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Monday, February 12, 2024 is Day 5 of The Coltrane Legacy: Take the Blue Train

The photo that became the cover of “Blue Train,” 1957. Photo by Francis Wolff.

By Matt Silver

By mid-September of 1957, John Coltrane had been kicked out of Miles’s band, he’d kicked heroin, and he’d kicked his musical development into overdrive. First by joining Thelonious Monk’s Quartet for a transformative six-month run at The Five Spot in New York City and then by making up for a relatively late debut as a leader by pumping out Prestige recording dates in volume. This prolific recorded output for Prestige would continue in earnest through 1958; it’s no accident that one of those sessions came to be titled Settin’ the Pace.

Thurs. Feb. 8, 2024 is Day 3 of the Coltrane Legacy: Round About Midnight, We're Workin, Steamin, Coolin, and Relaxin

Miles and Trane Phase One: Oct. 1955 to the End of 1956

Coltrane circa 1955-56 while recording “’Round About Midnight” with Miles Davis’s First Great Quintet

 

By Matt Silver

From June to August 1954, John Coltrane records in Los Angeles with the first saxophonist whose sound he sought to emulate, Duke Ellington’s legendary alto man Johnny Hodges. Up to this point, with the exception of his bebop stint with Dizzy Gillespie from 1949 to 1951,  most of Coltrane’s formal gigs — with Earl Bostic, Billy Valentine, Gay Crosse and even with Johnny Hodges — had been very blues and dance party oriented.

This all changes in the Fall of 1955.

A Man and a Myth Whose Legendary Status Literally Precedes Him

A Glimpse into Coltrane’s Philadelphia through a Side Door

Photograph of The Coltrane House in Philadelphia. Located near the intersection of 33rd and Oxford Streets in the city’s Strawberry Mansion neighborhood, Coltrane lived here—first with his cousin Mary, then with his first wife Naima and adopted daughter Syeeda—from 1952 to 1958. Photographed here in 1992 by the prolific chronicler of all things Coltrane, Yasuhiro Fujioka.

By Matt Silver

There was something happening in Philadelphia during the period John Coltrane came of age there. He arrived in 1943, shortly after his high school graduation and stayed until late 1957. After kicking heroin in the Strawberry Mansion house he shared with his cousin Mary, first wife Naima, and daughter Syeeda—all soon to be immortalized on Giant Steps — he did as one must when on the cusp of stratospheric artistic innovation; he moved to New York City. He hooked up with Thelonious Monk and, together, they transcended what jazz conception had been to that point. Then it was back to Miles and the new thing, the modal phase. And a year later: Kind of Blue.

Black History Month 2024: KSDS Celebrates the Coltrane Legacy

 

Why are we at KSDS so compelled to explore the vast reaches of the Coltrane universe? Because, like Everest, it’s there.

By Matt Silver

This February, KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM San Diego celebrates Black History Month by honoring the Coltrane Legacy. Though John Coltrane died at 40, the reach of his musical and spiritual influence was vast during his life and has become something approaching infinite since his death; like the universe, it touches more than we can perceive and comprehend and continues to grow. 

Honoring Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Movement, and its Soundtrack

The Bombing of the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. Sept. 15, 1963

 

By Matt Silver

On this MLK Day, we honor not just Dr. King’s words and actions but those of the broader struggle for civil rights. And we do so, in our small part, by pairing the stories of that era with the artistic response they incited.

Undoubtedly, the tragedies of that period shaped artistic expression as much as the triumphs, if not more so. The 1963 bombing of the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. is no exception. We invite you to read a bit about the tragedy below and engage with the following  musical statements, handpicked by our on-air hosts for this MLK Day.

John Coltrane’s “Alabama”

Charles Mingus’s Town Hall Concerts

Ramsey Lewis’s “Wade in the Water”

George Adams’s “Going Home”

Babs Gonzales’s “We Ain’t Got Integration”

Max Roach’s “Let Thy People Go"

Honoring Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Movement, and its Soundtrack

The Freedom Riders

 

By Matt Silver

On this MLK Day, we honor not just Dr. King’s words and actions but those of the broader struggle for civil rights. And we do so, in our small part, by pairing the stories of that era with the music they inspired.

