Jazz and Blues

Esperanza Spalding grew up in Portland, and one her mentors was trumpet player and educator Thara Memory.  The two were reunited on stage at the 55th Grammy Awards as they were awarded a Grammy for their co- arrangement of "City Of Roses" named for their hometown, Portland, OR.  The song is one of the originals on Esperanza Spalding's latest CD, "Radio Music Society" which also won a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album.  The song is one of the features on this week's Jazz Northwest.

On a recent visit to Seattle, Juan de Marcos and The Afro-Cuban All Stars stopped by for a three-song studio session with KPLU in the KCTS 9 studios.  How good was it? 

Well, as host, Abe Beeson says, “If this music doesn’t move you, you’ve got no place to go.”

Watch the full interview and performance:

Muddy Waters was born in rural Mississippi, and learned his blues at the feet of Son House and Robert Johnson.

By the 1940’s he took that delta blues to Chicago and led the gradual transition to electrified urban blues. He then recorded “Honey Bee” in 1951 with just bass and guitar accompaniment. The sound was closer to the delta, but you can hear the beginnings of the more aggressive modern sound starting to happen.

The KPLU Travel Club trip to Cuba was a great success, and the days and nights were filled with music! 

Use the arrows above the picture to flip through the slide show of 15 of my music-related photos from Cuba.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) encourages us to acknowlege World Radio Day: 

"...a day to celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information and freedom of expression over the airwaves. "