San Diego's Jazz 88.3

Help KSDS celebrate Miles Davis' birthday all day TODAY. It's happening now and In celebration of his birthday KSDS will be playing classic and rare recordings and offering insightful commentary throughout the day. You're not going to want to miss one minute of this KSDS Fundraising event.  Plus, if you DONATE $88.30, you will get an exclusive KSDS CD (Miles Davis on the Air) which features rare broadcast material from the late 1940's from the Royal Roost. Tune in for more details!

Jazz on Tap continues this year announcing a high-energy jazz event highlighting local artists in a relaxed in-person outdoor setting and a virtual format. There will be live performances by Gilbert Castellanos, The Monette Marino World Jazz Ensemble and The Euphoria Brass Band. Proceeds from the event will benefit Water For People, a non-profit dedicated to changing lives by making clean water and sanitation available to everyone. The event will be held Sunday, June 13 in the Garden Terrace at the Westin Hotel in the Gaslamp. Doors open at 3:30PM and the live stream begins at 4:45PM. Here are the separate links for tickets- Link for In-Person and Link for Virtual Event.

Help KSDS celebrate Duke Ellington’s Birthday all day TODAY beginning at 7am PACIFIC. In celebration of Duke’s birthday, KSDS will be playing classic and rare recordings and offering insightful commentary throughout the day. You're not going to want to miss one minute of this KSDS Fundraising event.  Plus, if you DONATE $120 (or more) you will get both of these CD box sets together.

Help KSDS celebrate International Jazz Day, Friday, April 30th. The will be a grand prize for any one who makes a donation of any amount today. Anyone who contacts us during our International Jazz Day- 2021 by an online donation (or by calling 619-388-4027) will be automatically entered in the drawing to win a foursome of golf at the House of Music Golf Tournament on May 19th at the Rancho Bernardo Inn Spa and Golf Resort ($800 value). DONATE to help KSDS stay afloat as we had to cancel our Spring Membership Campaign AND get in the running to win today's Grand Prize. Here are the contest rules.

Join KSDS all day TODAY as we celebrate the birthday of the one and only Billie Holiday. There will be plenty of music as well as commentary during this one-day membership drive. And, as a special thank you, we will be offering an exclusive (and very limited) CD Box set that contains 12 albums for your donation. Support KSDS and enjoy Billie Holiday, all day long, only on KSDS.

Live Jazz is back in San Diego. KSDS and ElectricLouieLand Productions bring you the best of San Diego Jazz for ‘Jazz Night San Diego.’ Tune in at 5PM Pacific every Saturday night for a broadcast that features recently captured performances all around San Diego County. Gilbert Castellanos and some of his closest Jazz friends will be featured in concerts that will entertain and inspire. That’s Jazz Night San Diego, Saturday nights at 5PM Pacific, only on KSDS 88.3.

March is Women's History Month and KSDS-FM is celebrating by shining the spotlight on the great female jazz pianists. Listen every weekday throughout the month to hear our daily featured artist. And, if you would like to nominate your own, please do when you make a pledge of support. 

February 26, 2021- Today's Bebop Era Topic: Birdland

Birdland, named after Charlie “Yardbird” Parker, opened on December 15, 1949 at 52nd and Broadway in Manhattan.

Opening night was a star-studded affair billed as an All American Jazz Festival featuring a Journey through Jazz.  The idea was to present the entire history of jazz up to that point and featured Max Kaminsky, Hot Lips Page, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano and Stan Getz.

For the next fifteen years the club played host to all the jazz greats and became one of the most well known nightclubs in the world.  

The awning over the entrance had “Birdland” emblazoned on both sides.  You entered street level and descended down into the basement where you would find an unusually large venue that could seat 400.  The walls were decorated with murals of famous jazz personalities.  

In honor of the clubs’ namesake, opening night featured live birds in cages suspended from the ceiling but they lasted only a few weeks due to lack of appropriate ventilation.

There was a long bar with red and white checkered tablecloths and a fenced in bullpen known as the peanut gallery where no alcohol was served and underage patrons could watch and listen.

The club was owned by several partners with the infamous Morris Levy being the most visible.  Levy had been part of the group that opened the Royal Roost several months earlier.

The club’s manager was Oscar Goodstein and the diminutive Pee Wee Marquette, the doorman and master of ceremonies.

Not long after Birdland opened Symphony Sid Torin moved over from Bop City and began broadcasting from the club with his “all night, all frantic” show on WJZ.  He broadcast from a booth in the back of the club which featured the latest jazz records alternating with live music from the stage.

