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Jazz Joint Jump - Jazz Radio That Swings  
Mainstream Jazz / Big Band Music Radio Show
Jazz That Swings From The 1930s To Today
SWING RADIO AUDIO ARCHIVES

Interested in hearing what this mess of a jazz show is all about? Listen live via the Jazz Radio page Tuesdays 4-6 Pacific Time. Do not touch your keyboard while shows are in progress! One listener did and was photonized to a coffee house in the 1950s.

•  Catch our jazz radio show here.

Hear Jazz Joint Jump live on the internet again in
Our jazz radio show Jazz Joint Jump streams live online once each week between 4 and 6PM Pacific time. Click a player type below and the jazz radio stream will load in your player of choice. Our point of origin is 90.7 KFSR Fresno, Ca., USA, World, Milky Way, Universe.
Windows Media Real Audio iTunes MP3
The History Of Our Jazz Radio Show
As this marks another year of continuous broadcast of our live jazz radio show you can imagine that we have seen a lot of the great players pass away. We have been through an unexpected swing dance craze and numerous station buyouts. If you choose to read the vein ramblings below you will see that to keep a Jazz radio show on the air this long it takes a heap of perseverance.

In late December 2004 it was learned that KAAT-FM, who we had been affiliated with since the late 1980s, was on the block. The station was sold and is now broadcasting a Spanish music format. KAAT aired it's last Big Band Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, March 12th and 13th back in 2005. Our last full broadcast of the jazz radio show we did on KAAT, called Parker's Place, was on March 12th, 2005.

Upon hearing the rumor that KAAT was up for sale, we began looking for another radio station to turn to. Enter KFSR 90.7 FM. The station had been broadcasting jazz music weekday mornings until noon for several years and expanded its jazz programming in January of 2007. KFSR offers a number of other great programs throughout the week and supports other music that you just don't hear anywhere else. It seemed like a perfect match.

Due in part to a nod and tip of the hat to station management from the good cowhands over at The National Big Fresno Barn Dance (KFSR Sundays 2-4PM), we began broadcasting our live jazz radio show on KFSR-FM Sunday, February 20th, 2005. We felt that a new time slot, on a new day, on a new station, warranted a new show name. Now known as Jazz Joint Jump, our live, weekly, clambake still features the same great style of jazz. What's more, there are less interruptions and the show can once again be heard live, world-wide, as KFSR streams live on the internet in both Real Media and MP3.

We were fortunate to be moved into a drive-time slot beginning December 5th, 2006 and now broadcast on Tuesdays between 4 and 6PM Pacific time. Listening to the show live on KFSR is easy. Wherever you are, just click on the player of your choice above and you are on the campus of California State University, Fresno, more commonly referred to as Fresno State University.

So here's the inside history of our little adventure into the world of radio broadcasting; in 1985 we hit the airwaves of Central Cally with a weekly big band music radio show that lasted one whole hour. In humble surroundings, over AM 790, we broadcasted from a little, beat up wooden building, on the outskirts of Fresno. Our weekly "one-hour of glory" was called the Sentimental Supper. The only thing worse than the announcing was the smell of the ridiculous food we actually cooked up on a hot plate over the air during the show. The setting of the show was supposed to be an old Big Band era style hotel, as we claimed to be broadcasting from the Grill Room of the Ecstasy Hotel (our call letters were KXTC.) A dinner music loop-track, complete with crowd noise, was run under all announcer segues to give the impression we were really there. We used a corny little dinner bell when requests were honored. When the station was sold in 1987 and for our last show (then a whopping 2 hours long) we had a character named Julia Childless come in and prepare a gourmet meal in the kitchen. She promptly burned the place to the ground and we signed off with Happy Trails.

Two hours a week wasn't what we were looking for out of radio. So in order to get "there" we volunteered for everything and anything we could do at the station to learn as much as we could about radio broadcasting. Obviously the "Old Professor" Jim Flynt, who managed the radio station, was a pretty hep old dude and he ran a pretty loose ship. Oftentimes we wound up on the air for as many as 25 hours a week subbing for hung-over or disheartened young DJs, with stars in their eyes, who could have cared less about jazz, big band or swing music.

During this period it suddenly became apparent that being a child of the Rock And Roll era didn't do much for old Parker's knowledge of jazz history, the Big Band era, swing music or anything else outside of loud amplified guitars and screaming vocalists... unless of course it was soul music, or folk artists doing protest songs. Anyway, we figured since the chicks weren't actually beating down the doors or lighting up the phones (at least the ones under, say, 65) maybe we should start learning a bit about jazz history and the Big Band era and buying records to supplement the overabundance of Martin Denny and Kay Kyser records the radio station had in its library.

