KCSM Jazz On The Hill is a finalist for Metro Silicon Valley's annual "Best Of" Guide. Winners get serious bragging rights and street cred (and maybe some new underwriters and sponsors) 🙂

Enter for a chance to win a one (1) Pair of Tickets to see Herbie Hancock at Davies Symphony Hall on Monday, August 17 at 7:30pm. One entry per person.

KCSM's Fall Fund Drive is just around the corner, and we're looking for local restaurants, cafés, bakeries, and food businesses to help keep our staff and volunteers fueled and focused. (more)

If you were in Sonoma this past Sunday, (6/28/2026) you might have run into KCSM's very own Kathleen Lawton at a free Concert at Sonoma Plaza presented by Music in Place. It was a wonderful sunny day with Alabama Mike and the Mighty Revelators who tore it up! Bama even kindly gave KCSM a shout out! Another fabulous Bay Area talents!

Parrot Records. This week focuses on a tiny Chicago R&B record label with a big sound; Parrot Records. The label was started by Chicago DJ Al Benson in late 1952 and it closed its doors in 1956. During its period of operation, Parrot recorded some smokin' R&B with Willie Mabon, Mabel Scott and J.B. Lenoir and smooth vocal group sounds from The Flamingos, the 5 Thrills and the Orchids. Tune in for highlights of both the hits and misses and the story behind the story on this often-forgotten R&B label.

Nate Smith and Kinfolk with strings. This Newport Jazz Festival weekend, we're spotlighting newly named Artistic Director Nate Smith — hear his sextet Kinfolk join forces with members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra for a one-of-a-kind concert at the Crosstown Theater in Memphis.

Saxophonist Javon Jackson’s resumé reads like a who’s who of jazz collaborations. Part of the 1980s generation of young musicians who re-invigorated jazz by wearing suits and ties on stage and digging into acoustic hard bop, Jackson cut his eye teeth as a member a of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Since then, he’s ascended as a leader and now chair of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford (Connecticut). His latest recordings pay tribute to the music of Bob Dylan and poetess Nikki Giovanni. Javon Jackson joins Jesse “Chuy” Varela on Tuesday August 4 @ 3:00pm to talk about the group he will lead at this year’s San Jose Jazz Summer Fest with Charles McPherson and Nnenna Freelon that he calls “Birds of a Feather”. They perform Saturday, August 8 @ 4pm on the main stage.

Tony Bennett @100: The Jazz Sides, 1955 - 2015, Part 2. In celebration of his Centennial, we present the beloved vocalist in some of his most jazz-oriented recordings with Wynton Marsalis, Marian McPartland, Bill Charlap, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, and more.

Coming Soon.

This episode includes a long set-in memory of Clyde Wright (Golden Gate Quartet) (pictured), music from Alex Bradford & Ladies of Song, Jerusalem B.C. Male Chorus of Gary, Shirley Caesar & the Tommies, Spiritual All-Stars, and others.

Suzanne Sparr is the owner and General Manager of School of Rock Alameda. The state-of-the-art rehearsal and teaching facility celebrated its Grand Opening in November of 2025. Part of the School of Rock network, the schools actually predate the famous Jack Black film by 25 years. A life change led Suzanne to open the Alameda location. Suzanne’s unique design for the facility has changed the way School of Rock envisions their spaces. More than just providing music lessons, School of Rock provides in-person community and camaraderie for a generation that spent their formative years only connecting online.

The featured guest this week is Larry Vuckovich. Larry was born in Kotor, a small Montenegrin coastal town in the former Yugoslavia, the pianist was classically trained as a child but was also drawn to the jazz he heard on Armed Forces Radio and Voice of America during World War II and the Communist regime that followed. At the conclusion of the war, Tito’s communists conversated his home, including the family piano, and imprisoned his father and brother. Jazz came to symbolize freedom. In 1951, when he was 14, his family was granted political asylum in the United States, arriving in San Francisco. The young pianist began listening to KJAZ radio, hanging out at record shops, and frequenting clubs to hear jazz legends such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bill Evans. He performed with John Handy and Brew Moore, he later began his professional career. At the Black Hawk club, he met Cal Tjader and Vince Guaraldi, who agreed to engage him as his only piano student. Guaraldi featured Vuckovich in a two-piano quintet, Powder Keg, and sent him to substitute as accompanist for vocalists Irene Kral and David Allyn. When Mel Torme came to San Francisco, Vuckovich became his first-call pianist. (more)