Jazz on the Bay: Recent series

Click on a date to listen to the programme.

Programme 1: 3rd January 2008 - repeated on the 1st of January 2009
Dave Brubeck..his music and legacy.

Jazz singer Melanie O'Reilly returns to present "Jazz on the Bay" for a third series . Currently Musician-in-Residence at Berkeley. CA., she interviews American jazz musicians, listening to their life stories, their inspirations and their music., discovering that jazz is alive and well in the Bay Area.

Her first featured artist will be jazz legend, pianist and composer DAVE BRUBECK, live at the Brubeck Festival and the Brubeck Institute, at the Univerisity of Pacific, CA.. His life and legacy are also explored featuring interviews with his wife Iola and his close musical colleagues/friends including film actor/director and Chair of the Brubeck Institute, Clint Eastwood, who also shares a little of his own involvement in jazz.

Programme 2: 10th January 2008 - to be repeated on the 15th of January 2009 at 9p.m.
Marion Mc Partland

Singer Melanie O'Reilly talks to pianist and jazz legend Marion McPartland, who also continues to host National Public Radio's longest-running and most widely carried jazz programme, "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz". Her personal story unfolds in downtown Oakland, California, while taking a break from her performance at local jazz club, Yoshis.

Programme 3: 17th January 2008 - to be repeated on the 22nd of January 2009 at 9p.m.
Chick Corea

This week, singer Melanie O'Reilly meets Grammy Award-winning pianist-composer-bandleader. Chick Corea, one of the most prolific jazz artists of our times.

From avant-garde to bebop, from children's songs to straight ahead, from hard-hitting fusion to heady forays into classical, Chick has touched an astonishing number of musical bases in his illustrious career while maintaining a standard of excellence that is simply uncanny. A restlessly creative spirit, he continues to explore and generate new material and reveals his inspirations and life journey while backstage at the Zellerbach Hall on the campus of UCBerkeley, California.

Programme 4: 24th January 2008 - to be repeated on the 29th of January 2009 at 9p.m.
James Moody.

Singer and presenter Melanie O'Reilly travels to southern California to meet one of the great treasures of American culture, saxophonist James Moody, at his home in San Diego.

Best known for his hit "Moody's mood for Love", he was also a member of the seminal be-bop big band of Dizzy Gillespie, of whom he was a close associate and in this programme he shares some of the most intimate moments of his life , including overcoming obstacles such as deafness and racism.

Programme 5: 31st January 2008
Cleo Laine and John Dankworth - to be repeated on the 5th of February 2009 at 9p.m.

Melanie meets British jazz aristocrats Dame Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth, during their stay at Sonoma County, California. Both turned 80 recently and still active on the scene, they look back on a remarkable career , ranging from the days of the Johnny Dankworth Seven when bebop was a new music; their unique marrying of Shakespeare and jazz; Cleo's own international stardom as one of the world's top vocalists, John's career as a film and TV composer, and their commitment to music education.

Programme 6: 7th February 2008 - to be repeated on the 19th of February 2009 at 9p.m.

Women of Jazz in the Bay Area

To round up the current series, Melanie takes a trip to Downtown San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland to talk to the women of jazz in the Bay Area.
She hears their fascinating stories and their music and learns how women instrumentalists, vocalists, and entrepeuneurs of jazz clubs and conservertories increasingly play a vital and important role in this unique jazz community.

For comments on the series, please write to: musicradio@rte.ie

To return to the homepage, click here.