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 AKA KSDS's 2026 Winter Jazz Olympiad
The confluence of cultural influences that constitute jazz’s foundations could only have happened in 20th century America…but in the decades since that musical big bang, jazz has become both an enduring American export AND one that’s become a unique showcase for overlapping ethnic, regional, national, and transnational musical aesthetics and traditions.
Sport and athletic competition has evolved in much the same way. The games that became national pastimes have grown to forge global communities. In light of this year’s Winter Olympic Games, we thought we’d celebrate the global nature of the pastime we’re most passionate about — jazz — with just a twist of healthy competition.
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Experience Ellington's symphonic side like never before!
Duke Ellington leads the Symphony of the Air (composed of former members of the NBC Symphony Orchestra) in the world premiere of his work “New World A-Comin,” feat. pianist Don Shirley. At New York City’s Carnegie Hall. March 16, 1955.
If you're listening to jazz radio or you find yourself reading these words on a jazz radio station's website, you probably already know the immutable laws of Duke Ellington’s universe: The A-Train’s the quickest way to Harlem. It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. And what exactly that IT is — the thing supposedly rendered meaningless in the absence of swing — well, that’s unknowable.
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Ten albums from the 2020s worth listening to and thinking about this MLK Day, in two parts (Part I).
Martin Luther King Jr. and wife Coretta Scott King (a singer herself), playing piano in their home with two of their children.
By Matt Silver
The 2020s have been nothing if not tumultuous. But it's during tumult that man's mettle is tested — and where the iron of his artistry is sharpened. Martin Luther King Jr. used his instrument of oratory to passionately but civilly call for a redress of grievances and appeal to the concept of the human experience as a shared endeavor, and he knew music to be an almost supernaturally powerful medium through which to reach humanity's sense of justice and fairness via its soul.
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Part II of a two-part series. Powerful examples of fusing Black artistry and activism in a tumultuous decade.
By Matt Silver
In recognition of MLK Day 2026, here are five more albums from this decade that stand out as powerful modern musical testaments to MLK's enduring legacy.
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Revisiting Oct. 10, 2023's JAZZ LIVE, Gordon Goodwin and BPB's final live concert in San Diego.
By Matt Silver
Ed. note: On Tuesday evening, Oct. 10, 2023, Gordon Goodwin and the Big Phat Band played KSDS's Jazz Live; it had been 10 years since they'd last performed live in San Diego. With Gordon's sudden passing earlier this week (Dec. 8, 2025), I realized that this 2023 concert, memorable in and of itself, had taken on new meaning: It marked the the Big Phat Band's final San Diego performance under Gordon's leadership. The dynamic between Gordon and the Saville Theatre audience was a unique one; for as internationally renowned as Gordon was, the audience (largely composed of KSDS members and regular listeners) knew him primarily as the host of "Phat Tracks," his weekly radio show on KSDS that aired on Saturday afternoons from 1 to 3 p.m. Most, of course, knew how accomplished Gordon was as a musician, but his side-gig as a KSDS on-air personality created an additional connection that lent the room a certain je ne sais quoi. Familiarity. Intimacy. Goodwill. Bonhomie. Gordon wasn't a big star from L.A. shooting down for a one-nighter in the provinces (I mean, he was, but it didn't at all feel like that); he was a Jazz88er, one of us. Below you'll find my review of that evening's atmosphere and music. May it serve as a comforting memory for those in need of one right now. MS, Dec. 10, 2025.
Originally published in Oct. 2023. I'd known for several weeks that Gordon Goodwin and his Big Phat Band (BPB) would be bringing their celebrated stage show to City College's Saville Theatre as part of our just-recently-rebooted signature concert series, Jazz Live. And I knew they'd pack a punch; you don’t become one of the world’s preeminent large jazz ensembles without blowing the doors off a few concert halls. Still, I didn't quite understand fully what I was in for until the musicians hit it, and their sound hit me.
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Gordon Goodwin won Emmys for the music he wrote and arranged for TV. He won Grammys for the music he wrote and arranged both for the silver screen and his 18-piece Big Phat Band. He didn’t win a Marconi for "Phat Tracks," but he did win a devoted following from KSDS’s audience and the admiration and respect of his colleagues here. Photo by Larry Redman.
By Matt Silver
It's with extremely heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Gordon Goodwin. Gordon, who was without question one of the most innovative big band composers and arrangers of his time, died Monday afternoon, Dec. 8, of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 70 years old.
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And celebrating Sinatra's relationships with his favorite songwriters. Each December weekday from noon to 2 p.m. PT, through Tues., Dec. 16
Frank Sinatra and Jane Powell look on tenderly and admiringly, as Irving Berlin performs on the "Songs by Sinatra" radio show on CBS radio, 1947.
By Matt Silver
Holiday season programming alert! Back by popular demand...it's the 2025 edition of KSDS's "12 Days of Sinatra."
Beginning MONDAY, Dec. 1, and continuing EVERY WEEKDAY from NOON to 2 p.m. through Tues., Dec. 16, KSDS will bring you a new expertly — and exhaustively — curated Sinatra show each day.
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This interpretation of the only recording session John Coltrane ever led for Blue Note Records — by a bi-coastal roster of contemporary jazz luminaries — promises to be the repertory jazz event of the holiday season.
By Matt Silver
On Saturday night, Nov. 29 (two days after Thanksgiving), the 2025-26 season of the San Diego Symphony’s “Jazz @ The Jacobs” concert series opens with trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos at the head of a stacked sextet interpreting John Coltrane’s one and only recording for Blue Note Records, 1957’s iconic Blue Train.
Joining Castellanos are A-list musicians from both coasts: Brian Levy, the director of SDSU’s jazz studies program, plays tenor sax; Mike Gurrola (Eric Reed, Benny Green, Terry Gibbs, Benny Golson) plays bass; Ivan Malespin (Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra) plays trombone; Grammy nominee Victor Gould (Jeremy Pelt, Jazzmeia Horn, Black Art Jazz Collective, Wallace Roney) plays piano; and rhythmic royalty in the form of Joe Farnsworth (Eric Alexander, Harold Mabern, Cedar Walton, Benny Golson) plays drums.
Together they’ll revisit the period during which John Coltrane went from promising to pre-eminent.
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Drexler's weekly artist interview show once again receives top honors at San Diego Press Club's annual awards.
”Inside Art” with Dave Drexler airs Sunday evenings from 6 to 6:30 p.m. PT on KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM San Diego and jazz88.org.
By Matt Silver
Dave Drexler's "Inside Art" has done it again, earning yet another win at last week's (Oct. 28) 52nd annual San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards.
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Nearly 40 years later, baseball's never been a more enchanting muse.
For KSDS’s Matt Silver, Ron Shelton’s “Bull Durham” is a perfect game.
By Matt Silver
“Relax, all right? Don’t try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls — it’s more democratic.”
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