recordings, and on this program I play a few of them. It helps me discover new and old music………and I’ll share some of those discoveries with you in this program. I also like to go back to some ‘original’ versions, and it helps me to understand more about the creative process used by great jazz musicians. This week, I start with Christian McBride and New Jawn transforming a very strange The...
Jul 30, 2019•Season 1Ep. 72
Continuing with re-issuing some programs from my archives every 2nd week, here is one on the great Bob Dorough who left us over a year ago. Here is a quote from one of my reviews on the itunes site (Canadian): “I knew that I’d be hooked when I saw and heard your tribute to Bob Dorough (a personal favourite) and Thelonious Monk and the recent ‘solo’ shows. I hope you continue to help us discover jazz for a long time to come.” Me too! Not many people have discovered Bob Dorough. I discovered him i...
Jul 23, 2019•Season 1Ep. 31
This is actually Part 3 of a series looking at the cross fertilization of jazz and classical (aka ‘serious’) music, featuring Al Baggs—a Peterborough saxophonist and lover of jazz and classical music. This episode explores how each or those two genres can be enhanced by knowledge of the other, as well as at least one instance where trying to combine both ends up detracting from each. There is a lot of focus on ‘third stream music’, which brings jazz and classical together. How does Dave Brubeck,...
Jul 16, 2019•Season 1Ep. 71
Another ‘archive’ program this week; for the summer I’ll have some of the best programs from the past two years of “Discovering Jazz” every 2nd week. This week is one of the two episodes of Beatles music transformed into jazz. Many of these are relatively modern recordings, such as the version of You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away by Bill Frisell, and Here Comes the Sun by Joel Harrison. Eleanor Rigby by Chick Corea and Gary Burton, and Elizabeth Shepherd’s and Michael Occhipinti’s beautiful rend...
Jul 09, 2019•Season 1Ep. 20
It’s Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis, first released in 1959. It still sells more per year than any current jazz recordings. Why? And why do critics also rate it as one of the best albums of all time? I quote a few critics and musicologists, play 4 of the 5 tracks, a couple other renditions of the tunes, and throw in a few pieces of irrelevant but interesting tidbits. Note: This episode, due to copyright concerns, is no longer available for listening via Apple podcasts.
Jul 02, 2019•Season 1Ep. 70
Last year I recorded a 4-part series on Jazz and Politics. Here is Part 3—probably my favourite of the four. It explores a few different political issues relevant to jazz music, and I play lots of great music. If you consider ‘politics’ to be about power and influence, then Jazz was political right from the get-go in terms of the struggle for the black originators to gain recognition and wrest some of it away from the white artists who had the money, the power, and the influence to profit from t...
Jun 25, 2019•Season 1Ep. 40
This is the last of three series of programs on the upcoming Victoria International Jazz fest (Jun 21-30). I play music by some of the great jazz artists coming as well as interview the founder and artistic director, Darryl Mar. If you’re thinking of taking in some of the festival, these programs are a great way to help you decide who to go see. And if you can’t because you are too far away—you’ll still make some great discoveries of veteran and up and coming jazz and jazz-oriented musicians and...
Jun 18, 2019•Season 1Ep. 69
This program starts off with the performer I’m most looking forward to seeing and hearing at this year’s Victoria Jazz festival, March 21-30—Pianist/singer, Patricia Barber. An interesting rendition of a Beatles tune. You’ll also hear a couple emerging artists: child prodigy Joey Alexander, and multi-instrumentalist from Victoria, John Lee. Festival organizer and founder, Darryl Mar, talks about the history of this festival bringing such emerging artists forward—-well before most people had ever...
Jun 11, 2019•Season 1Ep. 68
This is the first episode since my move from Peterborough to Victoria—and as an introduction to the jazz world in Victoria, I’m putting together, over the next three weeks, three one hour programs about the upcoming 36th edition of the Victoria Jazz Festival. I play music by some of the artists (international, national and local), and chat with the festival’s founder and artistic director, Darryl Mar. This week, you’ll hear some of the players featured on day 1 to day 4 of this 10 day festival. ...
