YOW Jazz, July 23: Summer Jazz

New releases, a reissue, and newly discovered live performances

This show will feature new releases with a connection to the summer months. We are about halfway through one of the wettest summers in recent memory so, appropriately, the show will start with weather-related jazz tracks: “Raincloud Two-Step” from the Hot Club of Los Angeles, followed by “Rain” from the new release from Kavyesh Kaviraj. On a more optimistic note, we will also hear “On the Sunny Side of the Street” from a new release by the trumpeter Summer Camargo. She appeared at the Ottawa Jazz Festival this year, as part of the Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society.

(She's in the back row, second on the left.)

We will also hear a track from the Eyal Vilner Big Band - “Blue Skies”.

In the set devoted to summer food, we will start with “Casabah Melon” from a new reissue of Dizzy Gillespie’s, Soul & Salvation. Casbah melons are often eaten with fried food so, of course, we will follow that up with “Cold Fried Chicken” from Brent Birckhead’s album, Cacao.

Nothing says summer better than lobster - and we will hear the track “Poor Man’s Lobster” from Scott Gilman’s new release. Poor man’s lobster is usually monkfish. Ironically, lobster was considered to be “poor man’s food” until the middle of the 19th century.

We will end our summer meal with “Shortbread” from Nick Finzer’s tribute album to JJ Jonson. This year is the centenary of his birth (and for those interested, I did a show on In A Mellow Tone, featuring Max Roach and JJ Johnson , in January of this year). Here’s the original version by JJ Johnson, from 1967.

On the show, we will also hear a track from the new Gabriel Evan Orchestra release, Island Hopping with the track Habana Hammock - on his website, Gabriel Evan describes the track as a “lazy island groove … and simple melody [that] transport the listener to an isolated beach, lounging seaside without a care in the world”.

We will also hear a track from Louis Matute from his new release, Small Variations from the Previous Day.

The last set will feature recent releases from two great jazz vocalists - Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong. Nat King Cole was recorded at the Blue Note in Chicago in 1953. Louis Armstrong was recorded live at a BBC Studio in London in 1968.

You can listen to the show live on 93.1 FM in Ottawa or at CKCUFM.com, at 11 a.m. (EDT), or on demand after broadcast.