Jazz: From Dave Brubeck To Miles Davis

KXJZ To Present "Jazz: The '59 Sound" 06/10/09
(Repeated 06/22/09)

Don't know about jazz? Want to learn? The best way is to simply listen for awhile; you'll soon discover what you do and don't like. In the '60s, I got my start by tuning into WJZZ and WDET in Detroit after WABX started playing tracks from Miles Davis' seminal crossover LP, Bitches Brew, featuring the likes of John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra), never mind Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter (the latter two being Weather Report co-founders).

Today, Sacramento's KXJZ has a great nightly jazz program, with their Gary Vercelli having introduced me to some great tracks I otherwise might never have heard. Examples include Hemispheres' awesome Orca Stroll (led by Ian Dogole and featuring {the group} Oregon's fabulous Paul McCandless) as well as Lea DeLaria's cover of Los Lobos' Kiko and the Lavender Moon.

◄ Get three free '59 jazz tracks from Amazon!

From KXJZ yesterday morning:

Jazz is a living music that evolves and expands. Each generation of players brings in the sounds of their time and affect the course of its growth. June 10th at 9 pm (PDT) we'll explore this.

In 1959, jazz music got a kick start in many directions. Innovators like Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and Dave Brubeck tried new approaches and concepts that are still being worked on today. Through albums such as Sketches of Spain, Mingus Ah Um, and Time Out, jazz was set on a new course that would change the musical landscape forever.

But I mean jazz...jazz is where it's at!

Traffic, Giving To You

In this one hour radio show, you will hear highlights from these classic records, as well as the inspiration and ideas behind the music created in 1959 from musicians Dave Brubeck and Carlos Santana, journalist Ben Ratliff, and composers and conductors Russell Gloyd and Maria Schneider, and family members and noted jazz historians Sue Mingus and Darius Brubeck.

Don't live in the Sacramento area? No problem—KXJZ streams its programming on the 'Net. Just remember that this special jazz program airs next Wednesday at 9 pm Pacific Daylight Time.

Bonus: Click here to sample each track from Hemispheres' Night Harvest CD, which you may purchase from Ian Dogole's website. You may also click here to play a video of the group's Nostalgia, recorded in 2003 at the best venue ever—142 Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley, CA. This is where we had front row seats for Hemispheres' 2008 show.

What else was going in the world of jazz in 1959? Click here to find out.

Soft Machine Upstage Jimi Hendrix

Room Full of Mirrors (Slight Return)

This is an e-mail I sent to author Charles Cross in 2006 while reading his Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix:

"This is an interesting book. I picked it up to learn more about Jimi's relationship with Miles Davis, of which there are differing accounts of what actually transpired. In Miles' own autobiography, he never mentions the three-way deal with Jimi and Tony Williams, but only tells how they were due to get together on a project immediately after the Isle of Wight. Of course, I believe Miles may have conveniently omitted the business of wanting $50K from Mike Jeffrey before moving ahead with the Miles-Jimi-Tony project mentioned in your book.

"The Jimi at Cobo Arena (Detroit) concert, sponsored by radio station 'Paul Is Dead' WKNR, apparently took place in November of '68. I had seen the Experience at Detroit's Masonic Auditorium, with Soft Machine (also managed by Jeffrey), nine months prior. Jimi was having one of his off nights, was in a foul mood, and there was no encore, as I recall. I was extremely disappointed in his performance that evening.

"On the other hand, Soft Machine absolutely blew me away, between their music and fabulous light show. In letting "Uncle Russ" Gibb know how much I enjoyed that group during one of my regular calls to him while he was on the air, he invited me down to Keener in Dearborn [MI] to pick up an advance copy of their debut album on a 7" tape reel. This I did, with that story being chronicled at the above-referenced URL [and as an earlier blog entry].

"I haven't yet read the final chapters and the story of Monika Danneman. If you subscribe to Eric Burdon's theory laid out in his memoir, she was a psycho who dosed Jimi with extremely powerful German painkillers in an effort to keep him in her nest. Burdon also had issues with Mike Jeffrey regarding his mob ties, both in the U.S. and U.K."

[Interestingly, I recently learned that Andy Summers, guitarist with the Police, had been both a one-time member of Eric Burdon's New Animals and Soft Machine. Alas, he had been sent packing from Soft Machine before their Hendrix support tour got underway, so I've never had the opportunity to hear him play live.]