a re-print from “The Record”
Radio can be like a trampoline. A springboard of sorts. Launching the feelings, sentiments and interests of a community into the slipstream of magnetic airwaves and electrons, showing up on people’s Ipods, radios and computers. The better the capturing capabilities of CIDI, the more interesting Radio Communautaire Missisquoi becomes to its listeners.
By “capturing devices” I mean good microphones, a piano, and a live broadcasting facility. CIDI’s studio area is such a place, or at least will be by the end of the month. Now that we have removed a couple of walls and are having a stage built at one end of our newly designated venue, which will be able to seat close to 100 people, the mind-gears of CIDI volunteers have been churning coming up with possible artists to present to two audiences; on air, and in house.
This past Saturday we received Oliver Jones in our studios. He graciously accepted to be a guest on the Let’s Talk Jazz show hosted by Keith Misener and Warren Woodworth, which plays every Saturday from 8 to 10pm and again on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9 on CIDI 99.1 FM. At the end of his interview he agreed to play a piece of music for us on our Steinway grand piano. How nice to have Jones, an internationally respected jazz musician from Montreal, grace our studio with his presence and music.
That’s one of the differences between good radio and great radio, a Steinway grand piano. With the piano, we now have a capturing device ready to reproduce a live moment for CIDI’s community, guaranteeing quality of tone and performance. Do you think Jones would have played on a broken down piano ready for the dump? I don’t think so.
What exactly is CIDI’s community anyway? I suppose It’s everyone who listens to and takes part in producing its programming. This means Jones is now part of our community. How wonderful.
“I have a lot of friends in the Townships,” says Jones in his interview with Keith Misener and Holly Bailey (host of CIDI’s Bobcat Sessions – Saturdays at 3pm, Sundays at 11pm and Thursdays at 7pm, who was filling in for Warren Woodworth), “and have been playing the Orford Arts Centre for years.” It’s only fitting, therefore, that he is participating in Townships community radio with CIDI.
When pianist Oliver Jones announced his final tour in 1999, before retiring, he never dreamed he’d make a comeback five years later. And, he never imagined that the comeback would be credited, in part, to his fellow Montrealer and friend, Oscar Peterson, the musician he’s been compared to during much of his career. The two of them go back a long way, having lived mere blocks from each other, and both having been taught by Oscar’s sister Daisy, and then Oliver getting tips and advice from Oscar himself.
Taken from an Edmonton Journal interview in 2007 Jones reflects: “I was very happy in retirement for over four years, and then Oscar came into the equation. I touched the piano maybe five or six times in that four years, but when the Montreal Jazz Festival was getting ready to celebrate their 25th anniversary, they phoned me in Florida with an offer to share the stage with Oscar Peterson. I said yes because for so many years we had wanted to do something together. That concert was going to be a one-time shot, but then the phone calls started coming in for weeks afterwards.”
Since his comeback, Jones has been filling halls six months of the year to “94% capacity” on average. “It’s a great feeling,” explains Jones, “when I look out into the audience and see youngsters with a mix of older silver-haired people my age enjoying jazz.”
As a result, Jones doesn’t believe “jazz is dead” when answering a question from Misener concerning the music’s future in today’s modern times.
The best part for Jones is the music itself, and Jones thanks his exciting young trio partners, bassist Eric Lagasse and drummer Jim Doxas, who have brought his playing “to a level it’s never been to before.”
“We (Canadians) are producing great young jazz artists of high international caliber.” says Jones, “And, radio stations like CIDI can do a lot to help to promote jazz to young people.”
Jones believes that education is the key to ensuring the longevity of jazz, and that by giving young people the chance to listen to jazz is the beginning of this process. “What stations can do today,” states Jones, “is to play jazz in earlier time slots. That way young people will have a chance to hear something other than the popular music of the day such as Hip Hop.”
So be it. With the Jones’ interview and performance slated to play on the Let’s Talk Jazz show next week, he is doing his part, as CIDI broadcasts its jazz show at primetime evening hours, between 7 & 10. When asked whether he would like to come back to CIDI in the fall to perform in front of a live audience in our “Radio Village” hall he told me to call him at home. How sweet it is!
And let’s not forget someone of upmost importance, you, the listener. Without you, there would be no reason for us. So we strive to provide something that is engaging and entertaining. It is our greatest desire to produce shows that will draw you in, to become a part of your daily life and to share in the dreams and the joys that drive us all. This is after all, the magic of radio. Tune in to CIDI 99.1 fm if you can, or check us out via live streaming on your computer at rcmmedia.org.
Photos are courtesy Klaus Bremer / CIDI.
Maurice Singfield is a Radio Communautaire Missisquoi volunteer. Tel: 450-242-9873 / 1-888-539-2098.
Tags: broadcasting, CIDI, jazz, Keith Misener, Oliver Jones, Oscar Peterson, studio, Townships, Warren Woodworth
