Blogs

This week on 3rd Streaming, Gary focuses on Latin and South America at the outset of the show: The Brazilian Guitar Quartet does a segment from a sonata by Antonio Carlos Gomes, and Puerto Rican jazz pianist Michel Camilo—in a trio setting—plays his own piece titled “In Love.” Next, the late, great American jazz pianist Bill Evans and the legendary French impressionist Claude Debussy provide music that relates to the stars above, including the sun itself. Closing out, Gary turns to late-Romantic music written by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler: It's Mahler's Adagio, the opening movement from his monumental 10th Symphony in F#. Catch 3rd Streaming live on Friday afternoons at 3 p.m. Pacific time. The show replays Saturday nights at 10 p.m. and Wednesday afternoons at 1 p.m. Listen anytime via the 3rd Streaming archive.

First some cool jazz from Gerry Mulligan, then Ella sings the blues. Gabor Szabo on guitar, Frank Wess performs on flute, Toots Thielemans is live on harmonica. Eva Cassidy duets with Chuck Brown, Etta Jones performs live with Houston Person. Winston Walls and Brother Jack McDuff have Georgia on their minds, on the organ. Taylor Eigsti is live at Filoli; yes, he was 16 years old when this was recorded…. And then Rodrigo y Gabriela do some dazzling guitar and violin.

Azel is the third album from Bombino, an international rock and blues musician from Niger. Following political and civil unrest in his homeland, Bombino taught himself how to play guitar and now,15 years later, is considered by many to be one of the finest guitar musicians in the world. His guitar work is simply brilliant on Azel, with the frantic energy to match any rock band and the blues sensibiliby of Jimi Hendrix. All the lyrics are sung in Bombino's native language of Tamasheq. He sings about both the geopolitical situation in Niger and Africa, along with extremely personal songs about love and friendship. The production is tight and simple, allowing Bombino's skill to shine, especially on tracks like "Iyat Ninhay / Jaguar (A Great Desert I Saw)," which feels like an endless, hypnotic stream of great guitar solos.

An hour of mellow mostly sax tonight. Nat King Cole on vocals, then: Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio * Johnny Hodges * Art Pepper * Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington * Gerry Mulligan * Paul Gonsalves * Stanley Turrentine * John Coltrane * Cannonball Adderley * Wes Montgomery * Paul Desmond * Rahsaan Roland Kirk * John Klemmer

Rod Moseanko interviews tabla maestro Zakir Hussain on The Golden Road, Friday evening, March 25th. Playing in the footsteps of his illustrious father, Ustad Allarakha--who with Ravi Shankar introduced the glorious music of India to America--Zakir Hussain has acted as a musical bridge between his birth land and the rest of the world. To that end, every other year since 1996, he has served as curator, producer, and host in bringing the very cream of Indian music to tour America and Europe with his series Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion. The 2016 version will be no exception, presenting American audiences with extraordinary and exciting--and often spontaneous--combinations of percussive as well as melodic performers. The Golden Road airs Fridays on KDRT, 7-9pm PT. 

Dug Deep hosts Lance Canales & the Flood live in the KDRT studio on Friday, March 25th, starting at 2:30 pm PT. Lance Canales & The Flood are a roots-blues Americana trio from Fresno, California, where Canales lived the life that so many roots songs represent: hard labor, one-room shacks, and taunting ghosts who whisper of a better life. The Flood comprises stand-up bassist Jake (Cobra) Finney and drummer Daniel (DB) Burt, who support Canales’s guttural vocals and hard-edged storytelling with stripped-down, foot-stomping, acoustic instrumentation. 

Lazy Post Warning: I discovered this album late in 2015. It made a ton of "best of the year" lists. They rocked The Blue Lamp a couple of weeks ago. The vinyl is a pretty green marble. It sounds even better than it looks and it looks fantastic. Here's a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Agent_Intellect

West coast cool, mellow 70’s jazz tonight; then Abbey Lincoln, and Abdullah Ibrahim from the 1990’s. Keely Smith * Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan * Dave Brubeck * Bill Evans Trio featuring Stan Getz * Oliver Nelson * Dave Grusin * Howard McGhee * Abbey Lincoln * Abdullah Ibrahim * The Godfathers Of Groove