KSDS 88.3 Blog

Beginning Aug. 16, 2024, Ruffins will be broadcasting each and every Friday evening at 5 p.m. PST from Kermit’s Mother in Law Law Lounge in the heart of the Treme.

By Matt Silver

When the time came to find a new host for “Jazz Across America: New Orleans” (Fridays, 5 to 7 p.m. PST), Ken Poston, general manager of San Diego’s KSDS Jazz 88.3 FM, wanted not just to get someone good; he wanted to get someone perfect. Someone who wears the soul, the traditions, and the aspirations of New Orleans, jazz’s foundational city, on his richly designed, elegantly tailored sleeves.  

Balboa Theatre presents the Premiere of RACHMANINOFF AND THE TSAR.  Hershey Felder brings Rachmaninoff’s incredible story to life through his music - including his famous C# minor Prelude, second piano concerto, Paganini Variations and more.

Bring your friends and family!! Award winning blues musician Nathan James has built an international fan base with his masterful guitar playing and soulful vocals. He’ll be backed by The Rhythm Scratchers, his tight-knit trio. Featuring Stephen Hodges on drums, (Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, T-Bone Burnett), and Troy Sandow on bass and harmonica.

On July 4th (2024) KSDS-FM celebrated a major event. Yes, it was July 4th. But this was an extra special festival weekend because we used the occasion of our nation's founding to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the inaugural Newport Jazz Festival.

Sundays have a new look on KSDS beginning in July. And, it's more than just this graphic.

There will be a change of venue for the last Jazz Live of this season. Tonight's presentation of The Four Freshmen will be held at The Handlery Hotel under the stars in their backyard garden. If you are an existing Jazz Live subscriber for this season (February-July 2024) you are guaranteed your 2 tickets. Please e-mail Chuck (chuck@jazz88.org) for any additional information or questions you may have and ask him about any add-ons that you may be interested in. There are tickets avaialbe for VIP and concert only. If you are NOT A CURRENT JAZZ LIVE SUBSCRIBER please read below. All attendess need to check in at the venue. There are NO hard tickets for this event.

KSDS celebrates Miles Davis’s Birthday all day THIS MONDAY, on Memorial Day, beginning at 7AM PACIFIC. We will be playing classic and rare recordings and offering insightful commentary throughout the day. You're not going to want to miss one minute of this special programming. This Monday, beginning at 7AM only on San Diegos’ Jazz 88.3, KSDS-FM. 

Jazz Live returns to the campus of San Diego City College this Wednesday, May 22nd, when legendary drummer Roy McCurdy brings one of the finest quartets to ever grace the Saville Theatre stage.

By Matt Silver

If there’s one thing that all the great jazz masters agree on, it’s that mimicry is not jazz, at least not good jazz. Maybe it’s part of the developmental process, but it’s the antithesis of what you strive to present to an audience.

By Matt Silver

There are some things in life you don’t want to perceive being made—laws and sausages chief among them. On the other hand, there are the yoga studio idealists whose wisdom suggests the opposite, that the process is everything, that life’s beauty resides in the journey, and that once you realize that, the destination becomes almost beside the point.