Gary Chew's blog

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.

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.

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.

Gary Chew: Third Streaming

Mon, 06/13/2016 - 1:49pm | Gary Chew

You can tell what Gary's celebrating this Friday by the titles of the pieces on this week's Third Streaming. Would you believe "Afternoon of a Prawn," Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun," "Knoxville: Summer of 1915," "Memphis in June," "Moonglow and the Theme from Picnic," and ... which may be a dead giveaway ... Gershwin's "Summertime?"

Performances will come from: Bob Florence, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Dawn Upshaw, Hoagy Carmichael, Morris Stoloff and the Columbia Pictures Orchestra and Les Brown's Band of Renown.

Break out the iced watermelon!

3rd Streaming with Gary Chew - June 10

Fri, 06/10/2016 - 2:03pm | Gary Chew

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DIVA image

In the early 80s, a foreign film titled Diva came to America. In that slightly off-center movie for most Americans, there was an aria sung by Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez that riveted anyone who happened to be listening: Alfredo Catalani's haunting solo piece for soprano from his opera "La Wally." That and birthday salutes to Igor Stravinsky, Cole Porter, and Chick Corea are on Gary's agenda. More soundtrack music rounds out this week's 3rd Streaming: Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the piano with the English Chamber Orchestra plays selections from the totally excellent film directed by Joe Wright: "Atonement," which was and remains a winning piece of cinema. Listen for music from the movie, composed by Dario Marinelli. If you haven't seen this 2007 release... do.

3rd Streaming with Gary Chew - June 3

Fri, 06/03/2016 - 2:53pm | Gary Chew

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Lots of guys named David have made great contributions to this week's program. Gary's got a memorable slice of soundtrack music by John Barry that went so well with the 1969 classic Midnight Cowboy. Dustin Hoffman was the star. Pianist Walter Klien plays Arthur Honegger's Fourth Concertino for Piano and Orchesra with the Vienna Pro Musica Orchesra...and there's bluesy music with David Zinman leading the Rochester Philharmonic in a movement of David Amram's Triple Concerto. The jazz hat goes on courtesy of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. It's Dave's jazz hit "Blue Rondo a la Turk." The one-hour program works its way to a close with Maurice Ravel's "Noble and Sentimental Waltzes." Claudio Abbado conducts the London Symphony Orchestra.

Gary Chew's Third Streaming - March 20, 2016

Fri, 05/20/2016 - 2:23pm | Gary Chew

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ginastera alberto.jpg

Gary has programmed more music this week that channels the Third Stream well.

Motion-picture love themes have about ten minutes time: Alex North, John Barry, and Andre Previn give 3rd Streaming a romantic touch with music from Spartacus, Out of Africa, and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. That's music from the 60s and the 80s.

Leonard Bernstein's early piece from 1942 will be played by Stanley Drucker and Leonid Hambro. That's Bernstein's "Sonata for Clarinet and Piano."

Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu titled his 20th-century work "Three Ricercari" even though the term "ricercare" comes from the Baroque Era. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra performs it.

"Impressions of the Puna" by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera (pictured) is another piece you'll want to hear. "Puna" refers to the high-altitude grasslands of South America's Andes Mountains. Ginastera's work is totally beautiful and played as much so by the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Gary Chew: Third Streaming

Wed, 05/11/2016 - 2:45pm | Gary Chew

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A varied and listenable mix of music streams your way on "Gary Chew: Third Streaming" Friday at 3pm.

Gary has creations by Prokofiev, Howard Hanson and Ernest Chausson. Then from the world of film, two pieces by Thomas Newman, as used for the movie In the Bedroom and Miklos Rosza's Main Theme from Double Indemnity, that 1944 noirish delight with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson.

Tailing out the hour: Oscar Peterson does "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" as only Oscar can tranfix lovers of piano jazz; the 1st movement of Calendrelli's "Concerto for Jazz Clarinet and Orchestra" will astonish your auditory system as Eddie Daniels solos; the Quartetto Italiano re-establishes the aural beauty of that final movement of Claude Debussy's "String Quarter in G Minor."