KSDS 88.3 Blog

KSDS/Jazz 88.3's 2024 Spring 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.

We can’t bring you back to the grand auditoriums that hosted installments of Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic, but we’ll come closer than anyone else.

By Matt Silver

This July 2nd will mark 80 years since Norman Granz presented the very first Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP). So named because it was held at Los Angeles's Philharmonic Auditorium, then the 2700-seat home of the LA Phil, JATP was the first, the biggest, the longest running, and the most socially impactful jazz concert series of its kind.

The First Presbyterian Church of San Diego is announcing a TRIBUTE TO JOHN COLTRANE courtesy of the Jazz Vespers, featuring special guest saxophonist, Mark Lessman.

The event will be held Saturday , March 30, 2024 at 4:30pm in the Chapel of First Presbyterian Church of San Diego. 1740 4th Ave.
Led by Archie Thompson and The ArchTones, Jazz Vespers is San Diego’s longest running jazz-inspired worship service, and takes place in the First Presbyterian Chapel every Sunday.

Gerry Mulligan’s autobiography, as told to KSDS GM Ken Poston, was published in November 2022 by Rowman & Littlefield.

Exciting news: Being Gerry Mulligan: My Life in Music, the late legendary baritone saxophonist's autobiography as told to KSDS General Manager Ken Poston, has been nominated for the Jazz Journalists Association's Book of the Year Award in the Best Biography/Autobiography category.

March is Women's History Month, and that’s special enough; it only comes once-a-year. But this year’s Women’s History Month is extraordinary — because it marks 100 years since the birth of one of jazz’s foundational artists, the one they called Sassy, the Divine One or, simply, “Sarah.” 

Idyllwild Arts is accepting enrollment for the Jazz In The Pines Student Clinic happening June 30th - July 13th. This two-week session is built around the return of Jazz In The Pines, giving students an exciting opportunity to learn from and see performances form Jazz greats in an intimate festival environment, a truly unique experience not offered at other camps. More info and registration can be made here.

Alice in the basement recording studio of the Coltrane home. Dix Hills, NY. Sometime after the release of Cosmic Music, c. 1968–69.

By Matt Silver

In 1963, John Coltrane met a pianist from Detroit named Alice McLeod in New York City. At Birdland. She was playing vibes and piano in Terry Gibbs’s band, which was splitting a double-bill with Coltrane’s quartet, and they fell in love. 

The San Diego jazz community lost a beloved family member when guitarist Bob Boss died unexpectedly on Sunday, Feb. 18, in Idyllwild, after performing what would be his last concert. Within hours, tributes began to flood social media from fellow artists, former students, and loving family members and friends who never wanted the music to end. He was 71.

Very few young saxophonists today possess the combination of charisma and facility that Lakecia Benjamin brings to the stage. Nominated for three Grammys for this past year’s “Phoenix,” one of Lakecia’s earliest and most enduring inspirations has been Alice Coltrane. Her 2020 album “Pursuance” was a tribute to the music of both Alice and John Coltrane.

By Matt Silver

Trained in jazz and forged in funk, alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin grew up hooked on Coltrane — Alice Coltrane. A friend introduced her to the music of John’s second wife, and she became enthralled. It wasn’t until some time later that Benjamin learned who John Coltrane was and that he could play a little, too.

Poster advertising The John Coltrane Quintet’s July 23, 1966 performance in Nagoya, Japan.

By Matt Silver

Through 1966 and the rest of his Earthly existence, Coltrane kept on in the direction of the cosmic music, the compelling but ultimately unknowable new thing. Trane and his new quintet toured the country and were once again, one last time, recorded live by Impulse at the Village Vanguard in May, then again, one last time, at Newport in July, where the new thing was now a year less new and, on this occasion, Archie Shepp-less.