Blogs

Gary Chew: Third Streaming

Wed, 07/13/2016 - 1:07pm | Gary Chew

GC

This Friday (7-15-16) at 3 PM, Gary opens this hour of music with a piece that recognizes one of the principal means of converyance in the City of Davis.  He'll also spin a tune performed by jazz alto sax player, Paul Desmond that takes note of the current weather we've been having.  Two famous Brits, deeply into composing, are offered for your listening pleasure, too; on of them named Finzi; the other ... McCartney.  Film music this week features pieces by Alex North.  And another film composer who came before North also has a spot on Third Streaming this week; an Erich Wolfgang Korngold work gets fiddled in fine style and technique by Gil Shaham.  Your ears need to hear this program.  It's called, Gary Chew: Third Streaming. 

Album Review: Yours, Dreamily, by The Arcs

Mon, 07/11/2016 - 10:37am | Scott Korinke

Yours, Dreamily

Yours, Dreamily

Yours, Dreamily, the first full-length release from Dan Auerbach's side project The Arcs, finds Auerbach dabbling with Spanish Rock on several dreamy jams full of expirementation. The album kicks of with lead single Outta My Mind, by far the most mainstream tune on the album, with its lyrics conveying Auerbach's life story in the midst of repeating guitar solos. However, the album immediately branches off, replacing guitar solos with fuzzy, dreamlike guitar chords and expiremental melodies far from the mainstream. Much of the lyrics, especially on "Pistol Made of Bones," are full of elaborate imagery that adds to the mysterious vibe. The album clearly has a Latin and Spanish influence, from the album cover to the lyrics. Standout tracks include "The Arc," with sounds most reminiscent of the Black Keys, and "Searching the Blue," the last track and the best example of a psychadelic slow jam on the album. Overall, Yours, Dreamily, is another win for Dan Auerbach, who is slowly but surely cementing himself as a 21st century rock icon.

Jazz After Dark July 05, 2016

Tue, 07/05/2016 - 7:52pm | Don Shor

Spanning the decades with jazz! Selections from the 30s, the 60s, and the 90s.

  • Benny Goodman 
  • The Mills Brothers & Ella Fitzgerald
  • Billie Holiday 
  • Peggy Lee 
  • Django Reinhardt 
  • Modern Jazz Quartet
  • Mundell Lowe And His All Stars 
  • Sam Lazar  *  Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd 
  • Vince Guaraldi 
  • Chico Hamilton 
  • Eva Cassidy 
  • Lew Tabackin
  • Dianne Reeves 
  • Toots Thielemans

Gary Chew: Third Streaming

Tue, 07/05/2016 - 2:39pm | Gary Chew

Gary celebrates his first full year of hosting and programming this show.  The mix is terrific this week:  Rachmaninoff, Ellington and even Tony Bennett singing a Johnny Mandel love song.  Also listen for a lesser known movie piece by John Barry preceded by Alirio Diaz performing guitar music by Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco.  To raise your curiosity a tad, Gary has plugged in music that comes from the big and controversial ensemble known as the Stan Kenton Orchestrea.  Kenton is one of the few openly maligned musicians in American Music.  That's because Kenton was edging his musicians into the uncertain and innovative territory of Third Stream Music ... a little jazz and a little classical music to go with it ... something this program is about.  "Third Streaming" opens with three pieces played by the Kenton band and orchestra; the composers are Stan himself, Art Pepper, Shorty Rodgers and Pete Rugolo.  For those growing up with their ear to the freeway of jazz in the early Fifties, these four men of music were a group with which to be reckoned.   

... Lois was gone, but is now BACK!

Sun, 07/03/2016 - 7:05pm | Lois Richter

radio mic on stand

So...

