The Granddaddy Of Jazz Radio (KJAZ-FM)

When KRE-FM in Berkeley was purchased in the late 70's by Inner City Broadcasting, the staff was informed that our new call letters would soon become KBLX. Since Inner City was and perhaps still is the largest Black owned and operated broadcasting company in America, it stood to reason that this was potentially good news for all concerned, for in our typical laid-back West Coast manner, we naively speculated that the 'BLX' indicated a decidedly Afrocentric direction on the part of the new owners ('Blacks.' Get it?). After all, they did name themselves after the inner city. It only stood to reason, right? Wrong. Had we done our homework, we would have discovered that 'BLX' was in direct correlation to New York City's WBLX, also owned by Inner City, who that same decade was a powerful and extremely high profile disco and dance station in downtown Manhattan! Now disco and dance music was so far off our radar, it never occurred to us that people might actually listen to that sort of thing on their radios! But before long, all manner of designer suits began descending upon our little island of progressive jazz, each worn by incredibly savvy, suave and well manicured East Coast mocha skinned businessmen with tight Jheri Curls who appeared to have stepped directly from the pages of Jet Magazine or an advertisement for Hennessy. In short order, the progressive jazz format was silenced to unveil with great fanfare the insufferable and unspeakable 'Quiet Storm,' harbinger of smooth jazz and all it stands to represent. What more could have come from BMW driving Hennessy drinkers, besides tones of beige and tasseled loafers? The dream was clearly over.

Meanwhile, I had been encouraged by several colleagues to approach the granddaddy of all jazz radio stations, the luminous KJAZ in Alameda, the longest running commercial jazz station in the United States. KJAZ was established in 1959 by Pat Henry who lovingly guided it to become the premiere outlet for jazz in all its forms, broadcasting an 35 incredible years until it's ultimate demise in 1994.* Its studios were housed in an unassuming 2nd story residential flat above the downtown merchants of the small island community in the San Francisco Bay. Through its doors and up the stairwell climbed nearly every giant of jazz that roamed the earth in the latter half of the 20th century, a testament to its prestige, for KJAZ was not only legendary, it was the foremost authority and source for jazz music on the radio dial. If this didn't apply coast to coast, then it certainly was true, west of the Mississippi. After approaching the Program Director, I was initially offered fill-in shifts, as full time positions were rarely available. After all, who would willingly walk away from such a cool gig as this? The part time arrangement suited me fine, as I was still under contract with KRE, and besides, the prospect of performing on KJAZ was a bit intimidating to me. The air staff there were all older than myself, and great guys each and every one,** well informed, passionate and committed, but these were the guys who had been in the jazz trenches for far longer than I. Any of them could have easily done the old Downbeat magazine 'Blindfold Test,' wherein you are played a new and undisclosed selection of music and then asked to identify the players based on what you gleaned from the recording just heard. "Well, the drummer is definitely Billy Higgins. Nobody does brushwork quite the same way he does. And the tenor player (pause), it could be Jimmy Heath. I can't exactly tell, but there's a bit of that 'little Bird' sound in there" and so on. In comparison, I felt as though I were still getting my feet wet, despite my on-air experience at KRE. Surprisingly, the biggest challenge I faced was whenever I was called to cover for the host of 'Dinner Jazz,' a popular program that ran from 6pm to 8:30pm, Monday through Saturday. The premise was 2 1/2 hours of innocuous soft and romantic jazz designed to aid and assist the sophisticated, but harried listener in unwinding from their busy day to enjoy a evening meal with good wine and conversation over the tinkling of pianos and breathy tenor saxophones. Upon reflection, it was not unlike the 'Quiet Storm' which I was so looking to avoid, only with a better selection of music from which to choose and a running time of only 150 minutes, thank God! Despite an incredible library at your command, it's still extremely difficult to program several hours of ballads and the like, while trying to keep things interesting or from falling into a soft jazz stupor. The host, Bob Parlocha was a consummate pro, handling the flow with grace where I often floundered, struggling to inject rhythmic variation and color without adding too many vocal tracks, becoming too uptempo, or jarring the mood. It's a hard task, much harder than you might imagine, but below are 13 selections that I believe effectively capture the approach as it was intended to be. Perhaps I've finally mastered it, now that it doesn't matter anymore, but it's here for you to enjoy, and I hope that you will.

1) Dinah/Thelonious Monk
2) When It's Sleepytime Down South/Terence Blanchard
3) The Beautiful One/Stephen Scott
4) Where/Maria Muldaur
5) The Prisoner/Herbie Hancock
6) Introduction/Charlie Haden's Quartet West
7) Always Say Goodbye/Charlie Haden's Quartet West
8) Nice Eyes/Charlie Haden's Quartet West
9) Step Lightly/Joe Henderson Big Band
10) Dance Cadaverous/Wayne Shorter
11) I Won't Cry Anymore/Billie Holiday
12) Silver Lining/Chet Baker
13) Dolphin Dance/Carol Robbins

To download, click here.

Not much information is available on-line regarding KJAZ, but in addition to Bob Parlocha, you can also hear the first and last voice on KJAZ, the great Jerry Dean who broadcasts a loose recreation of the station on 'The Spirit Of Jazz,' streaming on iTunes radio.

*Ironically, the dial position and frequency that KJAZ once occupied are now licensed to KNGY, 'Energy 92.7,' a station that plays dance music.

**Save, the talented and equally great, though much younger and quite attractive, Audrey Wells, who was the first woman ever to join the KJAZ air staff. Audrey eventually went on to become a successful Hollywood screenwriter and director, responsible for 'Under the Tuscan Sun' and others.