Starting Sunday, December 5, WNCU will air a new program, European Jazz Stage from 7-8pm. And back by popular demand, from NPR, Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson will air at 8pm. From 9-10pm, all classic jazz. At 10, Bob Parlocha takes you through the overnight hours.
Archive for November, 2010New Sunday LineupTuesday, November 30th, 2010European Jazz StageMonday, November 22nd, 2010From the great stages of Europe, Radio Netherlands Worldwide brings you this year’s European Jazz Stage with host Daniel Frankl. Go on a jazz vacation – 13 hours of performances beckon from venues across the continent including the acclaimed North Sea Jazz Festival. And we’ll bring jazz names you may not have heard including Han Bennink, Fay Claassen, Till Brönner and more. Don’t let the consonants and accents faze you — these musicians swing. Tune in Sunday night at 7pm. Toast of the Nation – New Year’s Eve on WNCUMonday, November 15th, 2010Count down, sing along, and dance to live music all night long. Travel from coast to coast with four celebrations of midnight from time zone to time zone. It’s the perfect holiday special for any New Year’s party. Here’s the latest rundown, with four midnights from coast to coast. Rhonda Hamilton anchors all night from Party Central, NPR in Washington, D.C.
Nat Adderley Thanksgiving SpecialMonday, November 15th, 2010
Tune in to WNCU on Thursday, November 25, at 4pm to hear NPR’s Jazz Profiles on Nat Adderley. NCCU Jazz Studies Program’s Annual Fall Artist SeriesMonday, November 8th, 2010
Pianist and composer Mulgrew Miller will perform with the NCCU Jazz Ensemble, Combo Band, and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Miller will hold a master class at 2 p.m. in the Band Room, located in the B.N. Duke Annex. The master class is open to the public and is free of charge. Purchase your tickets by calling (919) 530-6486 or stopping by the A.E Student Union, Suite 125, from 8 a.m. – 10:30 p.m., Monday – Saturday, 2 – 8:30 p.m., Sunday. George BensonMonday, November 1st, 2010
By the early ’60s, Benson had joined jazz organist Jack McDuff’s band – a consummate musician who took many young players on the road to help fortify their technique. “Jack turned me on to a lot of stuff,” muses Benson. “A lot of the jazz tunes we played together were danceable, and that furthered my understanding of what people wanted. When jazz was danceable, it was king. The He left to form his own band and launch his solo career with the 1964 album, The New Boss Guitar (a nod to Montgomery’s album, Boss Guitar, released just a year earlier). The album caught the attention of legendary talent scout John Hammond. Benson recorded two solo albums for Columbia and played session dates for numerous other artists, including Miles Davis’ 1968 opus, Miles in the Sky. He left Columbia in the late ’60s and recorded on a number of labels for the next several years. All the while, he’d been looking for a way to redevelop his vocals and make them part of his overall repertoire, but most of the producers and record executives at the time dismissed the idea, which became a source of growing frustration. But producer Tommy LiPuma saw the idea differently, and the result was Breezin’, the 1976 blockbuster pop album that marked the beginning of a long association with Warner Brothers. The first Benson record to achieve platinum sales, Breezin’ yielded a number of hits, including the instrumental title track, the update of Leon Russell’s “This Masquerade” and “Give Me The Night.” Throughout the remainder of the ’70s and into the ’80s, Benson and LiPuma crafted a string of great pop records that collectively cemented the guitarist’s global reputation as a singer. In the mid-’90s, Benson followed LiPuma to the GRP label, where the two basically picked up where they’d left off at Warner Brothers. Since the start of the millennium, Benson has shown no signs of slowing down and has a heavy touring schedule. |
Nat Adderley was a top flight trumpet and cornet player. But he spent most of his career in the shadow of his older brother, saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. Nat ran the band business and wrote many of their hits. When Cannonball died, Nat carried on, not only with the band, but also with the family tradition of educating the next generation.
North Carolina Central University’s Jazz Studies Program’s Annual Fall Artist Series set for Friday, November 19, 8 p.m. in the B.N. Duke Auditorium.
George Benson is at the center of a unique musical story that stretches all the way back to his early childhood in Pittsburgh. At age eight, he was already singing and playing the ukulele in local nightclubs. By his teenage years, he had switched from ukulele to guitar, and had stopped singing to focus more on his instrumental work. His musical sensibilities shifted toward jazz, due to his exposure to records by jazz legends Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian and Charlie Parker.
intellectual stuff that came later on – Charlie Parker and all that – turned toward a brainier sound. That was good, and I dug it”.