If you are reading this, you can see how little I've actually used this "blog" -- a blog is available to each DJ or host just for having a radio program on KDRT. I started doing these two shows ("That's Life" and "Davis Garden Show") with good intentions to keep up communications with our listeners. I initiated podcasts of both shows when podcasting first was created -- even before iTunes was doing it. In fact, "Davis Garden Show" is one of the longest-running podcasts in the world! I also designed and created webpages for each program on my domain GoTouring.com .
Don Shor quickly took over our joint website (creating the DavisGardenShow.com domain) and doing the weekly uploading of our MP3 files. Once the podcasts were in iTunes, he also made sure the RSS feed was working and he currently handles the tech side of things for that show.

Jazz After Dark June 28, 2016

Tue, 06/28/2016 - 7:14pm | Don Shor

An hour of upbeat jazz for a summer evening!

  • Major Glenn Miller & The American Band Of The Allied Expeditionary Force
  • Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
  • Frank Sinatra; Tommy Dorsey; Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra
  • Jimmy Hamilton
  • Ahmad Jamal
  • Ella Fitzgerald
  • Keely Smith; Louis Prima
  • Ben Webster & Johnny Hodges
  • Big Miller; Bob Florence Big Band
  • Big Miller; Bob Florence Big Band
  • Cannonball Adderley
  • Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
  • Jo Jones
  • Bria Skonberg; Dal Richards; Jamie Croil
  • Chet Baker

Third Streaming with Gary Chew

Mon, 06/27/2016 - 12:20pm | Gary Chew

Gary hasn't programmed the National Anthem or "America the Beautiful" for this Friday's Third Streaming on KDRT, but he has put into the mix mostly American composers or pieces with America in mind.  For instance, part of Morton Gould's "Declaration Suite," pianist Liz Story's "Myth America," a brass reading of Leonard Bernstein's "America" from West Side Story, Oklahoma-born composer Roy Harris's Symphony # 3 and film music by Aaron Copland for Lewis Milestones's 1949 movie, "The Red Pony."  And for a so called bridge in the middle of the show, pianist Zoltan Kocsis plays Debussy's "Reverie" and so does a wind quartet with the great jazz guitarist Barney Kessel up front.  Check for the replays of this program here.  Enjoy your Independence Day. 

Third Streaming with Gary Chew

Mon, 06/27/2016 - 12:19pm | Gary Chew

Gary hasn't programmed the National Anthem or "America the Beautiful" for this Friday's Third Streaming on KDRT, but he has put into the mix mostly American composers or pieces with America in mind.  For instance, part of Morton Gould's "Declaration Suite," pianist Liz Story's "Myth America," a brass reading of Leonard Bernstein's "America" from West Side Story, Oklahoma-born composer Roy Harris's Symphony # 3 and film music by Aaron Copland for Lewis Milestones's 1949 movie, "The Red Pony."  And for a so called bridge in the middle of the show, pianist Zoltan Kocsis plays Debussy's "Reverie" and so does a wind quartet with the great jazz guitarist Barney Kessel up front.  Check for the replays of this program here.  Enjoy your Independence Day. 

Album Review: SOULROCKER, by Michael Franti and Spearhead

Mon, 06/27/2016 - 10:05am | Scott Korinke

Over his decades-long career, Davis High School Graduate Michael Franti has spanned a plethora of musical genres, blending hip hop, rock, reggae, funk, and even jazz. On his latest LP, SOULROCKER, Franti adds an electronic dance element to his music, branching out even further from his more acoustic past. This new style comes through best on "We Are All Earthlings," which wouldn't sound out of place at a Miami beach party. The album retains  quite an optimistic tone throughout in regards to both the pleasing pop melodies and the inspiring lyrics, especially on relaxed jam "Still Standing" and the upbeat and energetic "My Lord." While this album is defenitely a new direction for Michael Franti and Spearhead, their are clear connections to their older works. "Summertime Is In Our Hands," recalling the hopeful summertime jams the group became famouos for, sounds like it was taken straight from 2010 LP The Sound of Sunshine. "Good To Be Alive Today" blends the political activism of Franti's career with unrelenting optimism on a very inspring mellow hip-hop track, a clear standout on the album.