Jazz

Growing up, I played saxophone in a few bands throughout my junior high and high school years. One of the things that has stayed with me from that is a love of jazz. It's a style of music that has sadly been pushed to the sidelines as not being "commercial" enough.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to find a good source of jazz on the radio these days...while it's easy to find crap (or whatever is passing for "Pop" music these days). And no, easy listening stations playing endless Kenny G CD's doesn't cut it, either.

There used to be a few good sources around. Two of the best were provided by the CBC :

• After Hours. Originally hosted by Ross Porter, this show had Andy Sheppard at the helm. It aired weeknights on CBC Radio Two, and provided two hours of grat jazz, showcasing both new artists and old favorites. The show has spawned a number of CD's showcasing many of the artists, and are a great way to try out different styles of jazz (the opening track to the After Hours, Blue Note Collection Vol II CD, "Cry Me a River" by Julie London, is one of my favorites).

• Jazz Beat. Hosted by Katie Malloch, this show aired Sunday nights for two hours on CBC Radio One and Two. Unlike After Hours, Jazz Beat tends to focus more on lesser known Canadian artists. Hopefully, some of their recordings will, someday, be released on CD. Like the After Hours CD's, those would be great to own.

Taken together, these two shows gave you a great introduction to the world of jazz...just keep a pen and paper handy to jot down the names of artists you like (or visit their websites...both now have a "past shows" section that lists the artists featured). Go there while you still can.

Some of the newer sources are

Digital TV

• Cool TV
• Galaxie

Internet Radio

• AccuJazz
• Cool FM, although this seems to be leaning towards "smooth" jazz, which I'm not overly fond of.
• Jazz.FM91 in Toronto.
• Live365

Satellite Radio

• Sirius PureJazz
• XM

Tune in and enjoy.

(Hopefully the streaming content on some of those sites will be available to more than just Internet Explorer and the Windows Media format...us Linux users would like to listen, too!)

And, if at all possible, support your local jazz scene, or get out to a festival (like the one here in Ottawa).