The Queen City's rich jazz and classical music heritage will be celebrated on "Public Radio Music Day" Thursday, April 16, on Cincinnati Public Radio's classical WGUG-FM (90.9) and news talk WVXU-FM (91.7) and Oxford's WMUB-FM (88.5).
WGUC morning host Brian O'Donnell steps away from classical music for a one-hour jazz show at 8 p.m. Thursday on WVXU. He'll play tunes from The Joint’s Still Jumpin’,WVXU's 2017 benefit CD from the fall 2017 fund drive.
"This CD came about because of the terrific jazz musicians I've known forever here in town," says O'Donnell. "Each and every one, when asked to record a piece for our CD immediately said 'YES!' to support Cincinnati Public Radio. It was an incredible experience to watch these tunes unfold." O'Donnell grew up in Golf Manor listening to Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, the Dorsey brothers and other big bands. He also worked at WVAE-FM, Cincinnati's "The Wave" smooth jazz station, in the late 1990s.
Listeners will hear Carmon DeLeone and The Studio Quintet playing Ed Moss's "Banana Island," CCM percussion professor Rusty Burge playing an original song called "New Adventures," "Cloë" by the Faux Frenchmen, "Lost and Lost" by the Pat Kelly Chamber Jazz 6, "Seeking Bedrock" by Marc Wolfley and Friends, and other songs from the CD.
Classical WGUC listeners will hear a selection from Radio Mozart, Queen City Bach or other Cincinnati Public Radio Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Pops Orchestra CDs every hour, starting at 7:30 a.m.
At 7 p.m., WGUC will broadcast an encore of the Pops' 2017 Music Hall re-opening concert celebrating John Williams.
This is the first year for Public Radio Music Day, spearheaded by the noncomMusic Alliance. It was able to secure a Congressional designation for national recognition of the unique music provided to communities by public radio stations.