We embarked on a mission of really learning about big band music and the history of jazz, buying up anything we could find in the way of reference books. We also listened to any other big band and jazz radio shows and stations we could find on AM, FM or Shortwave to get ideas. One shot of inspiration came from a very unlikely source, a locally produced, extremely funny morning team known as Dean And Don who broadcasted their Breakfast Club over 105.9 FM KKDJ, arguably the best rock radio station Fresno has ever had. Growing up south of Cleveland and listening to East Coast radio, Parker was pretty hard to impress, but these guys at KKDJ really had it going on. Under many of their theatre-of-the-mind type comedy bits ran old big band songs and jazz instrumentals by guys like George Shearing and Oscar Peterson. Old time radio type announcer intros used before skits, and well timed sound effects were also part of the lure.

As fate would have it these two immortals of Fresno radio used to listen to the big band radio show we did on KXTC (probably for a laugh) and friendships developed. We were quite surprised to find that they too were big band jazz and swing music fans. Being roughly the same age, suddenly it became not so weird to be immersed in what seemed to be a dieing music genre. Good music is good music.

From then on, finding rare jazz records has become a (generally) harmless addiction and through the magic of the internet has taken us to places as far as Germany, The Netherlands, England, Japan and Australia in order to satisfy the back monkey (or in this case, 400 LB orangutan).

In 1987 KXTC was sold and our new home, until 1989, became KEAP AM 980. Fortunately there were no play lists at KEAP either so once again we were able to free-form it, adding more and more mainstream jazz tracks to our ever increasing jazz radio library. But while the KXTC studios were humble, the KEAP studio was just a down right dump. We used the premise BYOTP while affiliated with KEAP, standing for "bring your own toilet paper." There were a number of wasp nests in the attic and in the summer, without fail, those pesky suckers would get into the studio long about 9PM. Let me tell ya,' you learn how to read radio copy and smile in a radio studio full of wasps baby, and you can read copy through anything. Yikes!

KEAP sold in 1989 and we got out of the hornet's nest landing headfirst at KAAT-FM. Initially KAAT was broadcast over 107.1 and then moved in the 1990s to 103.1. The station is still licensed and has its main studio in the Sierra foothill community of Oakhurst. Up until 1999, when KAAT began satellite studio operations in Fresno, we made the weekly sojourn up the hill to studio A. Oftentimes this meant a drive of nearly two hours depending on where the bread and butter job happened to be that Saturday. For our last five years on KAAT we conveniently broadcasted our radio show from Studio B in Fresno. The signal was in turn sent via a microwave link to the transmitter in the Sierra Nevada and in turn beamed as far West as I-5.

We should probably back up here to 1994. That was the year our old buddy Dean Opperman, of Dean and Don fame, came back to Fresno after a number of years in Santa Barbara radio. Dean was placed as program director at KKDJ and instructed to resurrect it back to its former state of glory. KKDJ had a 50,000-watt signal and could be heard from Bakersfield to Modesto clear as a bell. Lo and behold Opperman convinced management that a jazz show would work on Sunday mornings. So, with a bit of trepidation, Parker became the "Jazzmaster" at KKDJ and was heard Sunday mornings from 6AM to 10AM. This was the top of the mark for old Parker. A killer signal, fantastic ratings, a great time-slot, tons of calls, and oh yes, multitudes of chicks...well maybe not, but four out of five ain't bad.

As is the case in radio these days, KKDJ sold out in 1995 to a big business radio station holder called Infinity. When it sold, Parker immediately baled and within weeks the staff was told the station would became Spanish. Luckily Larry Gamble, the owner of KAAT, was gracious enough to allow us back on the air. In early 1995 we rebuilt the old white wooden one story out on the back forty of the KAAT complex and opened it up every Saturday as the jazz juke joint we called Parker's Place.

During the stint with KKDJ in 1994 it was noted that many callers were younger in years. However we generally attributed this phenomenon to a younger audience listening in the rest of the week, since the format was free form rock. With younger listeners requesting everything from Mose Allison to Benny Goodman, and college kids hinting at underground swing dance parties, you would think a little bell would go off. Hoping a resurgence in popularity for jazz and swing music was possible, but still in disbelief, we were floored by the 1998 swing dance craze. Suddenly we found ourselves doing something that never even seemed remotely possible in the mid 1980s, spinning CDs for young swing dancers, live, and booking bands like Stompy Jones and Steve Lucky for local swing dance dates. Although it was a short period, due to a lack of competent Lindy-hop swing dance instructors in many areas, as Fats Waller said, "one never knows, do one?"

Broadcasting big band swing and classic jazz music isn't lucrative but it comes with its rewards; We were on the air the Saturday following the passing of Frank Sinatra with a four-hour radio special. We were also on the air the Saturday after Peggy Lee passed away with a two-hour tribute. We have also bid our adieu to Les Brown, Jonah Jones, Al Grey, JJ Johnson, Rosemary Clooney, Ray Brown, Lionel Hampton, Nina Simone, Benny Carter, Billy May, Ray Charles, Barney Kessel, Illinois Jacquet, Artie Shaw, Ray Brown, and Oscar Peterson.

