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Watch Joy to the World's Holiday Jazz Program this Sunday!

Missed seeing this year’s live performance of Joy to the World with Bob Thompson and guest vocalist Lena Seikaly? No humbugs here! You can watch it this Sunday, December 20 on WVPB television (7pm on WVPB HD and 11pm on WVPB-2).

Now in its 23rd year, Joy to the World is an annual live performance holiday jazz program hosted by pianist Bob Thompson and produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting. In addition to a distinguished solo career as the leader of the Charleston-based Bob Thompson Unit, Thompson has also been a member of the Mountain Stage band since 1991. Earlier this year he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

Lena Seikaly made her Joy to the World debut this year.

For this 2015 show, Bob Thompson and his band are joined by guest vocalist Lena Seikaly, a fresh voice on the national jazz scene from Washington, D.C. Most recently she was recognized as a 2015 semifinalist in the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition. Named “one of Washington’s preeminent jazz singers” and “brightest voices in jazz” by The Washington Post, Lena is already making her mark as both a revivalist of traditional jazz vocals, as well as an innovator in contemporary vocal jazz styles.

Sunday’s Joy to the World broadcast features such holiday favorites as “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” “The Christmas Waltz” and “Christmas Time is Here.”

This year’s show and future radio broadcasts are sponsored in part by The Dominion Foundation and the West Virginia Lottery.

For a complete list of WVPBS channels and TV schedules, go to wvpublic.org.

Joy to the World Christmas Day Marathon | 2015

This season’s premiere broadcast of Joy to the World featuring vocalist Mollie O’Brien can be heard on West Virginia Public Broadcasting Thursday, December 24 at 8 p.m.

Joy to the World is our live performance holiday jazz program hosted by pianist Bob Thompson. From the producers of Mountain Stage and West Virginia Public Broadcasting, this 22-year tradition is performed before a consistently sold-out audience in Charleston, West Virginia’s Culture Center Theater, as well as additional at live road shows around the Mountain State.

This year’s Joy to the World premiere episode features special guest vocalist Mollie O’Brien, whose voice is a true gift itself. Listeners will enjoy her swinging version of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and a wonderfully cheerful arrangement of “Cool Yule.” Thompson and his band share instrumental takes on holiday favorites like “Up on the Housetop,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” and “My Favorite Things.” The ensemble’s rendition of “Bells Will Be Ringing,” which closes the show, is certain to leave audiences filled with joy.

Throughout the day December 25 our listeners will be treated to classic episodes of Joy to the World airing from 12-6 a.m., 9-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Special guest vocalists will bring old classics and new renditions to life in our Christmas Day Marathon.

http://youtu.be/ATwBIo_-FTM

Jackfert to Host Classical Hour, "Jazz After Hours" to Return to WVPB

West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) is pleased to announce changes in its radio program line-up, featuring new voices and returning favorites.

Composer and announcer Matt Jackfert will host a new classical music show Monday through Thursday from 2 – 3 p.m. on WVPB.

He joins our other classical hosts: West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Famer Frank Stowers, and Peter Van de Graaff, a professional singer who has performed with opera companies and orchestras throughout the world.

Long-time host Jim Lange stepped down last month for personal reasons, but he continues to produce his ever-popular Eclectopia, heard twice weekly on WVPB.

Beginning October 1, Jazz After Hours will air 1 a.m. – 5 a.m.in lieu of Mountain Stage After Midnight on weekends. Jeff Hanley is the new host of Jazz After Hours, since Jim Wilke retired last year.

At 5 a.m. on the weekends, the BBC World Service will replace Bob Edwards Weekend, which is no longer being produced.

Effective September 8, the WVPB mid-day schedule will be as follows:

9 – 10 a.m. / BBC Newshour

10 a.m. – Noon / