Birdflight
Birdflight (4/28/2010)
Duration: 1:19:56Birdflight (4/20/2010)
Duration: 1:18:10Birdflight (4/16/10)
Duration: 1:13:36The Story of December 25th, 1948
Photo Credit: John Abbott
Phil relates the fascinating tale of Charlie Parker tapping Kenny Dorham to replace Miles Davis on trumpet.
Birdflight: Phil Schaap's 40th Anniversary WKCR Broadcast (2/02/10)
Duration: 1:20:14Phil celebrates 40 years on air at WKCR with a special installment of Birdflight
Birdflight: Phil discusses "Loverman"
Duration: 1:04:32
Charlie Parker's recording of "LOVERMAN" from July 29, 1946 and the August 8, 1951 remake
At the end of the 1940s, Charlie Parker was a superstar. He had as successful an album as any in "Charlie Parker with Strings". He was heavily featured on the new medium television. He was a primary in bringing Jazz back to post World war II Europe. AND the greatest Jazz nightclub, a big tourist attraction in New York City, was named for him: Birdland.
Three years early, Bird was broke, stranded and homeless, ill, a drug addict, and undergoing a nervous breakdown. Under these dire straits, Charlie Parker, nevertheless, attempted to record. His "Loverman" from July 29, 1946 is a technically flawed yet emotionally brilliant stretch of music. Bird hated it: it reminded him of this nadir to his existence. On August 8, 1951, Charlie Parker recorded "Loverman" again - in the precise image of the 1946 version that Bird hoped would be obliterated by a superior remake.
Out To Lunch
Out To Lunch: Max Roach protest records of the early 1960s (2/22/10)
Duration: 3:55:07Phil discusses the "Freedom Now Suite" on Out To Lunch
Of his generation there can be no doubt that Max Roach involved himself most overtly and demonstrably in a call for superior equality for all. He sought more than artistic freedom, but rather an absolute tearing down of apartheid in South Africa and our own segregation in the US. Indeed, Max Roach had a clear insight that this was one struggle in two continents. His attack on our unfair and racist ways was profound and was divinely illustrated through great music. Many feel that the definitive moment from his artistic creativity was a proposed musical (one that's never truly been staged) that he worked on with Oscar Brown Jr., called "Freedom Now". The primary surviving display of which is "We Insist: The Freedom Now Suite" recorded for the Candid label in late summer of 1960. It's this recording that will be discussed in detail.
Out To Lunch: Phil discusses Johnny Griffin (1/04/10)
Duration: 2:39:40
JOHNNY GRIFFIN b. April 24, 1928 - d. July 25, 2008
Johnny Griffin was a dominate Hard Bop tenor saxophonist with the impressive credentials of having played in both Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the Thelonious Monk Quartet where he replaced John Coltrane. Griffin was from Chicago and was the beneficiary of the Windy City's version of the then common practice of great music training programs in the Public Schools. Versed on many instruments, Johnny Griffin was a professional alto saxophonist while still in high school. Griffin joined the powerful Swing Era success that was the Lionel Hampton Orchestra three days after his graduation from DuSable High School. It was there that he became a full time tenor saxophonist. Johnny Griffin's late 1940s successes were detoured by a stint in the early 1950s in our United States Armed Forces. Following his military service, Griffin returned to Chicago and, in effect, started over. He was again successful and plum gigs came his way until Johnny relocated in New York City and began recording for Blue Note and soon thereafter joining Blakey. During the earliest 1960s, Johnny Griffin co-led one of the most remarkable two tenor tandems in Jazz history holding forth at places such as Minton's with fellow tenor Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. The economic decline that befell Jazz in the USA during the 1960s led to Johnny Griffin becoming an expatriate in 1963. He didn't return to the US even to perform for fifteen years and never returned here to live. The European based Johnny Griffin remain a dominate Jazz player into the year of his death.
The Phil Schaap Radio Jazz Archive on Johnny Griffin concentrates on his records as a leader following his establishing his stardom while playing with Blakey and Monk but before his exit to Europe.
Traditions In Swing
Traditions in Swing: Jimmie Lunceford (1/9/2010)
Duration: 2:56:47Traditions in Swing: Earl Hines and the Prototype to Swing Era Big Bands (1/2/2010)
Duration: 3:11:01Traditions In Swing: Phil discusses Coleman Hawkins (11/22/08)
Duration: 1:20:33
COLEMAN HAWKINS (b. 11/21/1904 - d. 5/19/1969)
Coleman Hawkins was the first King of the tenor saxophone, arguably the favorite horn or even favorite instrument of Jazz enthusiasts. Hawkins, nicknamed "Bean", not only pioneered the tenor sax in Jazz but he was one of Jazz's earliest improvising soloists. Of those who helped create a romantic, slow-tempoed, ballad concept for the young peppy music Jazz, Coleman Hawkins was the most successful. His 10/11/1939 recording of "Body and Soul" remains over 70 years after its initial release an all-time masterpiece. PhilSchaapJazz's audio archive Coleman Hawkins is from a broadcast that celebrated Bean's birthday. This particular clip is a favorite of Chris Flory, Benny Goodman's last guitarist.
Birthday Broadcasts
Billie Holiday 95th Birthday Broadcast (4/7/2010)
Duration: 3:56:13Bix Beiderbecke 107th Birthday Broadcast (3/10/10)
Duration: 6:34:36Phil discusses Bix Beiderbecke on an extended Out To Lunch
We at WKCR realize that Ornette Coleman and Bix Beiderbecke, in at least a broad sense, represent the same thing--genius. And so we celebrate both birthdays in conjunction, with the knowledge that there are listeners who have trouble listening to either artist, and listeners that delight in both. For those who are tentative in their approach to Bix Beiderbecke's music, he is best contextualized as the cornetist who provided jazz content to Paul Whiteman's pop songs, and in so doing made possible Whiteman's unique orchestral approach to creating an American identity through art. Phil discusses the social, cultural, historical, and musical importance of Bix's music during this epic 6.5 hour broadcast.
Charles Mingus 88th Birthday Broadcast (4/22/10)
Duration: 3:59:22Duke Ellington 111th Birthday Broadcast (4/29/2010)
Duration: 4:53:18Max Roach 86th Birthday Broadcast (1/10/10)
Duration: 4:27:06Max Roach 86th Birthday Broadcast continued: Max as sideman (1/11/10)
Duration: 3:58:04Ornette Coleman 80th Birthday Broadcast (3/09/10)
Duration: 4:00:10Phil discusses Ornette Coleman on Out To Lunch
Ornette's Coleman's contributions to jazz music can be described in a number of ways. He brought a new form of motion to music, deemphasizing quite a bit of what had governed jazz and blues performance, while trying to translate the absolute sound of that motion. In so doing he conveys quite a punch. Few that understand Ornette Coleman's music (that which we call "free" jazz) are really observant of the fact that it is a splendid reaction to the lessons of Charlie Parker and the impact of bebop in general. If you really follow the music of jazz in the 1950s (or 40s, even) you'll observe the dominant influence of bebop as a root language for all subsequent styles. And you'll notice that these styles are really bebop redux. Ornette Coleman's free jazz applies its own corrective methods to the music of bebop. By delving into the roots of the blues (and not just blues itself), he emerged with a philosophy of "sound as music" and created something above and beyond the styles that had dominated jazz up to that time.