KCSM is probably jazz’s best ambassador and that’s entirely due to the knowledge, care, and dedication of its on air talent. I think every working jazz artist today should give thanks to the little station that could. Miles Davis has a famous quote where he says that all musicians should get on their knees at least once a year and give thanks to Duke Ellington. So the last thing I want to see is my main temple of music go away. Music is also the closest thing I have to a religion. Music tells our stories most vividly, creatively and viscerally. While these federal programs make up a tiny fraction of 1% of the national budget (we won’t solve the deficit by getting rid of them, in other words), entities like KCSM rely on the money they receive to keep the lights on. Having a president pushing for so drastic a move only makes matters worse. Republican Congresses in the past have threatened this act of cultural suicide in the past. He has already made known his desire to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Public Radio, and the National Foundation for the Arts. And more trouble could exist just over the shaky horizon that is life in the age of the Trump Administration. While the station is dedicated to staying on the air and broadcasting jazz 24/7, one of only three left in the country still doing so, its precarious position troubles me to no end. Some of my favorite announcers will be working reduced shifts, including Greg Bridges, whose programming has aided me while writing on more than a few occasions. Harry Duncan’s “In the Soul Kitchen” also received the axe. Gone is “In the Moment,” a showcase for recorded live performances in the Bay Area. Due to budget shortfalls and other issues, the station will have to cut back some of their on air staff and has cancelled some of their best programs. KCSM, Jazz 91, the mainstay of my musical existence for the past 20 years, has the blues, and their blues will be felt by their thousands of listeners worldwide. Hajdu, “Lush Life – A Biography of Billy Strayhorn,” Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1996, p. ‘How can you tell me this? Do you know what you’re saying? Why didn’t you tell me this before?’… He was irrational. “Arthur said, ‘Edward is terribly, terribly angry. He was on the road somewhere,” Marian Logan recounted. Strayhorn took his diagnosis bravely, calmly. Arthur Logan, physician to both Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. For this chapter, he relied on the vivid memories of Marian Logan, Harlem socialite and wife of Dr. My favorite section of Hajdu’s Strayhorn biography Lush Life, the part with the strongest storytelling, is where he talks about Billy Strayhorn’s cancer diagnosis.
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