Jun 04, 2019•Season 1Ep. 67
As I settle in my new residence in Victoria, B.C., before I begin recording some brand new programs (probably next week), here is another one from the archives—-keeping my Peterborough, Ontario Connection. This was the first program featuring Al Baggs—a classical and jazz music buff and raconteur who also plays a mean baritone sax, as well as a few other instruments. You can hear Al most Thursday nights at The Black Horse in Peterborough jamming with master pianist, Rob Phillips. Here Al reveals...
May 29, 2019•Season 1Ep. 28
Continuing with programs from the Archives until I once again begin recording episodes. Here I talk about the 85 year old Jazz magazine that is still going strong, Downbeat. You’ll hear a bit about its history, the first ‘review’ published, and their famous “Blindfold Test”. I also share an anecdote about how I personally gave famous jazz critic (and host of the blindfold test), Leonard Feather, a blindfold test. Also the tune that stumped him. I play music by Tia Fuller, Duke Ellington, Karen S...
May 21, 2019•Season 1Ep. 32
One of my favourite series of programs was the four episodes from last year that involved jazz musicians who have played a part in making music that isn’t jazz. Sometimes they were studio musicians, or put a special ‘flair’ into a pop hit. a way for jazz musicians to be rock and roll stars. Except their contribution rarely gets mentioned. This series, Episodes 24-27, aimed to rectify that. As I settle into my new home in Victoria, posting a few programs from my archives, I thought that one from ...
May 14, 2019•Season 1Ep. 27
While I’m settling in to my new home in Victoria (and apartment hunting), I’ll re-post some episodes from the archives. This week, keeping some Peterborough connections, it’s resident ethnomusicologist/bassist and all round genius from Trent University, Michael Morse, talking about one of his most significant jazz influences—-Thelonious Monk. He has a lot of interesting Monk related stories. You’ll hear some original Monk recordings, plus other versions of some of his great compositions. One of ...
May 07, 2019
The home base of Discovering Jazz is moving from Peterborough, Ontario to Victoria, B.C. Today…..due to doing a lot of preparation for our move, I’m just going to relax and listen to some great music. Of course it’s hard to keep myself from talking about the tunes I play…..but I’ll try keep it brief.. So lots of music and a little talk. Music by Cannonball Adderly and Bill Evans, Joanna Majoko, Miles Davis, Snow Owl, Sam Jones 12 Piece Band with Fred Hersch, Joe Pass & Tommy Gumina, Giovanni...
Apr 29, 2019•Season 1Ep. 66
Herbie Hancock, jazz pianist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador apparently came up with the idea of having April 30 as a day to highlight jazz and its roll of uniting people all over the world. But there was an earlier inspiration—a unifier during the height of the cold war: Louis Armstrong. I start this program by playing something by each. The host city this year is Melbourne, Australia. One of Australia’s most prominent jazz artists—who will be playing at that event— is James Morrison, and I play...
Apr 23, 2019•Season 1Ep. 65
What will jazz look like in the future? Will it be the same as today? Will it have some similarities to yesterday? Will ‘hip-hop’, dance, free jazz, weirdo electronic music, etc. be incorporated? Or will life (and jazz) be simple again? We also talk about the pluses and minuses of formal training in jazz, as well as some of the best ways to listen to it. More from Peterborough guitarist Mike Graham. I also play music by Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, Derek Bailey, Dana Frauzel, Marcus Miller, and...
Apr 16, 2019•Season 1Ep. 64
What is the future of jazz? Will everything change when the Miles Davis generation dies out? Who will replace them? In this program, I discuss with Peterborough guitarist, Mike Graham, what jazz might look like in the future—-as well as what it won’t be. Of course, to predict the future, we need to know the past. What past areas of jazz will flourish and develop? What role will modern classical style compositions have? How about hip-hop and sampling? Bebop? Swing? Just as important, who will be ...
Apr 09, 2019•Season 1Ep. 63
