Good Morning Lowcountry

96 Wave

We hear, from fellow staffers and from a blog post last week at Charleston City Paper, that local radio station 96 WAVE has changed its format from alternative rock to sort-of-hip-oldies.

That will leave no alternative format radio station in the Lowcountry, right? They're calling it CHUCK FM and according to their not-yet-constructed Web site, their motto is: We play everything. It really doesn't matter. Radio has long since ceased to be the means by which record companies sell music or listeners find new music. 

(RICK RUBIN, the bearded one at right, started Def Jam Records and became the Zen master producer for the Beastie Boys, Dixie Chicks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, System of a Down, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond and Jakob Dylan.  Photo by Lynn Hirschberg/The New York Times)

In fact, there's a question looming about how much longer record companies can actually sell music in any of their traditional (CDs, radio, music videos) ways. If you missed it, go back to The New York Times' Sunday magazine cover story on Rick Rubin, new co-prez of Columbia Records, hired to be the guru that will drag it into the 21st century, build a new business model and perhaps save the behemoth that once defined payola (and for the definitive work on that smarmy era, read "Hit Men" by Fredric Dannen.

Breaking news

Charleston Jazz Initiative, those fabulous archivists, reserachers, conversationalists, events programmers, facilitators, scholars and jazz players, has published "Return to the Source. Charleston: A Cradle of Jazz."

It is made up of proceedings of its June 2-4, 2005 conference proceedings at College of Charleston; a history of Charleston jazz and where it came from; a history of the Jenkins Orphanage Band; addresses and essays by A.B. Spellman, Dan Morgenstern, Jeffrey Green and Alvin Batiste; transcriptions of conversations with the Jenkins family and friends, Elizabeth Carter Prioleau, Rollins Edwards, Stanley White, Barbara Braithwaite, Jomo Zimbabwe and Rachel Dowling; and a killer bibliography.

"While New Orleans is often identified as the cradle of jazz, Charleston, South Carolina, due primarily to the presence and influence of the Jenkins Orphanage Band, also played an originative role in this artistic development" -- Alvin Batiste, “Charleston: Another Cradle of Jazz?”

The introduction is by Jack McCray. The preface is by Karen A. Chandler. The book is the first history of Charleston's jazz legacy and includes the research CJI has done over the last several years.McCray's goal is to get it into every library in the country.

The first printing was small. GMLc is reading McCray's copy at our desk fast before he comes and snatches it back. We'll keep you posted on where you can get one. Meanwhile, see www.charlestonjazz.net.

(Tenor saxophonist, composer and stylist St. Julian Bennett Dash of Charleston. Photo courtesy of Charleston Jazz Initiative. For his biography from CJI's Web site, see next page)

Bonnaroo and N.O. Jazz & Heritage

Bonnaroo, the bustin' annual music and arts festival held in Manchester, Tenn., has announced most of this year's lineup, adding CYPRESS HILL, BLACKALICIOUS, REFUGEE ALLSTARS,
DEADBOY & THE ELEPHANTMEN. Dates of the fest are June 16-18. See second page of this post (click on Continue reading... below) for the list.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a GMLc favorite, is shorter this post-Katrina year but has a FABULOUS line-up and needs your support more than ever. Dates are April 28-30 and May 5-7. For some of the lineup, see second page of this post (Click on Continue reading... below).

Disc of the day

South Carolina favorite son Edwin McCain releases a new CD on Vanguard Records on April 11. GMLc got an advance copy by snail mail (aren't we special?) and we are listening to it now.

All we can say for the moment is: COOL! 10 tracks. Produced at McCain's own OMG Studio in Greenville by Noel Golden. Title: "Lost in America." Edwin McCain is a romantic with a sumptuous voice. He'll be in Charleston on April 21... at the Music Farm. Other dates: 4/6 Winston-Salem. 4/7, Charlotte. 4/8 Atlanta.