The Friday Riff

April 4, 2008: Bye-Ya!

Rob — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:36:21 +0000

Today is the last edition of the Friday Riff (for a while, at least). We thank our listener(s)! We’ll say goodbye with music about leaving, being left, or just being. Including tracks from Steve Lacy, Sun Ra, Jelly Roll Morton, Raw Materials, and more! Thanks again for your support and interest. A special thanks to all of our guests who have appeared on the show over the last year and a half!

March 28, 2008: Penultimate Riff Raff

Rob — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:12:25 +0000

Today is our second-to-last show before the Riff goes on “sabbatical.” Featured music includes the late, great Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Elis Regina, The Quadraphonnes, Dave Tarras, Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band, and more!

March 21, 2008: Marian McPartland B-Day Bash!

Rob — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:11:43 +0000

Thursday, March 20th, 2008 is Marian McPartland’s 90th birthday. Not only is she a talented and influential jazz pianist, she is also one of the most important voices in jazz education, having hosted a show on NPR for almost 30 years. “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz” features guest artists who play with McPartland and talk informally about their careers. It’s a treasure of, as Sun Ra would say, history, herstory, and mystery. If you think it’s odd pairing McPartland with Ra, check out her show with Cecil Taylor. . . Today, we’ll listen to music from her long career, starting with her classic trio from NYC’s Hickory House. Happy birthday Marian McPartland!

March 14, 2008: basketball, no jazz

Rob — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:01:55 +0000

Today we are preempted by UCSB basketball. See you next week!

March 7, 2008: The Bigger Bands

Rob — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 05:31:30 +0000

Today we do our quarterly show featuring the music of large-ish ensembles, previewing this weekend’s UCSB Jazz Ensemble Concert–Sunday, March 9th at 7 PM in UCSB’s Lotte Lehman Concert Hall. We’ll hear music from Count Basie, John Coltrane, Jason Robinson, Nathan Hubbard, and more! More info on the UCSB Jazz Ensemble Concert can be found at

http://www.music.ucsb.edu/

February 29, 2008: Smorgasbord!

Rob — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:56:52 +0000

No, we aren’t playing Swedish jazz– although we could, and we have– but today we’ll sample a variety of music from new and old artists, including Melba Liston, Allen Lowe, Fenaison, Roland Kirk, Johnny Hartman, and more!

February 22, 2008: Brasilintime!

Rob — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:34:19 +0000

Today we welcome special guests and accomplished DJs/filmmakers/photographers B+ (aka Brian Cross) and Eric Coleman. Together they form the Mochilla collective based out of LA. Their latest project, Brasilintime, a documentary film and, subsequently, a transnational jam session which brings together legendary jazz and funk musicians with their modern-day hiphop counterparts, investigates the links between Afrodiasporic music from the U.S.A. to Brazil and back. B+ and Coleman will spin some records and we’ll talk to them about the film, which screens tonight at 7 PM at the UCSB McCune Conference Room.

More details at http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/CISM/

February 15, 2008: Remembering Oscar Peterson

Rob — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:26:09 +0000

The titan of jazz piano, Oscar Peterson, passed away in December of 2007. Today we’ll listen to music from his long career, beginning with his early days as a virtuoso in the late 40s and early 50s. Peterson put his unique stamp on the jazz piano trio format and influenced countless musicians with his technical skill and deep sense of swing. He was playing up until his death, despite a stroke that crippled his left hand in 1993. We’ll pay tribute to his legacy on today’s Friday Riff.

February 8, 2008: The Music of Bobby Bradford

Rob — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:05:05 +0000

Today we return LIVE with a great show featuring the music of trumpeter/cornetist, composer and educator Bobby Bradford, in anticipation of his concert on Saturday, Feb. 9th at the UCSB Multicultural Center Theater. We’ll speak with Bradford via phone and listen to music from throughout his career, including his work with Ornette Coleman, John Carter, John Stevens, and more! Don’t miss this show!

more info on the concert can be found at http://mcc.sa.ucsb.edu/Calendar/index.aspx

February 1, 2008: Jamaica and Jazz (re-dux version)

Rob — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:09:21 +0000

Again, due to a combination of forces outside of our control, Bryan and Rob are unable to make jazziness happen from the jazz bat cave. Today we re-air another great show from our archive, however, featuring guest Gibb Schreffler and a tour through Jamaican music and jazz.