WKCR 89.9FM NY

Beginning Thursday, August 27, WKCR will have a four-day festival dedicated to the music of tenor saxophonist Lester "Prez" Young (b. August 27, 1909; d. March 15, 1959), and alto saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker (b. August 29, 1920; d. March 12, 1955). The 27th marks Prez's birthday, and the 29th, Bird's. On Friday, August 28th we will play both Prez and Bird interchangeably throughout the day.

Bassist / producer Melvin Gibbs puts Ornette Coleman in Deep Focus on Jazz Alternatives with Mitch Goldman tonight from 6pm to 9pm on WKCR 89.9FM and wkcr.org.

Tune in Thursday, August 13th, to hear an interview with James C. Strausse, the writer and director of the film People Places Things, and the star of the film, Jemaine Clement. The film follows a newly single graphic novel artist who is attempting to balance his twin daughters, students, and his love life. Strausse and Clement talk with WKCR programmer Chaim Lazaros about the character of the film, the artistic procress, the role illustrations play in the movie, and what audiences can learn from the film.

Tune in to Late City Edition at 9 pm on Thursday, August 13th, to hear Hubert Sauper, the Academy Award-nominated director of Darwin's Nightmare, discuss his latest documentary, We Come As Friends. In We Come As Friends, Sauper travels around the Sudan in a self-built airplane showing his audience glimpes into the present day colonization taking place. In this interview, Sauper talks with WKCR programmer Danielle Smith about the process of making the film, his artistic take on documentaries, and the troubling situation in Sudan right now.

Tune in Monday, August 10th, and Tuesday, August 11th, to hear the latest from Conversations on the Leading Edge, a collaboration between the Earth Institute's Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity and WKCR's Late City Edition.

This Sunday's edition of Jazz Profiles will feature Japanese composer and arranger, Toshiko Akiyoshi, a 14 time Grammy nominee. Born in 1929, Akiyoshi became interested in the piano at age six; by the time her family had moved back to Japan at the end of World War II, having emigrated to China before Toshiko was born, she had developed a real love for music. She soon began playing piano professionally, which eventually led to her discovery by pianist Oscar Peterson in 1952 during a Norman Granz Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of Japan.

On Tuesday evening, August 11th, the Mostly Mozart Festival presents the North American stage premiere of George Benjamin's opera Written On Skin. Universally hailed as a modern masterpiece, the work now arrives in New York with Barbara Hannigan, the originator of its principal role. In recent years, Ms. Hannigan has distinguished herself as one of the most adventurous sopranos of her generation through the 80 world premieres in which she has performed.

Tune in at 9 pm on Friday, August 7th, to hear an interview with Tom Surgal, the writer and the director of the documentary, Fire Music. Fire Music is a full-length documentary about the Free Jazz Revolution in New York City–a subject which is often ignored when people discuss jazz. Fire Music is currently hosting a kickstarter campaign to help raise the necessary funds for completing this documentary. In this interview, Tom Surgal talks with WKCR programmer Gabe Ibagon about the genre of free jazz, the process of making the documentary, and his inspiration for this film.

Tune in to Afternoon New Music this Monday, August 3rd, from 3-6PM to hear an interview with Matt Motel of the duo Talibam!. He will stop by to talk about the free jazz/experimental group and their upcoming performance at the Sound + Vision Festival on Monday night. Listen!

Amir ElSaffar on In All Languages --

On Monday August 3rd from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM EDT on WKCR Jazz Alternatives, saxophonist, composer, and leader Eric Person and Mitch Goldman put Ornette Coleman's Prime Time in Deep Focus. Tune in for revelatory live recordings on WKCR 89.9 FM and online at https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/

Tune in at 9:00 PM on Sunday, August 2nd, to hear Dr. Hannah Star Rogers and Carla Stockton read their original literary works on Studio A. Hannah Rogers holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and is currently in the MFA program at Columbia University, where she teaches university writing. Currently, Hannah is in Arizona with a writing residency at Art Hub.

Tune in on Tuesday, August 4th as we celebrate the supposed 'real' birthday of one of the foundational figures of jazz, trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong. You may have heard our celebration on July 4th, which will be akin to this one, July 4th being the date Satchmo deemed and celebrated his birthday. We will be preempting all regular programming as we honor Pops with 24 hours of swing again.

This Sunday, WKCR's very own Cooper Lynn will be delving into the musical world of Pharoah Sanders, a titan among tenors. Having played with the likes of John Coltrane and Sun Ra, the latter of whom is responsible for the nickname 'Pharoah' (a mangling of the original Ferrell). It was after living in Oakland, CA and touring with Sun Ra that Sanders moved to New York City. He then began playing with Coltrane after he (Coltrane) heard his quartet with Billy Higgins, Wilbur Ware, and John Hicks live at the Village Gate.

Tune in on Thursday, July 30th, to hear an interview by WKCR programmer Kally Patz with Kiarán O’Reilly the cofounder of Irish Repertory Theater and the director of “The Weir,” by Conor McPherson. The play takes place over the course of an evening at a pub in the Irish countryside. Vying for the attention of a newcomer named Valerie, locals exchange ghostly stories over drinks. "The Wier" will be running at the DR2 Theater until September 6th.

Tune in tonight from 6-9 PM to hear guitarist, composer, arranger, vocalist, and songwriter extroardinaire Joel Harrison. Harrison was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 2010, and has released over 16 albums as a leader since 1995. He is also a winner of the Jazz Composer’s Alliance Composition Competition, in addition to receiving awards and grants from Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, the Flagler Cary Trust, NYSCA, New Music USA, and the Jerome Foundation.

