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For KSDS’s Matt Silver, Ron Shelton’s “Bull Durham” is a perfect game.
“Relax, all right? Don’t try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls — it’s more democratic.”
"I see great things in baseball. It's our game — the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us." -Walt Whitman
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One great thing about the American experiment in federalism and representative democracy is that the highest expression of its brilliance isn't obvious. It’s not the free market or the social safety nets meant to mitigate its savageries. It’s not working or paying taxes or running for that seat on the school board. It’s not governing or legislating or administering the laws of civil society as they’ve been enumerated. It’s not even when we vote, even if the cloyingly precious stickers — now hallmarks of polling place egress — suggest county election boards are united in thinking otherwise. It’s when we are at leisure, when we are exercising a right that the founding fathers, in a departure from virtually every set of expression of political philosophy to precede it, considered inalienable — the right to pursue happiness, to have some ownership of the most valuable commodity to mortal man: time.
Our Fall 2025 Membership Drive begins this Friday, Sept. 26. Our theme is Jazz & Baseball. Twin pillars of classic American culture, both quintessential representations of democracy in action and the twin engines of individual creative expression and teamwork.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget how social this music can be. On Tuesday evening, Aug. 12, Eric Reed reminded us, with a Hampton Hawes-inspired performance that was charming in a way that feels much less common today than maybe it once was.
For legions of people of all worldviews, sensibilities, and persuasions, the world feels like a chaotic mess. Despite this – or, more likely, because of it – people seem hungrier than ever for meaning, connection, community. One of the ways this manifests is giving. Giving is virtuous. Whether its any of the world's major religious faiths or a more secular set of life-organizing beliefs or principles, most with any kind of historical staying power seem to keep this close to their core.
But man's generosity is not infinite, nor are his resources. And the demands for both feel greater and more persistent than ever.
Which begs some version of the question stated above in this post's title.
When you're an organization like ours and you take to the airwaves to ask people for money and you tell them it's urgent and existential, it's a question you have a responsibility to ask yourself. So, first, I asked myself, "Why should our radio station continue to exist as a community resource?" And I think I answered that one okay. But, then, the radio station is one thing; the broader effort to ensure the future of the artform we champion is another, warranting its own explanation. So, why jazz? I've found it nearly impossible to answer without being nauseatingly maudlin and high-minded. So, indulge me; this comes from an honest place, and it's the best I've come up with so far.
If we weren’t part of your life, there’d be no sense in asking. But we know that we are; we see you, we hear you, we know you. And you know us.
That’s rare these days, in the era of Amazon and digitally delivered entertainments. If we’re old fashioned, it’s not in the manner of mustachioed hipster bartenders who call themselves “mixologists.” Rather, it’s in the spirit of Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer and John Coltrane. We won’t be held hostage by the political fads and fixations of the moment. After 50-plus years, we, like Kern and Mercer, know that this year’s fancies are passing fancies.
How are we so confident? Because we have you.
Jazz 88ers,
KSDS is facing an emergency, and we need your help. You already know the broad strokes. Federal funding’s gone. More specifically, we will be without $200,000 we were relying on to operate. We still need it; it's just not coming.
This "Now's the Time" campaign is not a membership drive. Membership drives are doctor’s visits you make even when you’re well, to stay well. This is more akin to emergency surgery… without insurance.
Saxophonist, composer, and arranger Jack Montrose, pictured here in 1954. His arrangements would be recorded that year by ensembles led by Chet Baker and Clifford Brown. Photo by William Claxton.
A man with talent wants the world. Even if he’s too modest or mannered to announce it aloud, or to himself, there’s a part of him that sees one possible future where everything breaks his way. But what does such a man deserve? Maybe it’s fair, if harsh, to say that he doesn’t deserve anything. That no one deserves anything. But if you’ve some combination of natural talent, acquired skill, and the nerve to open yourself to the world’s judgment, all you can really ask for is a window of a few years to show what you’re capable of, come what may.
Anyone who’s watched Seth McFarlane’s “Family Guy” knows his love for both the Sinatra and Great American Songbooks runs deep. It also comes as no surprise that such a brilliant voiceover artist is one heck of a singer!
