"Stevie Wonder will go on his first U.S. tour in more than a decade, starting next month in San Diego."

What a pleasant surprise. I have to admit, one of the best concerts that I've ever been to was Stevie Wonder at the Mid State Fair in Paso Robles, August of 1988. It was 3 hours of high energy, great music, audience participation, humor, and just an all around good time. I'd love to hear from anyone else who was fortunate to be there to tap into their memories about it. Please leave me a comment. Thanks.

Stephen Holden, of the NY Times wrote in his review that year;

"Stevie Wonder is a pop creator whose concerts are more than just musical events. The concentrated power of his musical personality and his integration of a sweeping variety of idioms into an indelible style, along with his charisma and enthusiasm, combine to make his concerts communal celebrations at which divisions of race, class and nationality melt away."

He's scheduled to play at Concord's Sleep Train Pavilion on August 26th and the Mountain Winery in Saratoga on September 4th. Tickets for both shows go on sale at 10:00 am, beginning August 6th. Call (925) 685-8497 or visit www.ticketmaster.com or www.livenation.com.

Biography by Steve Huey, AMG - All Music Guide
Stevie Wonder is a much-beloved American icon and an indisputable genius not only of R&B but popular music in general.

"Songs in the Key of Life" an all time favorite of mine.

Stevie Wonder's website; www.steviewonder.net

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Concord Sleep Train Pavilion, Jazz, Mountain Winery in Saratoga, R and B, San Francisco Jazz, Stevie Wonder

Listen To This!

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Jazz, KCSM, Pandora Music, San Francisco Jazz

Welcome to the Jazz 91 online community. KSCM FM has been broadcasting mainstream jazz to the Bay Area for over twenty-five years.

KCSM has been a favorite of San Francisco Jazz fans and considered by many, including myself, as "THE" Jazz station in the area. You can listen anytime Live by installing their program and "button" onto your PC or MAC. Simply follow their online instructions, HERE. Then, if you ever do hear something "special" while playing KCSM live, you can go to their site to an updated playlist and read what's been playing.

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Jack London Square, Jazz, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Jazz, Sushi Restaurant, Yoshi's Jazz Club

Profile on Miles Davis written by Tim Kirker.

1926 - 1991

"The musical legacy of Miles Davis seems too huge for one man. Especially since he was a vital part of nearly every important development of innovation and style in jazz after the Second World War. His protean approach put him at the forefront of bebop, cool, modal, hard bop, and fusion. From there his sound went on to influence many other forms of music including pop, soul, R&B, funk, and rap. Davis was the last of the great trumpet players, employing a lyrical, melodic style that was known for its minimalism as much as its introspection. Another talent was his ability to assemble great up-and-coming musicians and nurture their creativity within his many bands. Both the man and his music have come to symbolize everything that jazz represents - innovative, cool, complex, and unpredictable."

What's the "all time best" jazz album, what's your favorite? I try to stay away from those kinds of debates when it comes to music. Music is so personal, and each style so unique. I could never just name one, but we all, at sometime or another, get dragged into those "Desert Island" picks just to see where it will go. I keep changing the list. It seems that I can never stop at just ten. Ten becomes twenty, twenty becomes twenty five, and so on.

And so, if you're curious, you can see my "Desert Island" picks if you view my profile. One thing never changes. There are always some that make my list and coincidently, there are always some that seem to make everyone's list.

Kind of Blue isn't merely an artistic highlight for Miles Davis, it's an album that towers above its peers, a record generally considered as the definitive jazz album, a universally acknowledged standard of excellence." Read the full review by by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Here.

"It was a relative rarity among modern jazz albums, three - quarters of an hour of extraordinary music loved equally by listeners who wouldn't know a mode from a modem, and by musicians for whom it seemed to point the way toward a fresh way of playing. "Kind of Blue" remains among the most enduring of all jazz records - more than forty years after its release, it continues to sell several thousand copies a month."

"It must have been made in heaven." Jimmy Cobb said.

(Exerpts from Jazz, A History of America's Music by Geoffrey Ward & Ken Burns).

