Does anyone listen to WBGO?

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

KarenMarlowe said:

jeffl said:

yahooyahoo said:

I found this article from January 2020.
It sounds like the turmoil and changes go back a few years now.

Side note: I didn't realize Mayor Ras Baraka's father was one of the founders of WBGO.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/nyregion/wbgo-newark-jazz.html

Here is part of the article:

"For almost 40 years, Dorthaan Kirk, the widow of the great jazz saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, was a fixture at WBGO, Newark’s public jazz station.

Considered the city’s “first lady of jazz,” Ms. Kirk organized jazz brunches and persuaded famous musicians like Regina Carter to perform at children’s concerts. Her parties at the station celebrating the art exhibitions she curated, like one featuring vintage boomboxes, were always open to the public.

In 2018, Ms. Kirk retired, just shy of her 80th birthday.

Things at WBGO quickly changed after that. The station ended the exhibitions and the parties. Then management stopped allowing the public into the building, citing security concerns. The community, it seemed, was no longer welcome at the station it helped to create.

Image

This development did not sit well. WBGO (88.3 FM) is arguably the best jazz station in the world, and its fate speaks to the broader challenges facing the popularity of jazz, that uniquely American idiom.

What WBGO offers is rare and culturally significant: an ongoing, ever-changing audio library of jazz, both old and new. The fact that its headquarters are in Newark, a center of black culture and activism, as well as the home of musicians like Sarah Vaughan and the saxophonists James Moody and Wayne Shorter, is no accident.

Not surprisingly, the situation became contentious. WBGO stalwarts rallied around a batch of perceived slights. Grievances cited in a petition, signed by the singer Cassandra Wilson and the pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr., pointed out the racial imbalance in WBGO’s leadership and hiring decisions that marginalized veteran employees and the community at large. An op-ed published in November alluded to a “perceived stench of racism on the part of WBGO.”

I sat on a jury and was asked if I had any bumper stickers on my car.  I said WBGO.  Another woman on the jury hands me her card.  It was Dorthaan Kirk.  I started chatting with her.  Asked her what her connection was to jazz.  She told me that her husband played.  I asked if he played professionally. She said he did but that he died years ago.  And then I realized who her husband was.  What a gracious, wonderful woman. We had a lot of laughs during jury duty. 

That’s very cool!

I'd like to meet the woman married to Rahsaan.  He was such a cool, funny, interesting person. An iconoclast of the 1st degree and quite a wit, too. A master of circular breathing. (I wish I'd seen him live, but there's lots of footage on YouTube.)

She was so much fun to meet.  And the moment of recognition when I put Kirk together with Kirk was hilarious!  The rest of the jurors had no idea who RRK was or why I was so excited to meet her. She gave me her WBGO business card just to show me that she worked for the station on my bumper sticker.  It took me five questions to get to her husband’s name. D’oh!  

jeffl said:

She was so much fun to meet.  And the moment of recognition when I put Kirk together with Kirk was hilarious!  The rest of the jurors had no idea who RRK was or why I was so excited to meet her. She gave me her WBGO business card just to show me that she worked for the station on my bumper sticker.  It took me five questions to get to her husband’s name. D’oh!  

That's fantastic. Rahsaan is one of my favorite performers. Rahsaan and Mingus. (and Dylan and Zappa.) 

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

jeffl said:

She was so much fun to meet.  And the moment of recognition when I put Kirk together with Kirk was hilarious!  The rest of the jurors had no idea who RRK was or why I was so excited to meet her. She gave me her WBGO business card just to show me that she worked for the station on my bumper sticker.  It took me five questions to get to her husband’s name. D’oh!  

That's fantastic. Rahsaan is one of my favorite performers. Rahsaan and Mingus. (and Dylan and Zappa.) 

Do you remember when he had a stroke and only had the use of one hand so he could only play two instruments at a time?   Or am I making that up?  He was an incredible musician and personality.  Just listened to Volunteered Slavery!  And then Someone To Watch Over Me.  Quite the range. 

I have decided I don't care for Pat Prescott. Nothing personal; she seems like a lovely person, but her show is too formulaic. So I listen to something else from noon to 2pm.

WBGO is pretty terrible.  I listen to WKCR.  While not 100% jazz, there is a good amount each day.  Especially in the morning with Sid Gribbetts and Bird Flight.  At this point, they are still playing Phil Schaap's(R.I.P.) pre-recorded Traditions in Swing on Saturdays at 6pm.  And Sunday afternoon there is usually a 4-hour block in the afternoon that covers one musician.  Plus all the birthdaybroadcasts.  Armstrong on July 4th every year is fantastic.  

