San Diego's Jazz 88.3 FM - KSDS

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Jon Faddis and Dizzy Gillespie: The Origins of the Relationship That Changed Faddis's Life

If a 15-year-old Jon Faddis had never summoned the courage to ask Dizzy Gillespie to sign his massive stack of records at the Monterey Jazz Festival, would Faddis have gone on to develop into “the best ever”? It’s an interesting thought. Ponder it, then see for yourself whether you agree with Dizzy’s evaluation of Faddis. Come celebrate the 60th anniversary of Dizzy Gillespie’s run for president on Oct. 27 at the Handlery Hotel with the Faddis/McPherson Quintet.

By Matt Silver

Here’s a short story — incomplete, certainly, but revealing nevertheless — about how a young trumpeter from Oakland came to be called the best ever…by the best ever.

Trumpeter Jon Faddis met his hero, Dizzy Gillespie, for the first time when he was 12 years old. He was too afraid to say anything. 

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Meet the Rhythm Section!

John Clayton, co-founder of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and mentor to countless young jazz musicians, is one of the premier jazz bassists of the last half-century.

It’s been 60 years since Dizzy Gillespie’s candidacy injected music, levity, and a focus on civil rights into the 1964 presidential election. By now, you’ve read and heard quite a bit about the concert we’re presenting on Sunday evening, Oct. 27 to celebrate that anniversary. And by now, you know the legendary names leading the band: Faddis and McPherson.

Now it’s time to make like Art Pepper… and meet the rhythm section. 

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KSDS to Celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Dizzy Gillespie's 1964 Presidential Campaign with Star-Studded Concert

In 1964, Dizzy Gillespie mounted a half-serious run for president. When asked why, his response: “Because we need one!” So on Oct. 27, KSDS is celebrating the 60th anniversary with a star-studded concert headlined by Jon Faddis and Charles McPherson. Why? Because we need one!

Just minutes after the Bill Mays Trio closed last Friday night’s Bud Powell Centennial concert with a euphoric take on Powell’s “Parisian Thoroughfare” that left us all exiting the concert hall floating at least three feet off the ground, the KSDS brain trust convened an emergency session in the atrium of The Conrad. We resolved not to rest on our laurels. The music we presented that night was too special, too magical for us to wait several months before bringing you another evening of commensurate artistry. 

And so we did something that might seem counterintuitive; we turned to the upcoming presidential election for inspiration. 

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KSDS Wins! Further Pitching Averted. Jazz 88 Coffers and Waistlines Expand.

KSDS GM Ken Poston (at right) interviews (from left) Alan Broadbent, Joshua White, Gilbert Castellanos, and Bill Mays on stage at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla before KSDS’s Bud Powell Centennial Concert on Friday evening, Sept. 27, 2024.

Dear Jazz88ers,

It’s been a 12-round, knock-down, drag out brawl of a Fall Membership Drive, but after ten grueling days and unspeakable amounts of pizza and Italian beef sandwiches and enchiladas… after our gastrointestinal systems have begged for clemency and prevailed upon us with reflux and the other unmentionable weapons at their disposal, we’ve laid down our swords and returned to programming as regularly scheduled. 

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Jazz at Tio Leo's

Holly Hofmann's jazz series continues this month at Tio Leo's Restaurant and Lounge at 5302 Napa St. at Morena Blvd. Jazz at Tio Leo's is happening every Sunday evening from 5-7pm and features Southern California's finest jazz musicians in a quiet, spacious setting with full bar and Mexican cuisine. There is also plenty of free parking. See this month's schedule below:

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Sixty Years Ago, Dizzy Gillespie Made Politics Swing Again

The November 5, 1964 edition of Downbeat with a cover titled “Dizzy’s Dream Inauguration Day, 1965.” Gillespie, of course, was never actually inaugurated – he never even made it on the ballot – but his humor-filled campaign sparked important conversations about the urgency and efficacy of the Civil Rights Movement to that time.

By Matt Silver

By now, you’ve heard it several times: Sixty years ago, Dizzy Gillespie ran for president. And it was kind of a joke but also kind of serious and ultimately not ever fully viable. All that’s true enough, but it doesn’t really tell the whole story.

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Trends in Avian Evolution: My Five Favorite Charlie Parker Tributes of the 21st Century

Portrait of Charlie Parker, Red Rodney, Dizzy Gillespie, Margie Hyams, and Chuck Wayne, New York City, c. 1947. Photo by William Gottlieb, courtesy of Library of Congress.

By Matt Silver 

There’s a famous quote attributed to Miles Davis. It goes, “You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.” Whether that statement is fair or not — whether it does justice to anyone not named Armstrong or Parker — is beside the point. By most credible accounts, Davis, setting all the musical genius aside, was a brilliant provocateur, a hot-take pioneer whose aloof, disagreeable, superior demeanor was carefully and consciously constructed. Whatever Miles Davis played was what he genuinely believed; everything else was in service of a different department of the corporation.

Nevertheless, Davis's declaration — glib, reductive, and disingenuous though it may have been — resonates.

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Lester Young: A Portrait of Lester Young's Early Triumphs and Set-Backs

By Loren Schoenberg

In the rarified precincts of the jazz pantheon, Lester Young is unique in that the true essence of his genius remains obscure. Armstrong, Monk, Tatum, Coltrane and the others recorded prolifically in the studio and out of it, etching a relatively complete picture of their abilities. To be sure, there were extraordinary moments that vanished the moment they were created, lingering only in the memories of those lucky enough to have witnessed them. But with Young, the overwhelming consensus of those who heard him when he was young is that he could and frequently did play extended solos, and that it was only in that form that he could express his unique and large-range sense of musical architecture. So we are left to parse, ever so minutely, the shards of that vision as they are to be found on the recordings that comprise this collection. All jazz soloists up through the advent of long-playing records in the '50s had to learn to express themselves succinctly and no one did it any better than Young at his best. 

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Today's Birthdays

Born on this day, October 22nd

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On This Day

October 22nd in Jazz History…

  • Benny Goodman records "Popcorn Man" for Victor Records in 1937. A real rarity. Only 10 of the original 78's remained after a mysterious recall.
  • Then in 1946, Benny Goodman recorded "I'll Always Be in Love With You" and "Honeysuckle Rose" for Columbia Records.
  • Stan Kenton and his Orchestra record "Lament" in 1947.
  • Horace Silver’s Sextet record "Nutville", "Bonita" and "Mo' Joe" for Blue Note Records in 1965.
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