AN APOLOGY
It’s hard to believe that the month of May is almost over already. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we celebrated Valentine’s Day (and on the same day here in Oregon we watched our state’s 150th anniversary of statehood glide off into history)?
This has been a busy month for me. I want to apologize for not making time to post the weekly lists of new releases that I have played. For those of you who are interested, the lists will return, beginning with the new releases I play next Saturday, June 6. I will make every effort to have the list online at http://www.saturdaynightjazz.blogspot.com and http://www.myspace.com/saturdaynightjazz by 10 AM Pacific Time the day after the show.
Anyone needing the information sooner is welcome to check out my complete playlist at kmhd.fm. As you scroll down the listings for each hour of my show, new releases are indicated by “[NEW RELEASE]” in the far right column, immediately after the name of the record label.
Alternatively, you can send me an email at saturdaynightjazz at yahoo dot com. If you choose this option, please put the words “KMHD song info” in the subject line. Otherwise I may delete your message without reading it. Yahoo does a fair job of filtering spam, but some gets through every week.
A MEETING, VERY GOOD NEWS, AND A “THANK YOU!”
As you may know, on July 1 the responsibility for operating KMHD will transfer to Oregon Public Broadcasting (“OPB”). Mt. Hood Community College will retain ownership of the FCC license, and the station call letters will still be KMHD.
Last Wednesday evening, I met for just under an hour with Lynne Clendenin and Holly Denniston of OPB at their SW Macadam Avenue offices in Portland. Lynne is OPB’s vice president of Radio Programming and Holly is the director of OPB Volunteer Resources. Our discussion covered a lot of topics, ranging from requirements & expectations to current Arbitron ratings. All in all, it was a very positive meeting, and I left there that evening with good feelings about the future of KMHD in general and Saturday Night Jazz in particular.
I must say I was flabbergasted by the information Lynne gave me about the current ratings for Saturday Night Jazz (“SNJ”). I’ve never felt comfortable bragging, but I do need to give each and every one of you who listens to SNJ a huge “thank you!” for helping to make SNJ one of the most listened-to shows on KMHD!
The show’s Arbitron ratings show that SNJ’s listenership doubled practically overnight in January of this year, and has stayed at that level ever since. That is very interesting because it was at about that same time that I began to actively promote the show on Twitter. I joined Twitter on the day that in the US was the 2008 Thanksgiving holiday (November 27 for those of you not in the US.). Shortly after that I began making a practice each week of sending a Tweet announcing the impending start of the show a few minuets before 6 PM. (If I have time, I make a similar announcement on MySpace. That doesn’t happen every week though.)
Most of my Twitter followers are scattered around all over the world and do not live close enough to Portland Oregon to listen to the show over the air, which is what Arbitron tracks. The Twitter folks would almost certainly be listening to the live stream at kmhd.fm. I really don’t know what else to attribute the sudden increase to though. OPB intends to find out, however.
Regardless of where all you new listeners came from or why, I want to thank each and every one of you! Doing this show every Saturday night is truly a labor of love for me, and I cannot tell you how gratified I am that SNJ has become so popular.
ABOUT SATURDAY NIGHT JAZZ
Saturday Night Jazz is about what I think Saturday nights are for: kicking back and having a good time. I tend to play mostly upbeat music, mostly instrumental. It’s no coincidenced that the show is bookended with two boogie woogie pieces. The opening theme song is “Albie’s Boogie” performed by Roomful Of Blues; the closing theme is “Hamp’s Boogie Woogie” as performed live by the late, great Lionel Hampton and his band.
I love blues as well as jazz, and I do occasionally take my listeners on what I call “a walk down the blues side of the street.” I try to pre-announce those side-trips so those of you who don’t care for blues can leave the room for a few minutes, but there is no guarantee that will happen. I don’t have time during the week to completely pre-plan my show, so some things tend to happen when they happen. That sometimes leads to some interesting situations, but hey, life goes on. 🙂
Almost half of each hour is devoted to new jazz releases, beginning right after the first break at approximately 22 minutes into the hour and continuing for the next 20 to 25 minutes. I try to feature at least four new releases each hour, which works out to an even dozen by the end of the show. Depending on circumstances, including the length of individual songs, on any given show there may be more or fewer new releases played.
The remainder of the show consists of the best jazz (and yes, a little blues too) available. You’ll hear artists such as Gerry Mulligan, Dave Brubeck, Jamie Cullum, Dexter Gordon, Gene Ammons, Tom Scott, Paul Desmond, David Sanborn, Eldar, Gene Harris, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Reggie Houston, Lou Donaldson, Lee Morgan, Armand Boatman, the “three Benny’s” (Benny Golson, Benny Carter, Benny Green) Ray Brown, Hank Crawford & Jimmy McGriff, and of course John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. And many, many more.
You can hear Saturday Night Jazz every Saturday from 6-9 PM Pacific Time on 89.1 FM — KMHD, and streaming live at kmhd.fm.
Thank you so much for listening!
Al Evans
Host
jazz for a saturday night 