Tune in to the Jazz Show with Gavin Walker every Monday night,
9pm-Midnight.
June 3rd
A wide variety of music on tap this month plus our annual special on the Vancouver International Festival. We kick off tonight with an album called “Tenor Conclave”. It was a very well organized meeting of four prominent tenor saxophonists backed by a strong and hip rhythm section. The four then young players reflect their stylistic elders in various ways but they all have developed their own sounds and concepts. On board is John Coltrane and Hank Mobley both of whom were emerging as major players and Al Cohn and Zoot Sims who had been around a bit longer in the spotlight but provide a contrast to the other two. Red Garland is on piano and Paul Chambers is on bass and Art Taylor’s drums kick everyone along. Hank Mobley wrote two of the tunes and was responsible for the arrangements of all four selections. This is a fine display and each player seems inspired by playing alongside the others. “Tenor Conclave” says it all.
June 10
“The Teddy Charles Tentet”. Teddy Charles was a leading exponent of the vibes and a fine composer/arranger and was a man who always looked for originality and innovation in his music. This award winning album by Teddy’s sadly short-lived tentet is a gem as It combines the disciplines of writing and improvising and despite being recorded in 1956 still sounds ahead of it’s time. Teddy’s ten piece band includes some very prominent players such as trumpeter Art Farmer, alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce, hard hitting tenor saxophonist J.R. Monterose and pianist Mal Waldron and others. Teddy chose to feature his own compositions as well as those of Gil Evans, Mal Waldron, George Russell and Jimmy Giuffre. This recording was given the highest accolades at the time and remains a pivotal classic.
June 17
Tonight is our Jazz Festival Show and I’m always pleased to take a back seat as my good friend and musical spirit John Orysik brings the music of the up and coming Vancouver Jazz Festival to CITR. John is one of the founding fathers of the Jazz Festival and his official title is Director Emeritus/ Co-Founder and Director of Special Projects. John has had a radio show on CO-OP Radio for may years and is an experienced broadcaster and deep lover of the music. Tune in tonight to this special show as John picks the music and provides commentary with some asides from me, Gavin Walker. Jazz Festival time!
Tonight our Jazz Feature spotlights guitar master Kenny Burrell and one of his best loved albums. Burrell is still with us and one of the great modern masters of the guitar. He’s also a fine composer as well and this fine and easy to listen to album puts these talents in the forefront. Kenny appears here with tenor saxophone master Stanley Turrentine and they blend their concepts beautifully. Backing Burrell and Turrentine is bassist Major Holley, drummer Bill English and the great conguero Ray Barretto. The album has a great blues feel throughout and lives up to it’s title “Midnight Blue”.
