Rock is playing three chords for 10,000 people and jazz is playing 10,000 chord for three people.
Sid Caesar on your show of shows said “Jazz is the sound of the wind in a storm, jazz is a wild wave breaking against the shore, jazz is a mountain, jazz isa swinging desert, jazz is a purple bird flying, Jazz is a pencil sharpener, jazz is a frying pan, jazz is a handball caught…Jazz. Look it up on You tube, you won’t be sorry.
Regardless the 518 has its share of a rich deep and thriving jazz community and it’s a special treat when we get to record that family at The Linda. And no more thanks go out to anyone more that WAMC’s very own Tim Coakley. The Tim Coakley Jazz Show has been a staple on WAMC and here in the Capital District for 35 years this year, and we are throwing a very special anniversary party at The Linda on Saturday, November 12th at 1:30 p.m. This one-night-only concert and live recording session will feature the Skip Parsons Memorial Band, ft. Tim Coakley – a Dixieland group paying tribute to one of Coakley’s longtime musical collaborators. For the second set we welcome The Peg Delaney Quartet featuring Colleen Pratt. Finally, top jazz musicians from around the region will take part in a jam session to close the night.
And best of all …It’s FREE! So, you have no excuse, just to come on out to The Linda.
In celebration tonight we’re going to listen tonight to concerts from Wayne Hawkins Quartet 2022, Colleen Pratt & Peg Delany Trio 2022, Lee Shaw 2007, and Keith Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble 2008
A versatile pianist and keyboardist, Wayne Hawkins performs throughout the country, collaborating with artists of varying styles of music. As both composer and arranger, Hawkins has written for a variety of films, commercials and recording artists.
In addition, his discography includes over 40 recordings with a wide variety of artists. As a leader, his recordings include the critically acclaimed Wayne Hawkins Trio and his recently released Solo work.
As a teacher, Hawkins was on faculty at the University of Kansas for eight years and recently taught at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Wayne Hawkins is joined by Matt Steckler (sax), Erik Johnson (bass), and Bob Halek (drums).
Acclaimed vocal stylist Colleen Pratt and musical partners Peg Delaney, Bill Delaney, and Bob Halek gather songs from the Great American Songbook and add their own patina. Colleen devotes her full, rich vocals to the swing and jazz idioms, and enjoys singing contemporary ballads, pop and Motown. Peg, who draws from American, Latin and Brazilian styles, plays in many different settings from solo piano to big bands. Accompanying vocalists has been Peg’s favorite role and with Bill Delaney on upright bass and the versatile Bob Halek on drums she provides a musical cushion for Colleen’s vocals.
This concert was from our “Jazz Open House,” this past summer in 2022. Here is the Wayne Hawkins Quartet followed by Colleen Pratt and the Peg Delaney Trio live at The Linda.
Lee Shaw was an American jazz pianist and composer. Born Londa Lee Moore in Cushing, Oklahoma, but raised in Ada. Shaw would listen to the radio then play on the piano the songs she heard, as well as learn songs from the Great American Songbook. Shaw studied piano classically at Oklahoma College for Women and obtained a master's degree at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. It was there that she met drummer Stan Shaw in 1961. They married within six months and formed the Lee Shaw Trio, playing pop standards in restaurants and nightclubs around Chicago. She claimed to have never heard the term "jazz" until attending a Count Basie concert. She studied with Oscar Peterson, who offered his tutelage after hearing her play.
The Lee Shaw Trio performed extensively across the country, including in her native Oklahoma, where she was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in June 1993. With Stan's health decline in the late-1990s and death in 2001, the trio was reformed and, every year from 2007 to 2009, toured Europe. A concert in Austria, recorded by the ORF, was the basis for the 2008 album and DVD, Live in Graz.
In 2013, filmmaker Susan Robbins began working on a documentary about Shaw, titled Lee's 88 Keys, after meeting her in. The documentary was released in April 2015. Shaw attended and accepted the 2015 Jazz Hero Award from the Jazz Journalists' Association.
We lost Lee Shaw in 2015 but her music lives on. Here is Lee Shaw from 2007 live at The Linda.
Keith Pray is a versatile saxophonist and organist, who explores the boundaries of mainstream jazz, the blues, avant-garde and gritty funk as a performer, bandleader, composer and educator.
Keith has traveled from the west coast to Europe making music of many styles with hundreds of gifted musicians including some of the giants of the business. For eight years he resided in New York City performing with artists from multiple disciplines including, jazz, R&B, blues, Latin and big band
Keith is an in-demand jazz educator, having conducted many all-counties, masterclasses, clinics, directing the Proctors Summer Jazz Institute for 9 seasons and most recently co-founding All Ears Jazz, which develops jazz education workshops.
This concert is from 2009, Here is Keith Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble live at The Linda.
Thanks for sticking with us this week. Join us next week as we travel back a decade, and hear sets from November 2012. For more information about The Linda or any upcoming events follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or visit thelinda.org.