Tune in to Afternoon Classical from 3:00-6:00 PM on Thursday July 30^th for a special live in-studio interview with K. Scott Warren, organist, pianist, conductor, and composer. We will explore sacred music, discover some of Scott’s compositions, and WKCR Programmer Elisabeth Stam will speak with him about it all. Scott’s experience as a liturgical musician includes serving as Music Director or Interim Director at several Manhattan churches, including Immanuel Lutheran Church, Park Avenue United Methodist Church, and Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Tune in to Saturday Night At The Opera for a special feature on Metropolitan Opera legend Lucine Amara. With stunning musicality and remarkable technique, the Armenian-American soprano was a stalwart performer at the Met who sang leading roles ranging from Gluck to Britten (and everything in between) for over 40 years. Even at ninety, Ms. Amara remains active as the Artistic Director of the New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera. Ms. Amara also recently played La Duchesse de Krakenthorp in Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment.

Tune in to Early Music on Friday July 31st from 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM for a program entirely devoted to the choral and period-instrument orchestral ensemble The Sixteen. The Sixteen was founded in 1977 by Harry Christophers CBE and is perhaps most well known for its excellence in performing early English polyphony works. The ensemble has grown into international renown and is arguably one of the most vibrant and exciting early music groups performing and recording today.

Maati Baani comes to WKCR, 89.9 FM, NYC --

Operagoers who know Georg Büchner's name will probably know him solely for his play Woyzeck, the source material for Alban Berg's Wozzeck; however, many of the German writer's compositions have inspired extraordinary operatic works. Tune in to Saturday Night at the Opera on Saturday July 25th to hear two vastly different adaptations of Büchner's operas.

Gnawa Diffusion and Innove Gnawa on In All Languages -- Sunday July 26th from 11:00 PM to 2:00 AM: This special show will feature live performances and and interviews with two great bands in the tradition of Gnawa music - trance music from Morocco. First, we will broadcast a live set from WKCR's studio with Innove Gnawa. Then, we will broadcast the live performance of Algeria's Gnawa Diffusion recorded last week at Lincoln Center.

Tune in to Thursday's edition of Afternoon Classical on Thursday, July 23rd 2015 from 3:00 to 6:00 PM for an exploration of the compositions of French composer and organist Louis Vierne. Born on October 8th 1870, Vierne was technically legally blind and would have many ocular issues throughout his life. Despite his poor vision, Vierne exhibited both a gift for and appreciation of music, he went on to study with César Franck, and ultimately Vierne dedicated his entire life to music.

Tonight from 11pm to 1am join us for Jassvan de Lima's interview with Mauro Refosco from the group Forro In The Dark. Forro in the Dark is a New York-based collective of Brazilian expatriates that formed in 2002. The group combines the musical style of forró (pronounced "faux-HAW"), “the percussion-heavy, rhythmic dance music” of their native Brazil, with elements of rock, folk, jazz, and country. Mauro Refosco is a Brazilian percussionist.

From 6-9 PM on Wednesday, July 22nd, guitarist, composer, and sound artist Terrence McManus will be joining us live in the WKCR Studio for this week's edition of the Musician's Show. Originating from Brooklyn, McManus is a pioneer of contemporary music, having collaborated with other seminal artists such as John Zorn, Gerry Hemingway (tune in this Sunday the 26th to hear him on Jazz Profiles), Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, and more. He is a regular member of the Gerry Hemingway Quintet, and also frequently performs with Hemingway in a duo.

Tune in Tuesday evening from 6-9 PM to hear the first of two installments of the Musician's Show taking place this week, where we will be joined by guitarist, composer, and educator Jonathan Kreisberg. A New York native, Kreisberg began playing guitar at age 10 after moving to Miami with his family. He won a scholarship to the University of Miami and the guitar seat in the Concert Jazz Band, which gave him the opportunity to tour Brazil and performing with Joe Henderson, Michael Brecker, and Red Rodney.

In tandem to Gerry Hemingway’s six day residency at the Stone between July 28th and August 2nd, WKCR presents a profile of his over 40 year musical career in a program that will feature Mr. Hemingway himself, along with rare and unreleased recordings from his personal archive.

Tune in this Monday, July 20th, from 3-6PM to hear an in-studio performance by jazz legend Gunter Hampel and dancer/percussionist Danilo Cardoso. The duo came to WKCR last week to perform a series of improvisations that explore the possibilities between music and dance. They then talked to us about the history of the duo, and their plans to spread awareness and understanding of improvisation through their performances. Listen!

BIO

Tune in at 9:30 on Monday, July 20th, to hear an interview with Sarah Fornace and Ben Kauffman, two of the artistic directors at Manual Cinema, a Chicago based shadow puppet company. Fornace and Kauffman talk with WKCR programmer Danielle Smith about Manual Cinema, Shadow Puppetry, and the show currently running in New York City, ADA|AVA. The show, using overhead projectors, shadow puppets, and live music, follows the elderly woman Ada as she deals with the death of twin sister Ava.

On Wednesday, it was announced that Alan Curtis had passed away. The founder and director of Il Complesso Barocco, Curtis was instrumental in the restoration and performance of many forgotten operas by Vivaldi, Handel, and more. Tune in to Saturday Night At The Opera on Saturday July 18th to hear his 2011 recording of Handel's Ariodante.