 WGBH
adds Riverwalk Jazz Sunday nights at 8:00 PM in Boston
Pass the word as you pass along holiday greetings that beginning Dec 4th,
Riverwalk Jazz can be heard every Sunday night at 8:00 PM Eastern Time on
WGBH 89.7-FM in the Boston area. To hear the streaming Webcast, visit
WGBH online. Thanks to all the folks at WGBH.
Keep jazz on the air—include your public
radio station in your holiday gift giving.
Chasin’ The Blues
Riverwalk Jazz, Volume IX
We are delighted to announce the long-awaited release of Chasin’ The
Blues, a new CD featuring The Jim Cullum Jazz Band and their guests,
including Topsy Chapman on
vocals and Duke Heitger on
trumpet, in exciting blues-driven performances captured live on the air on
our weekly broadcast series. Fourteen tracks with authentic, acoustic jazz
interpretations of compositions by Jelly Roll Morton, W. C. Handy, Jimmy
Noone, and more. All music. No talk.
Here is the link for advance sales and audio samples, available now. We
plan to ship CDs to customers beginning December 12, but with the usual
vagaries of the holiday season we cannot absolutely guarantee delivery
before Christmas at this time.
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Riverwalk Holiday CDs Available Via the Web.
O ur traditional holiday
CDs are available through secure Web purchase courtesy of our partner, Jazz By Mail in St. Louis.
Hot Jazz For a Cool Yule
"Fine classic renditions of Christmas jazz,"
says jazz writer Scott Yanow. Guests include pianist
Dick Hyman (on "Jingle Bells Swing"), trumpet legend Clark Terry
(in a duet with John Sheridan on "The Christmas Song"), reedman
Bob Wilber ("Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" with
the full band), bassist Milt Hinton (on "Winter Wonderland"), singer
Banu Gibson (on "White Christmas") and tap dancer Savion
Glover in a rhythmic tap version of "Little Drummer Boy" that was featured
on NPR's Morning Edition.
 'Tis
the Season to Be Jammin'
"Over sixteen years ago, Jim Cullum and his band came to
Phoenix to record the original portion of this CD, which was then
offered on a 33-1/3 vinyl stereo album and cassette. Times change, and
with the compact disc, we were able to extend recording times; hence
this twenty-plus-minute, five-song addendum —with
which I am extremely pleased."—Barker Hickox, Producer
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JCJB To
Appear at IAJE Conference in New York
On Thursday,
January 12, 2006 The Jim Cullum Jazz Band will perform in an
evening concert at the 33rd Annual Conference of the International
Association for Jazz Education in New York City.
Recognized as the largest gathering of the
global jazz community, upwards of 7,000 educators, musicians, record
executives, exhibitors, media, and enthusiasts are expected to attend the
IAJE Conference. The headquarters will be the Hilton New York and the
Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers hotels, located in the heart of midtown
Manhattan.
 Shelton
Berg (left), noted jazz pianist, educator, author and former IAJE
President says, "The Jim Cullum Jazz Band is the most dedicated, authentic,
and SWINGIN' group of its kind. As such, the upcoming performance in New
York for the IAJE Conference is ground-breaking and long overdue.
Traditional jazz is at the core of the music, and should enjoy a much more
prominent status in jazz education. This concert will be a real eye-opener
for the IAJE membership, and I hope that the expertise of the band will
reverberate throughout the jazz education community for a long time to
come."
The IAJE Conference runs from January 11
through 14. Their website has
more information, or to contact IAJE, email
info@iaje.org.
Just Ask
This month, Jazz Me News inaugurates "Just Ask," a new feature
in which we respond to
your comments and questions. Here are three messages for December. Want
more info on the JCJB, The Landing and Riverwalk Jazz?
Just ask.
Dear
Riverwalk:
I first heard your wonderful show when I
was in Atlanta about a month ago—doing paperwork on a Saturday night, 600
miles from my home in Chicago. I’ve been tuning you in via the internet
ever since. Keep up the great programming.
I’ve enjoyed hearing both archival recordings and your live performances
of early jazz. I’ve got an ancestral connection to the music through my
great-grandfather, John Kuhn, who played tuba with Isham Jones’ orchestra
in the early ‘20s. My great-grandfather worked with Elmer Schoebel―who was
featured on your most recent broadcast—when Schoebel did some arrangements
for Jones’ band, including “Farewell Blues.” Some years later, Schoebel
recorded a couple sides for Brunswick featuring his own composition,
“Prince of Wails,” and “Copenhagen,” which to me sounds like a bit of an
homage to the famous 1924 Fletcher Henderson/Louis Armstrong recording of
the tune. That’s my great-grandfather on the tuba, alongside drummer
George Wettling, providing the rhythm, with the late-great Frank
Teschemacher on the clarinet. I’ve always wondered why Schoebel didn’t
record more numbers with this group, because the arrangements
themselves—like a lot of Schoebel’s work—seem to have required some time
and effort to pull off.
