Thank you for making the Spring Fundraiser a success - WKMS could not do without you!

If you have any questions regarding the spring fundraiser, please contact Angie Kimbro at 270-762-4748 or through email.

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April is Jazz Appreciation Month - Celebrate with Riverwalk Jazz

 

Jim Cullum, live from The Landing Fifth Business. If you read the Roberston Davies novel by that name, you recognize the term. Fifth Business, the author explained, is the supporting role in opera or drama that is neither "Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain," but which is nonetheless essential to moving the plot forward.

In the Jim Cullum story, Garrison Keillor is the Fifth Business. A 1985 appearance on Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion started Cullum thinking about a public radio show of his own. It was another step in his lifelong attraction to jazz — one that began decades before. Cullum was only 14 or so when a fascination with his dad's well-worn Bix Beiderbecke recordings led him to take up the cornet. In high school, he organized dance bands, and by the time he was in college, he and his father had put together the seven-piece group that would become The Jim Cullum Jazz Band. In 1963, father and son, along with a handful of music-loving investors, launched The Landing Jazz Club on San Antonio's historic Riverwalk. Then, the winding Riverwalk path was a far cry from the bustling tourist attraction it is today. One of the few bright lights along the San Antonio River in the early '60s was the original Landing jazz club. After more than 40 years, The Landing remains one of the most popular — and longest-running — jazz venues in the U.S.

By 1988, three years after that Prairie Home gig, Cullum was ready to take the plunge into public radio, and he went looking for a producer. It was Joe Gwathmey, Texas Public Radio's general manager, who steered him to one of the best in the business: Margaret Pick. As luck would have it, Pick had recently wrapped up a 13-year stint as producer for Keillor (that Fifth Business guy again), and she was up for the challenge. Another APHC veteran, the award-winning producer Lynne Cruise, joined the Riverwalk Jazz team in 1989. May 27, 1989, on the air live nationwide That year, Riverwalk, Live From The Landing debuted on 60 stations. Fifteen years later, and now called Riverwalk Jazz, it may just be the most creative jazz program on the air. Each week listeners dial up one of Riverwalk's more than 150 public radio stations, or they go to www.riverwalk.org where on-demand streaming makes the program available worldwide. However they listen, on any given week they're apt to hear historic interviews with the likes of Lil Hardin Armstrong. Or they might find Broadway's Vernel Bagneris portraying Jelly Roll Morton, or actor Darren Bridgett reading from letters Bix Beiderbecke wrote to his friends and family — letters never before aired. After hundreds of broadcasts, Riverwalk Jazz continues to keep listeners coming back week after week.

April shows celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month. There's a program honoring the 100th anniversary of Count Basie's birth, including a rare interview with Basie by the world's first syndicated jazz journalist, Ralph Gleason. And plans are in the works for a new Riverwalk Jazz CD, featuring The Jim Cullum Jazz Band performing the music of Bix Beiderbecke. Riverwalk's innovative production coupled with Cullum's passion for the music goes a long way toward keeping great jazz — and jazz history — available to longtime enthusiasts and new jazz fans alike. Happy 15th anniversary, Riverwalk Jazz! Thanks for the music, thanks for the insight, and thanks for helping to preserve a national treasure: Jazz. - Stevie Beck, PRI

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Letter from Bob Edwards

 

Dear Listener,

I am delighted that NPR and I have agreed on all of the details of my new duties as a senior correspondent. My new role will allow me to continue serving NPR listeners and will include profiling interesting and noteworthy people from all walks of life. I plan to be here at NPR for the long haul.

I am leaving a post that I have loved and have given my heart to. I now look forward to the new challenges ahead of me and continuing to be a significant part of NPR and the amazing program lineup.

Morning Edition will continue to be my first source for news. I encourage all of its listeners to stay with the program. It will continue to bring them the most in-depth and thoughtful journalism in broadcasting. I hope you continue to listen and support your public radio station.

Bob Edwards