WBGO Blog

  • Charles Lloyd's Sangam at Newport on JazzSet

    November 11, 2011. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

    Add new comment | Filed under: charles lloyd, Jazz Alive, JazzSet, roy hargrove
    Harland, Hussain, Lloyd on the Fort Adams Stage at Newport
    Harland, Hussain, Lloyd on the Fort Adams Stage at Newport

    Photo by Boston Photographer Erik Jacobs for NPR.

    This just in: JazzSet will be recording the Either/Orchestra on Saturday, November 19, at Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th St. at Avenue of the Americas in New York .. 2pm .. FREE .. reservations recommended, here .. premiere of a new suite made possible through New Jazz Works grant from Chamber Music America. See you there!

    Tune in to JazzSet Sunday, November 13, at 6pm and/or Wednesday, November 16, at 6:30, for Sangam, the confluence of Eric Harland on drums and piano, Zakir Hussain on tablas and vocals, and Charles Lloyd playing saxophone, piano, maracas, Hungarian tarogato,  and flute (so lovely, Lloyd's flute). Here's a 30-second preview.

    The show is available on demand any time this week, here.

    Host Dee Dee Bridgewater tells us that her father Matthew Garrett was Charles's music teacher at Manassas High School in Memphis, and how much she loved Lloyd's million-selling LP Forest Flower Live at Monterey in the mid 1960s. Surround Sound mixer Duke Markos hears the music as changing textures. I hear it as meditation with momentum, and a cool-down at the end.

    Oy, I am feeling bad about a lapse: last week's post about Roy Hargrove on JazzSet never made it to the blog. Operator error. But you can still enjoy the show at jazzset.npr.org. Here is the post that wasn't:

    Roy Hargrove by John Rogers for NPR johnrogersnyc.com
    Roy Hargrove by John Rogers for NPR johnrogersnyc.com

    During a two-week run at the Village Vanguard, WBGO broadcast Roy's “early” show live. The video stream is archived on this blog, here. Now JazzSet brings you the late set in Surround Sound, hosted by Dee Dee Bridgewater.

    Onstage Roy is all music (by Duke Pearson, McCoy Tyner, bassist Ameen Saleem, Roy himself), no talk, and he connects: at the end, the audience applauds the set for more than two minutes.

    © 2011 WBGO

  • JazzSet in October

    October 3, 2011. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

    Add new comment | Filed under: Alternate Routes, Ben Williams, danilo perez, Green Mill, Jazz Alive, JazzSet, Kennedy Center Jazz, kenny werner, Masters, njpac, Poncho Sanchez, Randy Weston, roy hargrove, Toots Thielemans, village vanguard, Von Freeman, Yotam Silberstein

    JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater is celebrating ten years with Dee Dee as host, and nearing our 20th anniversary on the air with live music every week. You have two chances to catch this week's show on WBGO Jazz 88 - Sundays at 6pm, Wednesdays at 6:30. Miss a show? Listen on demand. We're in Surround Sound. Here's our early fall line-up:

    THIS WED, OCT 5, HEAR 2012 NEA Jazz Master Von Freeman, born October 3, 1923

    We knew Freeman was born and stayed in Chicago, but until earlier this year, everyone including the man himself thought his birth year was 1922. Howard Reich of The Chicago Tribune suspected it was 1923, and writes here about how he corrected Von Freeman history. On this JazzSet from New Year's Eve, 2010, at the Green Mill, he dukes it out in a mock battle with fellow tenor Ed Petersen .

    Freeman by Jimmy Katz
    Freeman by Jimmy Katz

    Yotam, courtesy of the artist
    Yotam courtesy of the artist

    SUN, OCT 9, AND WED, OCT 12, DISCOVER Ben Williams & Sound Effect and the Yotam Silberstein Quartet .. two new talents from the KC Jazz Club

    Williams from the DC area won the Thelonious Monk International Bass Competition; now he leads a fresh-sounding quintet with Marcus Strickland on sax and Christian Sands on piano, to name just two. Guitarist Yotam from Tel Aviv made a great first impression on Kennedy Center audiences in the sold-out Ella! concert (as broadcast on JazzSet), and in Yotam's quartet you'll hear his boyhood friend from Israel, Roy Assaf on piano.

    NEXT, WE REPRISE TWO ALTERNATE ROUTES CONCERTS FROM NJPAC:

    SUN, OCT 16, AND WED, OCT 19, NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston & African Rhythms
    For pianist Weston, jazz is not a genre. It's home, celebrated in music from the opening "African Rhythms" to his long-time theme, "Love, the Mystery Of."

    SUN, OCT 23, AND WED, OCT 26, Danilo Perez AND Poncho Sanchez, Back to Back
    Danilo from Panama plays emotional, colorful, storytelling music from his album Providencia. Poncho from southern California and his long-running Latin jazz band (two dozen albums, one a year) party with the Newark audience, including some of his own family.

    SUN, OCT 30, AND WED, NOV 2, NEA Jazz Master Toots Thielemans and Kenny Werner at the Kennedy Center - broadcast premiere of a concert from March, 2010
    Toots holds the harmonica to his lips, the mic to his harmonica, and the music seems to come straight from his heart, with Guggenheim Fellow Kenny Werner on piano. The music comes from Belgium, the US and Brazil.

    Toots Thielemans by Jos Knaepen
    Thielemans by Jos Knaepen

    Hargrove by John Rogers for NPR/johnrogersnyc.com
    Hargrove by John Rogers for NPR/johnrogersnyc.com

    SUN, NOV 4, AND WED, NOV 7, The Second Set: Trumpeter Roy Hargrove Quintet at the Village Vanguard

    The first set aired Live from the Village Vanguard on WBGO and NPR Music. Here's the second set - all music, not a word from the stage. At the end, the audience claps for three minutes straight for Justin Robinson, alto; Sullivan Fortner, piano; Ameen Saleem, bass; Montez Coleman, drums; and Roy Hargrove. The sweetest tone in town.

    © 2011 WBGO

  • Roy Hargrove at J&R Music Fest - Listen Online

    August 25, 2008. Posted by Joshua Jackson.

    Add new comment | Filed under: concerts, j&r, jazz, Jazz Alive, Live Music, music festival, roy hargrove, wbgo

    Roy Hargrove at J&R Music Festival

    Let it be said that trumpeter and flugelhorn player Roy Hargrove is still leading the style competition in jazz. Aside from his really fresh Adidas kicks (see above), Roy brought his highly functional quintet (saxophonist Justin Robinson, pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Danton Boller, and drummer Montez Coleman) to close the Friday evening festivities in City Hall Park. Listen to this tightly executed set of music, most of it coming from Roy Hargrove's new release, Earfood. My favorite? The ballad "Never Let Me Go." I've heard Roy play this so many times, I'm beginning to think the song belongs to him alone.
    Check out the set.
    -Josh

    © 2008 WBGO