Anyway, keep those great tunes and broadcasts coming.
Kevin Leahy
Bandleader, bassist and Riverwalk
guest artist Vince Giordano
replies:
Many
thanks for this question. Sorry to say I have no idea why Schoebel did or
didn't make more records. He was busy writing stock arrangements and maybe
didn't have the "name" power needed for record executives to give him more
recording work. In those days, you had to be an established band with a
draw to make records, for the most part, although there were many small
bands that made just a few records.
When Paul Whiteman left
Victor in 1928 he said one of the reasons was that Nat Shilkret was
getting the better tunes. It kinda backfired—Whiteman got even worse tunes
when he went to Columbia.
Dear Riverwalk:
I listened to the show about
Bud Freeman over the weekend.
Brian Ogilvie did a fine job with Bud's
solos, and Jesse Caldwell evoked memories of Bud talking.
Bud loved to talk, and he would do so for hours. When we met at my
apartment to tape his recollections, a few words from me would trigger a
flood of memories. Listening to your broadcast reminded me of all of the
great times we had talking about Bud, Chicago Jazz, small groups vs. big
bands, and so on.
Sometimes my mother would mention a night club or two where she and my
father went when they were dating in the early 1930s. Bud always knew each
club. My mother and I got a big kick out of that.
I'm sorry to hear that Brian Ogilvie has passed on. That is very sad.
Bud lived a good life. He was frugal because he often traveled. He packed
all of his belongings in two suitcases. He could pick up his sax case and
two suitcases and take off whenever he wished.
Bud also exercised almost everyday, walking about five miles each time
out. Think of it as walking from Post and Montgomery in San Francisco to Fisherman's Wharf and back. In Chicago, he walked every day from his
apartment hotel (The Maryland) in the Rush Street area down to the Chicago
Loop and back. Only a horrible blizzard or terrible thunderstorm would
keep Bud inside.
Cordially,
George Spink
JCJB clarinetist Ron Hockett replies:
I'm sure I speak for all of us in the Jim
Cullum Jazz Band when I say what a deep sense of loss and sadness we feel
on the passing of our friend Brian Ogilvie. He was a loving person who put
that love and passion in his playing, especially noticeable in his warm
tenor sound.
While we were recording those shows on
Freeman and Miller/Fazola I remember Brian saying how much he liked the
tenor and found it so natural and easy to play. Brian loved Freeman and
Miller, but I also hear even more echoes of the Kansas City
guys—Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins—in his playing. There was another
legendary tenor player named Chu Berry that Brian liked and found inspiration from.
Brian's clarinet style was an outgrowth
of his approach to the tenor, very warm and lyrical. A good CD of Brian is
For You, on the
Arbors label. Also good are
the three CDs we did together with the
John Sheridan Dream Band,
titled Something Tells Me, Dream Band, Make Me Dream Some More, and
Get Rhythm In Your Feet, also on Arbors.
Dear Jim and the Band:
I went to [a] Birthday celebration
on Sat. night and stayed in [San Antonio] overnight. Sunday morning noon, driving
back to Utopia I listened to your broadcast from Houston United Methodist
Church. Don't know when I have been so moved. It was great. Do you have a
CD cut on this show? Let us hear more old time gospel.
Best Regards, Lora B. Garrison
Riverwalk Webmaster Don Mopsick
replies:
Thanks for your kind words regarding our
recent show,
Amazing Grace: A Program of Spirituals and Hymns.
Unfortunately, CDs of weekly Riverwalk Jazz broadcasts are not
available. However, there is one CD in our catalog,
Deep River, that features most of the songs from this show. You
can view our CD catalog
here.
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December 14
Landing Jam Session
Sold Out
| Thank you for your
enthusiastic interest and a very special thank you to The
Brown Foundation, Inc. of
Houston, The Tobin Endowment of San Antonio and Special Friends of Jazz
for making the event available to the public free of charge. |
This Month on Riverwalk
Jazz—Piano Man: Earl Hines,
The Father of Modern Jazz Piano
Broadcast the week
of 12/1/2005
Earl Hines.
