Miles Davis once said: “Someday all the jazz musicians should get together in one place and get down on their knees and thank Duke.” It’s true, nobody did more to make jazz a serious art form than Duke Ellington. 

Here is the second in our Spring panel on Duke Ellington: “Duke and the Big Career.” (See our earlier post, “Duke Ellington, Origins of the Jazz Mover” for details on Duke prior to 1940.)

As the century took off from 1940, a lot of things combined to close out the big band format that Duke had been using. There was the war, new requirements on royalty payments to writers by performers, entertainment shifts from “big band dancing” to suburb entertainment, all taking the business support out from under the big bands.

In this shift, Duke with smaller groups became a central performer of the “old songs” that people could dependably go to for the music they remembered. (The music ranges were extreme. The following two hyperlinks will give you a pair of examples. Click here for Mood Indigo or here for Cotton Tail, a jumping dance number from the ’30’s. Do a YouTube search for It Don’t Mean A Thing Anymore, Jump For Joy. Click the video frame below for In a Sentimental Mood…). He continued to compose, especially in his famous collaboration with Billy Strayhorn. Duke’s output was labeled “enormous” and by sheer volume of quality work, kept jazz a major art form in mid-20th century America. (Try opening Google and keying in a search for Duke Ellington titles !).

In this period Duke produced some sizeable works. (Try keying up Diminuendo & Crescendo in Blue, Black, Brown and Beige, Jump for Joy, Far East Suite, Such Sweet Thunder, or Creole Rhapsody. He was even recorded as the Duke Ellington Songbook by Ella Fitzgerald.) He produced themes of popular movies (Anatomy of a Murder, Paris Blues, Nutcracker Suite, Peer Gynt). In a unique turn Duke composed a number of religious or sacred concerts (look for “A Concert of Sacred Music”.) Duke played music that Europe loved too, and filled out his bands’ lives with the tours over there.

Join Jazz 91 for a weekend of Ellingtonia, as we honor one of the most important creative forces in twentieth century music, the great Edward Kennedy Ellington, Friday June 7th through Sunday June 9th, right here on KCSM, The Bay Area’s Jazz Station.

The music career of Duke ‌Ellington, a jazz mover of the 20th century that we know (Take The “A” Train), was little accident. Duke was born to professional musician parents . He started piano lessons at 7, wrote his first song and was playing for money by 15, was running his own band by 23, recording by 25 and carried his bands for 50+ years to 75.

The Duke music we know was backed by a package of almost “everything.” Beyond his playing he was a master at his song-writing form, had original imagination, had the eye for good musicians, skill at leading, reasonable business sense, a good public presence, and little of life habits that dragged him down.

Duke moved his music with the times, sometimes leading it, and rarely going so far off that he lost his audience. In his first 10 years a lot of Duke’s music reflected things like the ’20 dance era, and seems remote from our jazz “regular stuff.” However, he was doing new things, with trumpet “wow’s” and high-pitched reaches. Try dialing up Youtube for “Creole Love Call” for a sample. Fifteen years in with his bands he was moving closer to us. His “Take the A Train” in 1940, almost 80 years ago is pretty well imbedded with us. Click on the video sample above to hear it.

Duke’s music kept going, with a lot of standards we know well. There are also plenty of fun and interesting pieces that we may not have seen circulation on. See our next Duke posting, “Duke and the Big Career” for more flavors in his work.

Duke will be featured big time on KCSM the weekend of June 7. You can get some Duke Ellington butter spread on the bread for you Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Tune in Friday and you’ll catch Chuy & Mel 2-6 pm, Saturday Sonny, Dick & Mel 10am to 6 pm, and Sunday Keith & Mel 9 am – 2 pm.

Miles Davis is acknowledges as one of the most influential and celebrated musicians. As a trumpeter, composer and band leader he pioneered many new styles of jazz during his career. His career spans the early bebop of the 1940 through the jazz fusion of the 80s-90s. Through all of his transitions Miles was always leading the way for the rest of the jazz world.

