This week's episode is about the music of Dr. Art Davis, a phenomenal bassist who straddled the line between jazz and classical music, whose frequent, innovative use of the bow on the instrument puts him in a class all his own. 

It focuses mostly on his early career, including music he recorded with John Coltrane's group and with Booker Little and Max Roach's group

Questions? Comments? Requests? Send them to [email protected] or call the show's voicemail box at (424) 704-1666

Apologies in advance for the state of my voice, I have been a little under the weather this past week.

This week's pod is a callback to the early days of this podcast, when I would alternate between regular episodes of the show and episodes about avant garde jazz musicians called Out There.  

Anthony Braxton plays dozens of instruments, and is a prolific composer who has released over 100 albums over the course of his career.  This episode focuses mostly on his early work, but touches on some of his later work as well.

Questions? Comments? Requests? email [email protected] or call the show's voicemail box at (424) 704 1666

WNPM returns with an episode about the Modern Jazz Quartet.   This episode features songs from various points throughout the career of one of the longest lasting small groups in jazz history.  Enjoy!

Questions? Comments? Requests? Email [email protected]

This week's episode is a brief introduction to the Modern Jazz Quartet, who will be the topic of a full episode next week.  Enjoy!

Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting is back after hiatus with an episode celebrating the music of Art Blakey, in honor of the 100 year anniversary of his birth last Friday.  Blakey is best known as the leader of the Jazz Messengers, a group that launched the careers of dozens of young jazz musicians, including Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, McCoy Tyner, and many many more.  This episode features music from the Messengers, as well as a few tracks from Blakey's drumming with Thelonious Monk. 

Playlist here

Questions? Comments? Requests? E-mail [email protected]

This week's episode is about the music of Bud Powell, one of the most influential pianists in jazz history.  His short career, like his life, was tumultuous, but he is cited as an inspiration by Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and virtually every jazz pianist who followed him. 

I was slammed with work and some other things this week, and so did not have time to put together the episode I intended to share with you, about the music of Bud Powell.  The full episode about Powell will be next week, but I thought I'd share one of my favorite Powell tunes with you in the meantime.  Enjoy!

Apropos of the news that broke in the New York Times a couple weeks ago about a devastating fire that destroyed an astonishing number of master tapes in the Universal Music Group's vaults, I thought it was a good time to do an episode about the music put out by one of my favorite record labels, Impulse! Records, one of the labels whose master tapes were apparently destroyed in the fire.  

This week's episode is about Horace Silver, a pianist who was instrumental in developing the hard bop idiom of jazz. Silver composed a handful of tunes that, given his gift for melody and rhythmic experimentation, became jazz standards.

Playlist here

Questions? Comments? Requests? Call the WNPM Voicemail at (424) 704-1666 or email [email protected]

This week's episode is about the music of Tadd Dameron, the premier writer/arranger of the early bebop era.  It features music that Dameron recorded with his own and in other groups, and versions of songs that he composed performed by Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, and more.

Playlist here

Questions? Comments? Requests? Call the WNPM voicemail at (424)704-1666 or email [email protected]