Read a bit about the Freedom Riders below, and pair with the following tunes, handpicked by our on-air hosts for the occasion:

Art Blakey’s “The Freedom Rider”

Chico Hamilton’s “Freedom Traveler”

Kenny Burrell’s “Freedom”

Dannie Richmond’s “Freedom Ride” (begins @ 8:30)

Honoring Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Movement, and its Soundtrack

The Selma Marches: March 7-25, 1965

 

Civil rights marchers rest along the route from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. in March 1965. Photo by Peter Pettus. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

By Matt Silver

In March 1965, beaten and bloodied, civil rights leaders and ordinary citizens persisted in marching from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery. Even after being turned away not once, but twice—first by physical force, then by the legal force of a federal injunction. 

Nina Simone’s ’Nuff Said! Offers ‘Some Kind of Something’ on This and Every MLK Day

Nina Simone took the stage at Wetsbury Music Fair on Long Island in April 1968, three days after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

By Matt Silver

Over the last several years, America has had to reckon with issues of race, class, civil rights, opportunity, and dignity in a way it hasn’t since Nina Simone first sang protest songs.

Perhaps as a byproduct of the moment, there’s been a resurgence of both popular and critical interest in Simone, the High Priestess of Soul and a civil rights icon. That’s why, on this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I’m compelled to revisit Nina Simone’s ’Nuff Said!

ATTN JAZZ LIVE TICKET HOLDERS: Tues Jan 9 Jazz Live with Diane Schuur Postponed

Jazz Live with Diane Schuur scheduled for Tues. evening Jan. 9, 2024 has been postponed. NOT canceled; postponed. Details to come. Stay tuned to KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM and Jazz88.org for updates.

Due to an illness, Diane Schuur will be unable to make it to San Diego for tonight's Jazz Live performance at the Saville Theatre. Tonight's Jazz Live concert has, therefore, been postponed.

Please note: Diane Schuur’s performance is merely postponed, not canceled. Fear not, Jazz 88ers; WE WILL RESCHEDULE as soon as Diane is back at full strength. Of course, tickets held for tonight's concert will be honored for that to-be-announced "rain date."

More details to come. As soon as we know, you'll know. So, please check both the KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM airwaves and Jazz88.org regularly for the most up-to-date announcements.

Tamara Paige to Conduct Gilbert Castellanos and KSDS Jazz Orchestra in "Sketches of Spain" This Saturday Evening, Jan. 6. Tickets Now SOLD OUT!

It’s the hottest ticket in town! San Diego native and celebrated musical educator Tamara Paige will conduct Gilbert Castellanos and the KSDS Jazz Orchestra in “Sketches of Spain” — the legendary Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaboration — on Jan. 6, 2024 at the Legacy Center’s Pavilion Theater.

Happy New Year, Jazz88ers!

We’ve got a ton to look forward to in 2024—from even more expertly curated on-air programming specials to the best live music events put on by any public radio station anywhere. And we’re not wasting any time bringing out the big guns—maybe San Diego jazz’s biggest gun—to start the new year in a manner befitting our great radio station and our attuned, sophisticated listeners.  

THIS SATURDAY, JAN 6 at 7 PM—at the PAVILION THEATER on the campus of the new and spectacular LEGACY RESORT HOTEL & SPA in Mission Valley — trumpeter and San Diego jazz patriarch GILBERT CASTELLANOS will be the featured soloist, as San Diego's own Tamara Paige conducts the KSDS JAZZ ORCHESTRA in a performance of SKETCHES OF SPAIN, the monumental collaboration between Miles Davis and composer/arranger Gil Evans. Best of all, the orchestra will be playing THE ORIGINAL CHARTS, as orchestrated by Evans. Paige, Castellanos and co. will be delivering you the genuine article: unamended, unadulterated, and in MINT condition. And in the KSDS JAZZ ORCHESTRA, they’ll have the horsepower backing them to pull it off with all the style and panache you'd expect from a program bearing Gilbert Castellanos's name.