A quick browse through his web site at https://www.milesdavis.com/ will give you a glimpse of his prolific repertoire and styles. Even today they are releasing remixes of his classic albums Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain.

On Tues May 28th we will celebrate Mile’s birthday with a 7am-6pm show. Alisa,, Jayne, Lee, Chris, Chuy and Mel will be on hand to detail the career of Miles Davis.

On the weekend the celebration will continues with:

• Fri 6/7 2-6pm with Chuy and Mel
• Sat 6/8 10am-6pm with Sonny, Dick and Mel
• Sun 6/9 9am-2pm with Keith and Mel

The flowers are blooming and the weather is warming up. KCSM is celebrating with special shows on Miles Davis and Duke Ellington.

Review the list of Duke’s compositions and you get a perspective of why Duke Ellington is considered one of America’s premier composers.  All through the 1920s and on Duke along with his collaborator Billy Strayhorn produced some of the greatest jazz compositions in America. He produced hundreds of major works and standards played by musicians today. Listen about how his big band of the 30’s and 40’s launched the careers of many major jazz artists.

There is no other jazz artist like Miles Davis. Starting in the 1940 he progressed through the 1990’s changing jazz and music dramatically along the way. Members of his group like John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock and others went on to launch groups of their own. Recently remixes of Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain were released. Mile lives on!

The spring celebration starts on Tues May 28th with a birthday celebration for Miles. Listen in as Alisa, Jayne Pettingel, Lee, Chris, Chuy and Mel celebrate Miles all day from 7am to 6pm.

Then starting Friday 5/31 it is a Miles Davis weekend.

• Fri 5/31 2-6pm Chuy and Mel
• Sat 6/1 10am-6pm Sonny, Dick and Mel
• Sun 6/2 10am-6pm Keith, Alisa, Chuy and Chris

The next weekend is a celebration of Duke’s 120th Anniversary.

• Fri 6/7 2pm-6pm Chuy and Mel
• Sat 6/8 10am-6pm Sonny, Dick and Mel
• Sun 6/9 9am-2pm Keith and Mel

On Friday, March 8th, KCSM is celebrating!  It’s the Final Day of our Winter Fund Drive AND its International Women’s Day, so we’re paying tribute to the Ladies, All Day and All Night. KCSM will be shining the spotlight on the unsung heroines of Jazz. That’s our 26th Annual Tribute to Women in Jazz  

Women in music have been around since the outset of Jazz as musicians, composers, arrangers, vocalists, managers, producers, promoters and business women.  They continue to make their voices heard today. 

Jazz today has lots of great examples for lady musicians, and the rest of us. Towering above many lady jazz figures is Marion McPartland, pianist, and for many years in her later life the host on NPR Jazz. A famous arranger and big band trombonist, in the 40’s through 80’s was Melba Liston, along with trumpeter Ellen Seeling from a later period going into present day. Ellen has become Director of the Oakland Montclair Women’s Big Band. Vi Redd and Geri Allen were respectively saxophone, 50’s through 2010 and composer, pianist, 80’s through 2017.

Tune in and join Jayn Pettingill, Alisa Clancy, Chris Cortez, Lee Thomas, Melanie Berzon, Chuy Varela and Kathleen Lawton, for our 26th Annual International Women’s Day Celebration: 24 hours of Women in Jazz on Friday, March 8th, Midnight to Midnight, right here on KCSM, 91.1FM, the Bay Area’s Jazz Station

The images in order are, Marion M, Melba L, Ellen S, and Vi Redd.

When it comes to your jazz jam session, Cuba is a powerhouse. Nationally they have all that we do in modern jazz, plus, they have their own national Cuban and Caribbean cultural heritage ! Cuba has focused on arts and music education, so there is no shortage of developed musical talent.