Earl Hines has been called the first modern jazz
pianist.
Good luck brought Earl Hines and Louis Armstrong together in 1926 when they
met by accident at the local musician's union hall in Chicago. The two
soon-to-be jazz legends became great friends, and Hines worked briefly in
Louis Armstrong's Stompers. Their friendship resulted in a series of
spectacular recordings made in 1928, including the famous Hot Five and Hot
Seven sessions that produced "West End Blues," "Fireworks," and "Basin Street
Blues."
It was 1928 when everything fell into place for Hines. In addition to the
sessions with Armstrong, he recorded his first ten piano solos including
versions of "A Monday Date," "Blues in Thirds," and "57 Varieties."
 And,
on the night of his 25th birthday on December 28, 1928, Earl Hines opened at
the glitzy Grand Terrace Ballroom in Chicago, leading his own ten-piece
orchestra. Coast-to-coast live radio broadcasts from the Grand Terrace soon
made Earl Hines a household name in America.
This week on Riverwalk Jazz
we celebrate Hines' musical legacy with live performances by our special
guests Dick
Hyman and John Sheridan.
Broadway actor Vernel
Bagneris brings to life Hines' reminiscences as collected by jazz
writer Stanley Dance.
Earl Hines Interview by
Siegfried H. Mohr
The first Grand Terrace band.
Earl Hines is second from the right, holding the newspaper.
Siegfried H. Mohr is an expert in historical jazz piano
styles and a free-lance writer for
Bulletin du Hot Club de France
and other European jazz publications.
"Sig" has generously made
available to us an interview he captured with Earl "Fatha" Hines in the
1970s. Sig says, “This...interview with Hines [was] for the 70th anniversary
special edition of Jazz Hot magazine in Paris. I presented this to
Louis Armstrong onstage at his 70th birthday concert in Los Angeles, and
then I had it published by Coda in Canada in English.”
The topics that Mohr and Hines
discuss in the interview cover a wide range: his days with Louis Armstrong in
the 1920s; the evolution of his "trumpet" style of piano playing; the
genesis of his most famous tunes and recording sessions; and his days as a
bandleader and later as a sideman with the Louis Armstrong All-Stars.
Read the entire interview here.
Riverwalk
Guest Update
 Before
Katrina, New Orleans trumpeter Duke Heitger led his own band, the Steamboat
Stompers, aboard the Natchez paddle wheeler daily, as well as a weekly
appearance at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe. Duke is a frequent Riverwalk Jazz
guest artist and occasionally fills in for Jim Cullum at The Landing in San
Antonio. He sent this message a few weeks ago.
"I'm actually in New Orleans now.
I have spent the week getting my house in order. I was very fortunate. Much
of my neighborhood was devastated but miraculously my house was spared flood
damage. I did incur some wind and rain damage but nothing serious. Lost the
car but I needed a new one anyway...more.
Happy Holiday to Our Listeners
From
the entire Riverwalk Jazz gang down at the Landing
in San Antonio, we wish you a warm, happy and contented holiday season
with family and friends.
To quote Louis Armstrong:
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night. A very happy Christmas,
and that goes from Satchmo too.
New Year's Eve at The
Landing
Ever thought about getting away to San Antonio this
holiday season? The famous Riverwalk is ablaze in a dazzling festive
display of thousands of sparkling Christmas lights, a spectacle best
enjoyed floating down the San Antonio River while having dinner on a river
barge. You can visit Jim Cullum's Landing
and hear The Jim Cullum Jazz
Band Monday through Saturday beginning at 8:00 PM (reservations suggested
for weekend nights or large parties).
What's the weather like
this time of year in San Antonio? It can sometimes get down as low as the
30s at night, but it almost never snows.
 For
some really serious revelry, ring in the New Year at The Landing with Jim
and The Band.
There's
more information here, or call 210-223-7266 for reservations.
On-Demand Streaming of Riverwalk Jazz
Listener Feedback
Fan mail is music to our ears. We love
hearing from you. If you have any comments about our radio program or a
live performance by The Jim Cullum Jazz Band, email them to the
Webmaster, and please let us know where you are located and on which
radio station you heard the show.
Photo Credits:
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Earl Hines at the piano
© Charles Peterson from www.pastperfect.com
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Earl Hines and His Grand Terrace Orchestra Poster cir
1929 courtesy of the Big Bands Database at www.nfo.net
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Earl Hines Grand Terrace Band from
the collections of Earl Hines and Stanley Dance.
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