Texas said:

WBGO is pretty terrible.  I listen to WKCR.  While not 100% jazz, there is a good amount each day.  Especially in the morning with Sid Gribbetts and Bird Flight.  At this point, they are still playing Phil Schaap's(R.I.P.) pre-recorded Traditions in Swing on Saturdays at 6pm.  And Sunday afternoon there is usually a 4-hour block in the afternoon that covers one musician.  Plus all the birthdaybroadcasts.  Armstrong on July 4th every year is fantastic.  

Agreed across the board, except that I always found Phil Schaap a bit hard to take. He was an academic, not a DJ.  

Another option:  Here’s the last hour today, 12/2/22, leading up to noon

Er du klar til weekenden? I Vistis Weekendguide tager Jonas Visti dig med på en musikalsk tour de force gennem ugens åndehul, hvor du kan blive klar til dansegulvet, få leveret soundtracket til fyraftens-øllen, og varmet op til den lumre lørdag, inden du til sidst heales for dine eksistentielle søndagskvaler dagen derpå. Rigtig god weekend!

Vært: Jonas Visti.

www.dr.dk/p8jazz

VIS MERE

1. 16:06“Darbin & The Redd Fox”af Milt Jackson
2. 16:12“So What”af Miles Davis
3. 16:23“Cold Duck Time”af Les McCann
4. 16:29“Funny World”af Johnny Hartman
5. 16:34“Filet Of Soul”af Lee Morgan
6. 16:44“A trip to the stars”af Jimmy Ponder
7. 16:50“Night And Day”af Jørn Elniff
8. 16:57“Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud (Part 1)”af James Brown
9. 17:06“Mas Que Nada”af Luiz Henrique
10. 17:10“Blue Train”af John Coltrane
11. 17:21“Who Will Buy?”af Jon Lucien
12. 17:25“Time's Racing”af Bjarne Rostvold Quintet
13. 17:31“Yake-de-yak”af Jazz Quintet 60
14. 17:38“Foregone conclusion”af Joe Henderson
15. 17:44“Black Orpheus - Manha de Carnaval”af Paco de Lucía
16. 17:51“Light My Fire”af José Feliciano

dickf3 said:

Another option: Here’s the last hour today, 12/2/22, leading up to noon

As artist No. 8 once put it, this is a man’s man’s man’s world.

Using Internet Radio, my favorite Jazz is on WWOZ in New Orleans 90.7  Way more funky than BGO.

https://www.wwoz.org/listen/player/

And WWNO HD3  https://tektite.streamguys1.com:5145/wwnojazz

WWNO is a bit more highbrow!

Enjoy!

A slight thread drift: 

The Mingus Big Band is a repertory collection of top-notch jazz musicians that comes together to perform and keep alive the music of Charles Mingus. I've seen this group 6 or 7 times and there's slightly different musicians each time, depending, I guess, on who's in town and who's available. They deliver Mingus's smart, emotional, muscular and socially aware jazz music with an irresistible hard swing, big heart and love of one of the greatest jazz composers in history.

If you like the music of Charles Mingus, and/or you love to hear the very best post-bop big-band jazz, this band is very well worth seeing. They have four gigs coming up, on four Wednesdays in December, in a new venue in Manhattan (very near Penn Station and the PATH). Tickets aren't cheap ($40-50), but it represents some of the best jazz being played live in NYC at this time. 

(One of my favorite pianists, Helen Sung, is playing with them for a few of these shows. She's fantastic.)

I'm going on the 14th. And maybe the 21st.   Click link below.

Mingus Upcoming Events — CHARLES MINGUS

They very often play MOANIN' (see below) depending on who's playing baritone sax. 

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

If you like the music of Charles Mingus, and/or you love to hear the very best post-bop big-band jazz, this band is very well worth seeing.

And this bawdy 1971 memoir is well worth reading, however apocryphal it may be: Beneath the Underdog.

DaveSchmidt said:

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

If you like the music of Charles Mingus, and/or you love to hear the very best post-bop big-band jazz, this band is very well worth seeing.

And this bawdy 1971 memoir is well worth reading, however apocryphal it may be: Beneath the Underdog.

Last summer I read his widow Sue Mingus's memoir: "Tonight At Noon: A Love Story" about her life with him, his illness with ALS, and his deterioration and passing. He was quite the character, indeed.