The jazz jam session activity in Cuba has been practiced to the extent that it has become a genre for them. You can easily tap into this music and talent stream. Just call up posted music sources such as YouTube, and professional-quality talent the likes of Cachao, Julio Guiterrez, Bebo Valdez, Peruchin, and Nino Rivero will come rolling out, along with the fresh talent now on the street. Musicians carrying the theme straight to us in the US have been Tito Puente, Machito, and Mario Bauza.

Dial up your favorite jazz station, KCSM, on Sunday 2/24, 2 – 6 pm. Chuy Varela and Chris Cortez will call up the styles and spin the artists in this vibrant, colorful music practice for you.

The Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith was one of the biggest selling singers & performers of the 1920’s and 30’s. Her rich contralto was a powerful statement of black and female independence, fearlessness, sexual and financial freedom, widening the vision of African American womanhood beyond the piety and conformity of the day. She told it like it really was! Bessie Smith had a commanding personality and voice. She started out singing in vaudeville and minstrel shows through the south. As she became more successful she signed to Columbia records and became one of their top recording artists. Later she would be recording with a young Louis Armstrong. Her legacy is a library of 131 recordings on Columbia.

And Billie Holiday, in her own unique way, carried those themes into the next couple of decades after Bessie. Billie has a way of taking over a song and really reach you. Listen to her tracks on Columbia and you can hear her develop and blossom. Billie went on to be a prominent singers for the big bands of the the 1940s. She sang with Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Artie Shaw and othere. Her long time friend and musician Lester Young dubbed her Lady Day.

Follow the lives and music of these two extraordinary pioneers, Bessie & Billie, Saturday February 23^rd from 10am-2pm with Sonny & Mel on Midday Jazz.

Join your hosts Chuy Varela + Melanie Berzon Friday afternoon, 2-6PM. They’ll be shining a spotlight on the Blues, and the women who sang them. This is a Winter Pledge Special: 40 tracks and 2 CDS for a pledge of $75! Surround yourself with the voices of Billie Holiday, Anita O’Day, Big Maybelle, Aretha Franklin, Esther Phillips, Odetta, Barbara Dane, and other luminaries of this highly personal, and yet seemingly universal genre. Chuy + Mel will be spinning from this collection this afternoon: join them for what will be a great soundtrack for your Friday afternoon!

“In September 2018 producer Karen Lile brought some of the Bay Area’s musicians together for one last recording session at Fantasy Studios before they closed up shop.  The fantastic result is a recording session release, a documentary film and interview project titled, “Two Weeks inside Studio D.”

Fantasy Studios of Fantasy Records in San Francisco and then Berkeley was *the* production place of many new jazz music movements in the Bay Area in the ’60’s and ’70’s. When a hot popular creative artist came out in the area, their recording work was probably done at Fantasy. Early artists included the likes of Brubeck, Chet Baker, Cal Tjader and Vince Guaraldi. Fantasy did a lot of film work in addition to audio. Studio D was an expansion in 1980, and was the most elaborate of the properties. Journey’s Escape was an early Studio D recording.

Karen Lile will join me and Jayn Pettingill on Morning Cup of Jazz our first day of pledge, Valentine’s Day. Then Dick Conte and Kathleen Lawton will air the whole session on Jazz in the Afternoon, Saturday March 2nd from 2pm-6pm. And, Dick will tie in his new release that he recorded over in that studio on the Bill Evans piano. 

Lots of bay area musical love connections are coming up on Valentine’s Day then March 2 here on Jazz91″

Join Dick Conte and Kathleen Lawton on Saturday February 23rd for aspecial feature on the great award winning jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans.  Dick had the great joy of having known Bill as a mentor and friend and will share some stories about Bill’s life and times, as well as lots of music in various settings. Also a few tracks from Dick’snew CD, Blue In Green, dedicated to Bill. 

So please tune in on Saturday afternoon, February 23rd from 2 until 6, for a tribute to Bill Evans on KCSM Jazz 91