|  Sunday,
April 18, will be a major-event day for Jazz in
AZ: It's our annual meeting, a celebration of
Jazz Appreciation Month, our monthly party and
a day of special recognition for one of our greatest
voices for jazz.
It
all takes place at The Compound Grill, an exciting
new performance venue conveniently located just
south of the 101 Freeway and west of Scottsdale
Road. (Enter the shopping center at 68th Street
on the north side of Mayo Boulevard.) Admission
is $10 for the public (waived if you join Jazz
in AZ at the party); JiA member rates apply. A
wide selection of food and beverages are available
for purchase. For more menu/venue info, visit
www.thecompoundgrill.com.
The
Jazz in AZ annual meeting will begin promptly
at 2:15 p.m. All JiA members and the public are
welcome to attend this brief meeting to learn
about the state of the organization and its goals
for the coming year.
At
3 p.m. the Jazz in AZ monthly party will kick
off international Jazz Appreciation Month with
a musical tribute to “Giants of Jazz,”
including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck,
The Modern Jazz Quartet, Herbie Hancock and Chick
Corea. The band is comprised of top Valley musicians
who in recent years have been
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presenting
concerts devoted to each of these jazz luminaries.
The musicians are Scott Zimmer (saxophones), Keith
Kelly (flute, saxophones), Dan Delaney (piano),
Brett Reed (vibraphone), Ted Sistrunk (bass) andJohn
Lewis (drums). This party will be “best of”
selections from those concerts to create a memorable
afternoon of America's original music.
During
intermission, Jazz in AZ will present its Lifetime
Achievement Award to Blaise Lantana, who has been
music director and weeknight on-air personality
at KJZZ radio since 1995. Her passion and tenacity
have helped to keep jazz on the air in the Valley,
and offer our community one of the few remaining
on-air jazz outlets in the nation.
If
you love hearing jazz in Arizona, then you probably
know the sultry voice of Blaise Lantana on the radio.
You may enjoy “the voice with the smile”
and the tidbits of jazz information that Blaise
slips in each night between the tunes, but the most
important part of her job is choosing the music
that you hear each night on KJZZ. I talked with
Blaise this week about what it takes to do her job
and why she loves it.
“Music
has always been a part of my life; I was singing
since I could talk, and playing piano since I was
7. As a musician you have a different relationship
with sound, how you hear it and how it affects your
whole body. For 20 years I was a professional musician
working all over the country. Because I watched
people listen, I got a feel for how different people
reacted to different sounds. The clubs were small
and struggling and it was my job to keep |
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| Blaise
Lantana |
people
in their seats, so I paid close attention to what
made them leave or even get restless. Although
everyone loves a beautiful ballad, if the tempo
was too slow for too long they were gone; if it
got too intense for too long they left. Tempos,
sound levels, instruments -- I watched people
react every night to the music that they were
hearing and that was great training for programming
music.
“Playing
music is a hard life, and I really respect and
honor the work that musicians do to stay alive
and make the music they love. When a job in radio
came up at the NPR station in Corpus Christi,
Texas, I applied and became a broadcaster and
music director.
“Here
at KJZZ, I choose the jazz that you hear every
night on your radio, and I take my job very seriously
because I want everyone to discover and enjoy
the different aspects of this wonderful music.
I really try to consider all the music that comes
in, and there is a lot. Everyone can make a CD
today, so I get product from musicians from all
over the world, plus
from the |
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