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Cool Jazz, Desert Island Jazz, Jazz, Ken Burns, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis, San Francisco Jazz

"Sonny Rollins, 76, is considered by many to be the greatest living jazz improviser. Even in his 30s, when the country teemed with brilliant saxophonists -- from Coleman Hawkins to Ben Webster to Charlie Parker to John Coltrane -- Rollins was in a class by himself. Now, when virtually no contemporary of his stature is still active, he stands alone, towering over a jazz scene in which geniuses are dying off faster than they are being replaced." Read the rest of David Rubien's article found in today's San Francisco Chronicle Datebook, entititled; "Sonny Rollins: Hero of Jazz."

Jazz Profiles from NPR, salutes saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins, whose career-long penchant for exploration and innovation has resulted in some of jazz's most influential recordings, performances and collaborations. Don't miss the Sonny Rollins talk about the influence of Louis Jordan and Coleman Hawkins on his music!

Hear what Down Beat has to say, "Sonny Rollins is the first major influence on a significant number of young tenors since the Stan Getz of the late forties and early fifties. Unlike the mesmeric Getz of that period, Sonny's approach is far from cool, and he is seldom lyrical. Sonny's style is hot, driving, deeply pulsating, and is rooted in Charlie Parker and before Bird, Coleman Hawkins."

"When Sonny Rollins picks up the tenor saxophone, the world listens. For nearly half a century, he has played music with the majesty of a Greek god, and today remains one of the few surviving icons from a golden era of jazz that will probably never be equalled." Europe Jazz Network

You can visit the Sonny Rollins Website Here.

Jazz Files recommended recordings can be found HERE.

Don't miss his upcoming concert this Friday, October 20, at the Masonic Center. For details, visit the San Francisco Jazz Festival website.

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Europe Jazz Network, Jazz, Jazz Files, NPR Jazz Profiles, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Jazz, Sax, Sonny Rollins

There's an excellent tribute to John Coltrane in today's San Francisco Chronicle Datebook, written by Greg Tate.

"In an art form more celebrated for its sinners, John Coltrane, who somewhere over the rainbow will turn 80 on Saturday, held the honor of being the music's first saint." The article entitled, "Coltrane at 80 - a talent supreme" can be viewed HERE.

"Bar none, John Coltrane is the most influential tenor saxophonist in jazz history. Whether it's his patented "sheets of sound," his rapid-fire improvisations or his bold cathartic wails, no aspiring jazz saxophonist can afford to neglect the music of Coltrane." Jazz Profiles from NPR, John Dilberto.

Ballads - (No two lovers should be without this CD!!)

"John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" is one of the most compelling, spiritual testimonies in the history of jazz." - Rolling Stone Magazine Review.

"Without reservation, Blue Train can easily be considered in and among the most important and influential entries not only of John Coltrane's career, but of the entire genre of jazz music as well." - All Music Guide

This Page is a tribute to the greatest Tenor saxophonist of all time, John William Coltrane (Trane)

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Desert Island Jazz, Jazz, John Coltrane, San Francisco Jazz, Sax

"Miles Davis kept forcing jazz in new directions, but his stark, lyrical trumpet sound was a constant, and it still seduces."

"He didn't play the trumpet like a trumpet, he played it like a voice. - Bobby Hutcherson

Jesse Hamlin wrote a great article in the Chronicle Datebook a couple of weeks back. What a great piece and with substance on an idol of mine who recorded what I will always consider the Jazz Classic.

"I play 'Kind of Blue' every day - it's my orange juice." - Quincy Jones


I am guilty. I couldn't hang with him at first during the "rock-jazz fusion that Davis began exploring in the late 60's when he started using electric instruments and dancing backbeat grooves." I'm even ashamed to admit that I walked out on one of his performances at the War Memorial in San Francisco.

However, whatever direction his music took, his influence and music stays with us forever.

"Miles was famous for not looking back or repeating himself. He plunged into whatever music grabbed him at the moment, made it his, then moved on, leaving legions to chew on what he'd done."

"When I hear jazz musicians today playing all those same licks we used to play so long ago, I feel sad for them. I mean, it's like going to bed with a real old person who even smells real old. Now, I'm not putting down old people because I'm getting older myself. But be honest, that's what it reminds me of....I have to always be on the cutting edge of things because that's just the way I am and have always been." Miles Davis from his 1989 autobiography, "Miles."

