Eleven years ago, when I first came to C-U, the only places presenting
jazz were Treno's (which is now Espresso Royale and The Bread Company),
and Nature's Table (now the giant building across the street from Krannert).
Over six years ago, before the closing of Nature's Table, before CUJBA,
I proposed that WILL could give the musicians and the fans another venue;
our air waves. The main concern at WILL was how I could fit the extra work
into my schedule, I said if we could put the show on the air, I would find
the time. The station saw the need for more exposure and decided to give
it a try, if I could fill the time on a regular basis.
We started with pretty limited equipment, and only Nature's Table for a
cite to gather material. Then the Table was shut down. This caused the formation
of CUJBA, which in turn got more venues active, such as The Blind Pig happy
hour (it was only one nite a week then) and later Zorba's. WILL invested
more money in equipment and we were starting to roll, trying to record when
and where ever we could find jazz being performed.
Thanks to the support of many musicians, club owners, fans, and WILL there
are several places for jazz to be heard locally. There are now enough venues
that WILL, as strictly another place for musicians and fans to get exposed
to each other, is less critical than it once was. However, I believe that
Jazz Live still has a very important function to serve for both the musician
and the fan. First, every time a band gets recorded for the series they
get a good quality demo tape to be used for getting more jobs elsewhere.
They get to be heard by a much larger potential audience than any club could
possibly hold. They get to talk about the music they play, to tell why and
who they are musically. Plus the digital masters are archived so they can
always get a fresh demo tape when needed.
The fans get to hear bands with less audience noise, more bands than they
could get out to hear live for most listeners, and maybe hear a band on
the radio that they had never heard before, which they will probably get
out to hear live the next time they can. These are all very good things
for the musicians and the fans.
To those of you who are new to the area (less than 5-year residents of C-U)
JAZZ LIVE airs Saturday nights from 8-9 PM on WILL FM- 90.9. If you haven't
heard it yet you should give a listen. The new season started October 5
with the Madhav Chari Quintet, coming up in the months ahead, November 30
the Terry Bradds trio, December 14 J.Q. and much more. If you are a musician
and want your band to be a part of the series, give me a call and I will
schedule you in. But you have to make the effort as I already have a full
time job without this, and will have to make adjustments in my schedule
in order to do your recordings.
The next time you get the chance give WILL a call and thank them for keeping
the belief that jazz is a vital musical art form and showing their support
by keeping JAZZ LIVE on FM 90.9. You can also show WILL your support by
making a contribution during JAZZ LIVE when the next fund drive comes along.
FOR BOOKINGS TO BE RECORDED FOR USE ON "JAZZ LIVE"
call Paul Wienke
359-6334
9am-9pm