Jazz & Blues Lounge

The end of July is fast approaching. The dog days of summer have left the Chicago area for a time and the breeze is off the lake. This has caused the sky to clear, pushing out the pollution and making the sky a brilliant blue. It’s quite nice and it’s a good time to check out those live outdoor shows. However, thanks to radio station WDCB, I can also tell you about all of the jazz and blues performances around the area. I strongly recommend that you click on that link and check out their …read more

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I was a punk kid who was into Pink Floyd. What I really wanted to do was be on the radio. I thought I was going to be the next Howard Stern or, more likely, the next Steve and Garry (two Chicago radio legends). I had worked at the tiny AM station that my college, Webster University, has created first. It was known as WEBU AM 660 and you could pick pretty much any shift you wanted and play whatever the hell you wanted. This created a scattered program schedule and no one ever listened. …read more

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Every week I rave about Chicago radio station WDCB and what they do. I can’t help myself. Here in Chicago, our options are very limited when it comes to listening to jazz on the radio. At one time the local NPR outlet, during the nighttime hours, used to broadcast classic jazz music. Then someone decided that they should do other things and jazz fans lost a major outlet. Fortunately, this has been a major boon to humble College of DuPage, publicly-funded, suburban radio station WDCB.
They do a program just known as “All Things …read more

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It is Saturday morning. It is a good morning for me because I have found some new music to love. You see, and as you may have noticed, I am more of a jazz guy than a blues guy. Why? Well, I fell in love with jazz first because of the time I spent at a college radio station that played jazz. I have tried to get into the blues, but something never quite clicke with me. It was OK, I appreciated it, I liked songs and parts of it, but something about it …read more

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I love writing this blog. When I started, I just hoped a few folks who were devoted to, primarily, jazz would stop by and read a few things and I would have been happy. However, I have been surprised by how much this site and this blog has grown. I was delighted when Scooter Pietsch approached me, via e-mail, asking if I would like to review the new album for the Sad Salamanders entitled “Cigarettes and Fishnets.”
Now, I write movie, DVD and television reviews for another website. I get approached there all the time by filmmakers …read more

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It can be tough to write for b5media.  I love this forum and this topic and I love writing for them.  I think the people who work for and run b5media are great and their bloggers are some of the coolest writers out there.  At the same time, sometimes I run across things I want to praise and rave about and I am afraid I am going to completely anger some of their key advertisers.  Their advertisers keep me going here and I definitely don’t want to do that.
Still, I have to sing the praises of an internet radio network …read more

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Well, folks and fellow Chicagoans, we have made it to yet another weekend.  I am planning on continuing to enjoy my Sad Salamanders CD and relaxing as much as possible.  I am also somewhat looking forward to the warmer weather that is predicted for this weekend.  I may actually be looking forward to the thunderstorms predicted for Sunday.  This is utterly unprecedented as I am terrified of thunderstorms.
So, thanks again, as always to WDCB radio for the information about jazz and blues music in and around Chicago for the weekend.   They are a public radio station, so I also encourage …read more

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One of the best places to find great jazz and still listen to it in your car is the radio station I have written about and steal from all the time.  This is the radio station WDCB located at the College of DuPage.  This is is the western suburbs of Chicago.  The dial number is 90.9.
 When it comes to jazz, you will find no better classic jazz radio station in the area.  They play all of the greatest jazz performers.  This is the place to hear Miles and Oscar Peterson and Dizzy and Bird.  This is the station that does …read more

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I admit, again, that I am cheating a bit here.  I have written before about the struggles jazz fans in the Chicago area have when it comes to listening to jazz music.  Sure, there are always iPods and CDs and such, but there is something about being able to listen to an actual radio station.  You can hear things you wouldn’t normally hear.  You can discover new things.  You can find out about the music and the musicians involved thanks to the DJs.
Here in Chicago, your options are limited.  This may be the case in most cities.  Commercial jazz radio …read more

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Finding jazz on the radio has become a very difficult thing.  Essentially, if you want to listen to grea jazz music, you need to listen online or to your own CDs or maybe your MP3 player.  There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but I am a guy who still enjoys actual radio shows.  This is probably because of my days in radio.
Here in Chicago, the local National Public Radio station used to play classic jazz all night long. Then they went and changed that and got rid of it.  It was rather sad, but the numbers over night were …read more

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