Nothing says the holidays like family, friends, and Frank.
Holiday season programming alert! Back by popular demand...it's KSDS's "12 Days of Sinatra."
Beginning MONDAY, Dec. 2, and continuing EVERY WEEKDAY from NOON to 2 p.m. through Tues., Dec. 17, KSDS will bring you a new, expertly and exhaustively curated Sinatra show each day.
Few know Sinatra's oeuvre better than KSDS GM Ken Poston, "Sing! Sing! Sing!" host Will Friedwald, "Sinatra Standard Time" host Chuck Granata, and "Jazz Potpourri" host Loren Schoenberg. Friedwald and Granata literally wrote the book(s) on Sinatra — with Sinatra! The Song is You and Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording, respectively. And, as the author of the The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Jazz, Schoenberg's the professorial type who helps us make sense of Sinatra and his legacy within the broader context of jazz by diving deep into Sinatra's collaborations with jazz Mt. Rushmore types like Count Basie, Woody Herman, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Quincy Jones, and Duke Ellington, among others.
Our big guns may be scholaraly, but this year's "12 Days of Sinatra" will be anything but by the book.
Expect celebrity guest hosts like:
Ken Peplowski, the prolifically funny virtuoso woodwinder, who actually developed his own breath control technique by observing and emulating Frank's. He'll pair with the meticulous and encyclopedic Granata on Wed. Dec. 4 and Thurs. Dec. 5 to revisit Sinatra's "transition years," from the personal and professional tumult that marked the end of his tenure with Columbia Records to his declarative comeback with Capitol Records, a resurgence aided by names like Nelson Riddle, Axel Stordahl, Gordon Jenkins, and Billy May.
Dave Scott, the longtime meteorologist and features reporter for KUSI-TV now devoting his post-TV life to playing jazz trombone, who'll play a two-hour set of his favorites from the Sinatra songbook, likely while sporting his signature bow-tie; he knows this is radio and not TV, but old habits die hard.
Bill Boggs, the longtime syndicated TV personality, who, among other showbiz accomplishments, hosted the talk show where, in 1987, Miles Davis, that episode's featured interview guest, was introduced to a teenage Hammond organ player named Joey DeFrancesco. Boggs' show was often a showcase for young musicians, and one of that day's musical guests was a band of Philadelphia high school students that included DeFrancesco and bassist Christian McBride. Davis would take the late, great DeFrancesco on tour that summer, and McBride, whom Davis pretty much ignored completely, would become contemporary jazz's most celebrated bassist and, maybe, its most powerful kingmaker not named Wynton Marsalis. All that to say this: when Boggs and Friedwald get together on Monday, Dec. 16 at noon, they'll have way too many stories to share.
AND
Shotgun Tom Kelly, the larger-than-life broadcast personality whose storied career in TV and terrestrial radio throughout Southern California earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One of the quintessential characters of Top 40 radio when that medium was king, Shotgun's got a new book out, titled All I Wanna Do is Play the Hits, and that's what he continues to do to this day, playing the hits on Sirius XM's "60's Gold" station.
It’s true, it’s true…it’s ALL true. Friedwald and Granata to lead a star-studded group of legendarily colorful broadcast personalities and Sinatra scholars, bringing you the music and stories of Sinatra and his famed inner circle, every December weekday from noon to 2 p.m., beginning Monday, Dec. 2 and running through Tues., Dec. 17.
It'll be Frank as you know and love him...but also Frank as you've never heard him before, complete with previously unreleased audio and outtakes, insider anecdotes, first-hand accounts, and inner circle commentary.
The holidays are a time for friends, family, and Frank. And since we know you'll (eventually) need a reprieve from the first two, KSDS has you covered with "12 Days of Sinatra" this holiday season. Because Frank's the only holiday guest who never overstays his welcome!
It all begins MONDAY, DEC. 2 at NOON PT, right here on KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM in San Diego and all around the world at jazz88.org.