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Desert Island Jazz, Jazz, KCSM, Ken Burns, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis, San Francisco Jazz

"Bar none, John Coltrane is the most influential tenor saxophonist in jazz history. Whether it's his patented "sheets of sound," his rapid-fire improvisations or his bold cathartic wails, no aspiring jazz saxophonist can afford to neglect the music of Coltrane." Jazz Profiles from NPR, John Dilberto.

Ballads - (No two lovers should be without this CD!!)

"When John Coltrane was asked, "Why a ballads album?", he said "Variety." Meaning a change of pace. And perhaps he wanted to apprise those who haven't discovered that he can be lyrical."

"John played the tunes straight, in the in-choruses, unless you count his lovely phrase endings as deviations from melody. When the development occurred, he made his musical points quickly and succinctly. I'd never heard him play this tightly."

- Gene Lees
(Excerpted from the original liner notes for Ballads)

This is a particularly fascinating album, one of my favorites. It's a strong recomendation to anyone's music collection and certainly has it's place on my own Desert Island Jazz list.

It is certainly a departure from some of his more well known works, such masterpieces as "A Love Supreme" or "Blue Trane."

"John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" is one of the most compelling, spiritual testimonies in the history of jazz." - Rolling Stone Magazine Review.

"Without reservation, Blue Train can easily be considered in and among the most important and influential entries not only of John Coltrane's career, but of the entire genre of jazz music as well." - All Music Guide

This Page is a tribute to the greatest Tenor saxophonist of all time, John William Coltrane (Trane)

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Desert Island Jazz, Jazz, John Coltrane, San Francisco Jazz, Sax

For Me, one of the most pleasant surprises to happen in jazz in the last ten years came with the release of a CD in 1996 of music that had been recorded twenty two years earlier. It was a rare "but beautiful," (and incidently, that's the name of the CD), live meeting between Bill Evans and Stan Getz.

"Pianist Bill Evans and tenor-saxophonist Stan Getz only recorded in the studio together on one occasion, making these previously unreleased concert performances (issued for the first time in 1996) quite valuable," writes Scott Yarrow in his review with AMG.

"Although released under the pianist's name, this CD is very much Stan Getz's show and his beautiful tone sounds quite exquisite on "But Beautiful," "Emily," "The Peacocks," and the swinging "You and the Night and the Music."

“There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music.” - Stan Getz


"Although Getz played attractive compositions tastefully with harmonic and melodic sophistication, so too did many substantial musicians who never received much critical and popular acclaim. The primary reason for his greatness and his popularity lies elsewhere, in his tone. It is uniquely his. Big and pure and rich and definite, it possesses such an intrinsic appeal that master saxophonist and innovator John Coltrane proclaimed his envy of it — and Roost Records released a Getz album in the Fifties called, simply and accurately, The Sound." Benjamin Franklin V, Excerpted from: The Essential Stan Getz

"Let's face it. We [tenor saxophonists] would all play like him, if we could." —John Coltrane

The Bill Evans Webpages

From the Liner Notes, written by Helen Keane, in 1995. "I feel it's important that I explain why Bill is not playing on most of "Stan's Blues."

Since Bill and Stan hadn't worked together very often, they called a rehearsal on the day of the performance in Laren. They rehearsed for about three hours. The format for the evening was that the trio would perform for about 40 minutes, then Stan would join the group as Bill's special guest.

Stan Getz was a very unpredictable guy and sometimes he could be a very bad boy.

After the trio finished their set, Stan was announced. As he entered the stage, he called a tune they hadn't rehearsed. I was watching the performance on a television monitor in the audio truck and saw the angry expression on Bill's face as Stan began to play unrehearsed "Stan's Blues." Bill played a little on the melody chorus, then took his hands off the keyboard and didn't play for the rest of the tune. As soon as he got Eddie Gomez's eye, Bill shook his head, meaning "don't take a solo."

That explains why there's no piano on "Stan's Blues." Bill was a gentle person, but very strong. Although he always worked well with other musicians, obviously Stan's behavior really affected him.

Stan may have had a demon in him from time to time, but he also had the ability to be charming. At the later performance, Stan warmly wished Bill a happy birthday and played an impromptu "Happy Birthday." There is no way of proving it, but knowing Stan, I believe that this was his way of apologizing for what happened in Holland. I think Bill was very touched by Stan's birthday wish before an audience of seven thousand people.

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Bill Evans, but beautiful, Jazz, San Francisco Jazz, Stan Getz