Sure there are guys out there that have been at this big band and classic jazz radio game a lot longer than we. However since the mid 1980s our enthusiasm and interest for both the music and the history behind it, for both old and new treasures, has never waned.

We look forward to many years of the continued joy that comes with hipping you to the new jazz gems we run across. If the day ever comes when there isn't any "feel good" in it, well, we'll just hang up the old headphones and put a lock on the door of the Jazz Joint. It sure would get stuffy in a hurry though, and stuffy we ain't.

Any old time you're in our neck of the woods bring us up, or check out the audio archives or live stream on the net. Hopefully it'll be solid kicks for you, as much as it still is for us.

JAZZ RADIO PLAYLISTS
5-05 Jazz Joint Jump Radio Play
A full months worth of jazz radio air play from the Jazz Joint in May of 2005. Includes recording months, years, titles and record labels.

4-05 Jazz Joint Jump Radio Play
April's jazz radio playlists include artists, song and release titles, labels and dates. A miniature discography of jazz that swings as recorded in April.

3-05 Jazz Joint Jump Radio Play
March jazz radio playlists that include artists, song and release titles, and labels. Some dates are also included.

November 2003 Jazz Radio Play
Three weeks worth of swing radio playlists including topical music of, and recordings done in, the month of November throughout jazz history.

Swing Radio Air Play 10-04-03
An early autumn radio show with jazz music by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Laverne Butler and more.

Big Band Radio Air Play 5-31-03
A Benny Goodman 5-30 birthday tribute; features on the Andy Kirk and Bobby Sherwood big bands; a Peggy Lee May birthday set.

Big Band Radio Air Play 5-24-03
Commemorates the occasion of Artie Shaw's 93rd Birthday.

Current Jazz Joint Jump Playlists
Click the link above to enter our Web Forum for playlists from December of 2005 to the present.

JAZZ RADIO / JAZZ HISTORY
Our Jazz Musician Biographies
The full list of Swing Music.net Jazz musician biographies. Each biography spans the careers of some of the greatest in jazz history.

Pre Swing Era Jazz History
Early hot jazz bands, the hotel dance bands and early jazz history leading up to the Big Band era.

Pre Swing Era World Report
The role of economics, early recording technology, and radio relative to the conception of the Big Band era.

The Recording Ban Of 1942
Scans of a 1942 Down Beat magazine article detailing one of the most devastating events of the Big Band era; the AFM recording ban.

Webb Cuts Basie At The Savoy
Another of the many historic jazz magazine articles from Down Beat here on the site. This piece details the Count Basie vs. Chick Webb big band music Battle Of Swing held at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom in January of 1938.

JAZZ & SWING MUSIC FORUM
Ad And Ego-Free Web Forum
Looking for a web forum that focuses on the music and history of jazz and swing music with no egos and attitudes to wade through? The Swing Music Net web forum just may be the answer. Founded on the premise that most real jazz fans want to talk jazz and leave the politics to the politicians; the Swing Music Net web forum does just that. Just jazz, Jack.
BIOGRAPHIES OF JAZZ GIANTS
Ray Charles Biography
Known as "The Genius" Ray Charles recorded a wide variety of music but got his start playing big band music and jazz. He passed away 6-10-04.

Barney Kessel Biography
The jazz guitar great died May 6th, 2004 and left behind a vast body of recorded jazz work.

Benny Carter Biography
Benny Carter was one of the greatest arrangers and jazz musicians the genre has ever known. This extensive biography spans the entire lengthy carreer of the jazz legend.

Billy May Biography
The trumpeter, bandleader, composer and arranger died Jan. 22, 2004. May wrote many Swing Era classics for Glenn Miller and Charlie Barnet and later for Sinatra and Nat Cole.

Count Basie Biography
Our biography of Count Basie traces the career of "the kid from Red Bank" through Kansas City and into the later stages of his life as a bandleader.

SO WHADAYAWANNA HEAR?
Drop A Line Or Give A Ring
We air e-mail requests live the week after they are received. We try to handle radio requests via e-mail and tele so as to keep the personal stuff off the web forum board. To contact us for a request or just to let us know how bad we suck......or if you know chicks; e-mail here or call 559-278-4082. This number is only good Tuesdays between 4-6PM PST.
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Big Band-leaders And Down Beat Articles | Jazz Music Web Forum | Swing Era Small Groups | Swing Era Photos | Mainstream Jazz Musicians | Jazz Vocalists
Jazz Radio Audio | Jazz History And Big Band Music Evolution | Jazz History Economics And Technology | Big Band Battle At The Savoy | Petrillo / AFM Recording Ban

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