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KCSM HEADLINES
HIGHLIGHTS: KCSM HD1 (Jazz 91)
  • Arthur Lee Maye & The Crowns. Arthur Lee Maye did something that few had ever done. He concurrently had a career as a R&B singer, leading the LA-based group Arthur Lee Maye & The Crowns while also playing minor and major league baseball as an outfielder for the Milwaukee Braves. Both of his careers virtually began in 1954 and since Lee Maye was busy playing baseball from April until October, he could only make records during the off-season. (more)
  • BEATrio (Béla Fleck, Edmar Castañeda and Antonio Sánchez). Banjo, harp, and drums meet in the BEATrio, where Béla Fleck, Edmar Castañeda and Antonio Sánchez explore a sound they never planned to create. Hear how the trio first came together.
  • On McCoy Tyner, The Large Ensemble Recordings, Part 3 we present the piano giant leading large ensembles in 1991 and 1993. In the company of Eddie Henderson, Billy Harper, Dianne Reeves and more.
  • “Jazz is a gift that America gave to the world. And now the world is giving us the next evolution of jazz,” the words of Christian Vela, incoming San Jose Jazz Festival and Artistic Director. Distinguished in the jazz world for a decade with SFJAZZ as senior production manager as well as his countless years in artist management and as a working musician, Christian Vela joins Jesse “Chuy” Varela to talk about the upcoming 2026 San Jose Jazz Summer Fest happening August 7-9 and his new role shaping the future of the San Jose Jazz organization.
HIGHLIGHTS: KCSM HD2
  • Don Shirley was a unique musician who was classically trained but who was told he would never have a career on the concert stage because of his race. So, Shirley created a new genre of music, blending European and American traditions into jazz. He played standards in a non-standard way. He drew inspiration from Indigenous American music, show tunes, ballads, Negro spirituals and folk music to create something new. He recreated the jazz trio, replacing the drums with a cello. And what he created was a totally unique musical genre and truly unusual musician.
  • Altin Sencalar. Hailed by Stereophile Magazine for “sound[ing] like the 21st-century grandchildren of JJ Johnson and Kai Winding” and praised by the International Trombone Associations Journal for his “virtuosity [and] melodic and harmonic mastery,” Altin Sencalar is in high demand across the country as a performer, educator, and composer. We caught Altin on tour in support of his 2025 release ‘Unleashed’. Featuring Altin on Trombone, Matt Twaddle on Piano, Leland Nelson on Bass and Sofia Goodman on Drums, and from a May 24th, 2025 performance, Daniel Peck is your host for Altin Senclair – Live at the Bop Stop.
  • Gospel Memories pays tribute to Arizona Dranes (pictured) on the 100th anniversary of her initial recording session: June 17, 1926; also, music from the Tommies, Fairfield Four, Gerald Sisters, Greater Rosehill B.C., Dorothy Norwood, and others.