Tonight on Jazz After Dark:
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong & Billie Holiday, and Dizzy Gillespie with the Stan Getz Sextet. More from Ella Fitzgerald, then Oscar Peterson, Richard Twardzik and Russ Freeman. Herbie Mann with Beeny Weeks, Keith Hodgson, and Lee Rockey. Paul Desmond, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Stitt, Charlie Rouse, and Milcho Leviev.
My first question for Amanda Portier (pictured), this year’s top graduating senior at UC Davis, was how she managed to achieve straight A’s in her classes while chairing Picnic Day for 2022 and doing everything else she did as a student here. As you might imagine, she’s been asked this question more than once the last few weeks. Insights she gained from synchronized swimming are part of the answer. On today’s Davisville we also talk about community and regional development (her degree), using statistics to influence people (she minored in statistics) in a culture that seems to pay more attention to individual expression and personal experience, and what she’ll take from Davis as she leaves.
On today's program we talk about hollyhocks and hibiscus, lavenders, weeds, and more.
This week's show is devoted to the music of Jim Miller, who passed on March 24 at the age of 69. Jim was a founding member of Donna The Buffalo and, most recently, Western Centuries. In a long career as a vocalist and rhythm guitarist, he collaborated with the likes of Dirk Powell, Tara Nevins, Jim Lauderdale, Richie Stearns, and Tim O'Brien. He was also a professional lepidopterist and curator/researcher at The American Museum of Natural History.
Mostly vocals on this episode of Jazz After Dark:
Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Peggy Lee, Etta Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Vince Guaraldi Trio, Astrud Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Chet Baker, Lena Horne, Eva Cassidy, Lizz Wright, Eriko Ishihara, and Cassandra Wilson.
The Davis Music Festival is back and celebrating its 10th year! The event runs from Friday, June 17, to Sunday, June 19, and hosts 40 bands in three days across six downtown venues. Opening night happens at Sudwerk Brewing, where KDRT will again broadcast live from the kickoff. This year Sudwerk will have two stages, and KDRT will be onsite for interviews and live audio from the north stage with The Big Poppies, Wolf Jett, and Royal Jelly Jive. The live broadcast begins at 5 p.m. Friday on 95.7 FM with audio streaming at kdrt.org. The Davis Music Fest benefits the Davis School Arts Foundation. For more information about all bands, schedules, etc., go to DavisMusicFest.com
On today's program: Tropical milkweed regulatory issues, planting for butterflies, problems with raised planters and how to feed and water them, and more.
Tonight on Jazz After Dark:
Helen Merrill with Gil Evans, Benny Carter & Oscar Peterson Trio (1952), Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington with Johnny Hodges, Art Pepper, Anita O'Day, Benny Carter (1961), Johnny Hodges, Lester Young, Count Basie and His Orchestra, and Benny Carter (1990).
Craig McNamara, 72, now grows walnuts near Winters, but he grew up in Washington, D.C., at the center of power. His father Robert McNamara was the U.S. defense secretary for presidents Kennedy and Johnson during the Vietnam War. In his new memoir Because Our Fathers Lied / a Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today, Craig writes about opposing the war, his love for his dad, loyalty to the Constitution instead of to a president, coexistence, and other aspects of his life shaped by this core conflict. We talk about his story today on Davisville.
Eric Jordan grew up in Davis, and while he was in high school he fell in love with the opera. The world ended up being his stage. Performing around the country and the world, he ended up with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In New York he suffered a massive stroke which eventually ended his career as an opera singer.
While performing in opera productions, he also had an alter ego (as The Opera Cowboy) and performed country music, especially Johnny Cash songs.
In this episode of Listening Lyrics, Eric joins us as we listen to some of his story and music, both in opera and as the Opera Cowboy.