With his new album, Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, Seth McFarlane walks the musical roads Sinatra left untaken, singing a dozen charts that were originally written for the Chairman — by Nelson Riddle, Billy May, and Don Costa — but never recorded. Anyone who's ever watched Family Guy knows of McFarlane's abiding love for and encyclopedic knowledge of 20th century music and culture, most particularly popular song and dance. But, for as much recognition as he receives for brilliance as a producer, actor, illustrator, comedian, and voice actor — all of which is deserved — McFarlane might also reasonably be called one of the most astute pop cultural historians and commentators of our time.
Don’t miss SING! SING! SING! THIS Saturday morning, June 28, at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET, when host Will Friedwald interviews the brilliant writer, actor, comedian, and vocalist Seth McFarlane.
Seth McFarlane, the brilliant writer, actor, illustrator, voiceover artist and comedic mind behind Family Guy, Ted, The Orville, and A Million Ways to Die in the West, also happens to be a wonderful vocal interpreter of American popular song.
Terence Blanchard has composed original music for over 80 motion pictures; for his efforts, he’s been nominated for two Academy Awards.
Versatility is one thing; possessing the aptitude to match a boundless musical curiosity is another. Leonard Bernstein had both; Terence Blanchard also has both. Bernstein’s jazz-infused compositions for stage and symphony orchestra bridged jazz and classical music in boundary-breaking new ways, lending credence to his senior thesis at Harvard, in which he asserted that “jazz is the universal basis of American composition.” Blanchard, in a career now in its fifth decade, has consistently expanded upon Bernstein’s thesis, riffing on classical motifs with his Grammy-winning jazz ensembles and enlivening operas, symphony orchestras, and scores upon scores of (film) scores by reminding audiences that jazz is not just an idiomatic musical language; it’s also, in the right hands, an unforgettably moving narrative tool.
”Le Chat Dans Le Sac” is a 1966 French Canadian film in the style of the French New Wave, in part about the disintegration of a young couple's relationship. With music by John Coltrane.
At just 37 minutes, and comprising eight takes of only five distinct tunes, it’s hard to categorize John Coltrane’s Blue World as an album, per se.
That doesn’t make it any less spectacular.
Issued by Impulse! Records in Sept. 2019, Blue World constitutes previously unreleased recordings from John Coltrane and his classic quartet at the very peak of the their powers and cohesiveness as a unit.
On Wed., April 30, Jazz 88 will celebrate International Jazz Day 2025 by spinning selections illuminating the truly global reach of jazz. Matt Silver got a head start on the April 27 edition of “Breaking Jazz.”
I host a new jazz release show on Sunday evenings called "Breaking Jazz," where, each week, I bring you the music and musicians of the moment — jazz as it’s being played today. This past Sunday evening, on "Breaking Jazz," I celebrated International Jazz Day 2025. I realize I was three days early to the party, but "Breaking Jazz" is but a humble weekly program; wait 'til next week, and, by then, the ship's way too far out of port.
*Pictured above: Trumpeter Riley Mulherkar. Photo by Zenith Richards.
As we approach Thanksgiving, I feel compelled to share my abundant gratitude for all the great new music that’s come out this past year, and especially this past six months since I began hosting Breaking Jazz (Sundays, 6:30 to 8 p.m. PT). In keeping with year-end traditions, this gratitude will take the form of a “best of” list. But this particular list is exciting because it will be starting a new tradition. Behold! The inaugural Breaking Jazz Best Albums of the Year!
KSDS/Jazz 88.3's 2025 Fall Membership Drive has concluded! We welcomed many new and renewing members and the music will continue to thrive because of it. If you would like to donate towards the campaign you can do so by clicking here. Here is the Top Ten Artist Poll we conducted for the drive.
Here's the Top Ten:
Donate for details! your pre-owned vehicle to Jazz 88.3 because it's the best result from a kind act AND it is truly one of the most reliable revenue sources we have. Call 1-888- JAZZ-CAR (1-888-529-9227).
Another way to join KSDS San Diego's Jazz 88.3 is with the listening stream. There's the KSDS APP. Please search 'KSDS Jazz' in your respective Google or Apple store.
Billy Vera
Chad Fox
Chuck Granata
Claudia Russell
Dave Drexler
Gary Beck
Gordon Goodwin
Jim Gallert
Judy Carmichael
Kenny Washington
Kermit Ruffins
Larry Murry
Loren Schoenberg
Matt Silver
Miff Mole
Neil Tesser
Raul Rico Jr.
Roger Stolle
Ron Dhanifu
Sam Wisman
San Diego's Jazz 88.3
Will Friedwald
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