Jazz After Dark April 25, 2017

Tue, 04/25/2017 - 11:55am | Don Shor

Happy Birthday to Ella!

April 25 2017 is the 100th anniversary of Ella Fitzgerald’s birth. The First Lady of Song, as she was called, had a career that spanned five decades. Jazz After Dark will honor our favorite vocalist with a retrospective of her career.

Her first big hit was the nursery rhyme A Tisket, A Tasket. After fronting Chick Webb’s band, and then her own, she then gracefully moved through the bebop era as perhaps the best jazz scatting vocalist of all time. Her Songbook series, studio albums that were comprehensive and definitive presentations of the works of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, Rodgers and Hart, Duke Ellington, and others, left a legacy that is unrivalled: an essential compilation of what has become known as the Great American Songbook.

Ella was in many ways a pop singer at a time when jazz was America’s pop music. She was always willing to add new numbers to her repertoire (“the now sound,” she would call it during her live concerts), so she did Jobim, and Bacharach, and even the Beatles. She could make any song swing.

Davisville, April 24, 2017: Going Lowbrow in Davis

Mon, 04/24/2017 - 7:05pm | Bill Buchanan

Maya Sinha writes a new Davis Enterprise column, “Lowbrow,” about “the hidden value in despised things.” Davis, like any place, has its conventions, and on today’s show we talk about bad music, schlocky TV, the value of not being pretentious, the relief it all provides, and how far she’s going to take this concept.

Divine Intervention Strikes - Apr 24

Mon, 04/24/2017 - 6:59pm | Jess Goddésse

Ivory Tower.jpg

Ivory Tower cover art

Well, the good news is that Vinyl Vespers looks like it won't have a religious flavor -- and we all may be able to glean some beauty tips from what looks to be a god-awful boy band! The bad news is... hmm... don't think there actually is any bad news on the KDRT front... So tune in tonight, 7-9p PT, for another edition of Divine Intervention. 

"That's Life" ft. California Raptor Center (4/20)

Tue, 04/18/2017 - 8:58am | Eunah

This week on "That's Life" Lois Richter will be talking with The California Raptor Center staff, who will talk with us about hawks such as the one pictured here as well as other birds of prey recovering and living at their facility just south of Davis. The CRC is an educational and research organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of injured and orphaned birds of prey. Their museum and their permanent collection of living, nonreleasable raptors are open to public view on weekdays and Saturdays. CRC is affiliated with UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. You can check out their website here: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/calraptor/. The group will also be at Picnic Day this weekend, April 22nd, and also have an Open House on May 5th, 2017.

Divine Intervention Strikes - Apr 17

Mon, 04/17/2017 - 6:59pm | Jess Goddésse

Cross_of_Christ_Church.png

Cross of Christ Church Organ photo

No holiday for the wicked -- we'll be live as usual with another edition of Divine Intervention, starring the typical mix of rock, punk, pop, funk, junk...and, of course, Vinyl Vespers, our record-store bargain-bin feature -- if you can identify the image attached to this post, you can extrapolate to determine the artist (no, not a reasonable task). OK, enough of the heavily punctuated claptrap. Just tune in Monday, April 17, 7-9p PT for all the fun your ears can hold.

Tune in and support KDRT-LP!

Mon, 04/10/2017 - 11:59pm | Jeff Shaw

Please support the operation of KDRT-LP!

It takes quite a few George Washingtons, and maybe some Abe Lincolns to keep this ship afloat!     And of course some Harriet Tubmans (can't come soon enough!) would really help!

If you listen to KDRT-LP, either online, or over the air, you know the work we put into providing quality programming, local voices, and educational perspectives you cannot hear anywhere else.  

So tune in, especially through April 10 !   We know you have lots of choices in your daily auditory intake, and we heartily thank you for showing some love for KDRT-LP!

Go to kdrt.org/donate and we'll set you up right!

Davisville, April 10, 2017: Watching California, from Davis, for the NY Times

Mon, 04/10/2017 - 9:05pm | Bill Buchanan

Mike McPhate lives in Davis, where he writes and assembles stories about California for the online edition of The New York Times. Newsprint is fading as a format, but the Times is no longer just a newspaper. It remains one of the most influential news organizations in the United States, which means McPhate’s work helps to shape the way the country sees and understands California. Today's topics include the job, the “enemy of the people” media criticism from President Trump, how McPhate finds his stories, and why he chose Davis as a base.

Dirk Hamilton on Friday April 14, 2017

Sun, 04/09/2017 - 7:10am | Pieter Pastoor

dirkhamilton.jpeg

dirk Hamilton to appear on KDRT

California raised Dirk Hamilton is our guest this week. I am really looking forward to this episode of Listening Lyrics as we dig into some of the lyrics of his songs. Dirk will appear at the Palms in Winters, CA Saturday  April 15, 2017. You ca visit Dirk at www.dirkhamilton.com. 

Dirk: “I began playing guitar and singing songs when I was 8 years old. I was writing stories and poems before that. I always thought of the two activities as completely different and separate -- writing was ‘serious’, playing and singing was ‘fun’. Then I discovered Dylan and learned that songs could be just as deep as the best poetry. It was an epiphany! At that moment I knew what I wanted to do with my life.”

At 15, Dirk wrote two more songs for another 45, this one under his own name. Both records were on the IKON label in Sacramento. “These two were stinkers too but after what seemed like a real long time, I began writing good songs and realized I’d done it! I had enjoyed myself into a real songwriter poet!”

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