February 25, 2021- Today's Bebop Era Topic: New Jazz and the Prestige Label

Prestige Records came along at the tail end of the bebop era recording their first session in January of 1949. It wasn’t known as Prestige though, the original name was "New Jazz."

The label was formed by Bob Weinstock a jazz fan and record dealer that rented space in the Jazz Record Center in 1947. The Jazz Record Center was located on 47th Street in New York right around the corner from the location of the Royal Roost.

When the first Thelonious Monk records came out on Blue Note, Alfred Lion stopped by Weinstock’s shop and dropped some off. Weinstock was hooked and became a fan of the new music.  Drummer Kenny Clarke was a regular at the shop as well and encouraged Weinstock to start his own record label.  

Several record shops had successfully started their own label most notably Commodore and Apollo in New York and Dial on the West coast.

The first New Jazz session took place on January 11, 1949 and featured Lennie Tristano’s Quintet.  

New Jazz made a number of sessions during that first year including dates by Stan Getz, Terry Gibbs and Kai Winding.

In May, they recorded a series of classic bebop dates with J.J. Johnson, Fats Navarro, Sonny Stitt, Bud Powell and Wardell Gray.

Weinstock also started leasing recordings from European labels which included several outstanding sides by James Moody who was living in Europe at the time.

In 1950 New Jazz recorded important dates with Dizzy Gillespie and the first of many two-tenor battles with Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt.

The Prestige name began being used by the middle of 1950 and, along with Blue Note, become one of the most celebrated independent jazz labels of all time. Weinstock had a different approach than Alfred Lion at Blue Note.  He liked to bring musicians together, unrehearsed and capture everything in one take.  In a 1990 interview he explained- “I found charts and rehearsals were the kiss of death. I believe jazz should be free and loose, and should swing. That’s the atmosphere I wanted to create, not the stress and strain of trying to work out some chart.  For a certain period of time while I was supervising sessions, I had every Friday booked at Van Gelder’s studio, often without anything in particular in mind.”

February 24, 2021- Today's Bebop Era Topic: The Royal Roost

The Royal Roost was a jazz nightclub in New York that became one of the most legendary venues for modern jazz.  Its heyday only lasted eleven months but in that time they presented all of the great names of the bebop era.

The club was located in a basement space at 1580 Broadway between 47th and 48th Streets, just above Times Square.  It originally opened as a fried chicken restaurant that advertised itself as “The Royal Chicken Roost, New York’s Grooviest Nest”.

The restaurant was heading for bankruptcy when three businessmen, Ralph Watkins, Bill Faden and Morris Levy took over operations and purchased it in 1947.

They shortened the name to The Royal Roost and re-opened it as a jazz club in early 1948.

Watkins had been one of the owners of Kelly’s Stables on 52nd St. and Levy had mob connections that helped finance the purchase and acquire the necessary permits.

Things were slow until Monte Kay and Symphony Sid Torin came along in March of 1948.
Kay was hired as the artistic director and Sid began broadcasting from the club.

Tuesday nights were off nights so Kay and Torin began presenting Tuesday Bop Concerts.  The concept worked and was expanded first to two nights, then six and finally seven nights a week.

The Royal Roost began using the taglines “The House that Bop Built” and “The Metropolitan Bopera House”.

Symphony Sid was on WMCA at the time and started out doing his disc jockey  show from four to five AM.  On Friday into Saturday mornings Sid began broadcasting his All Night All Frantic show at one AM featuring live performances from the stage.

The combination of all-star talent and the radio promotion made the Roost into a big success.  So much so that Watkins and Kay decided they needed a bigger space.  They both left in 1949 and opened Bop City just up the street in the Brill Building.  Levy stayed at the Roost but soon teamed up with Watkins and opened Birdland in December of 1949.

Many of the iconic photographs from the bebop era were taken at the Royal Roost by Herman Leonard.  Leonard, who had recently served in world war two and graduated from Ohio University, opened his first studio in Greenwich Village in 1948 and spent his evenings at the club.

Although the Roost was only in existence a short time they were able to present all the great stars of modern jazz including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron, Woody Herman, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Fats Navarro, Dexter Gordon and Max Roach.  The Roost was also the venue that presented Miles Davis’s Nonet that we now refer to as The Birth of the Cool.

Luckily some of those WMCA broadcasts have survived and we can experience those exciting nights at the house that bop built.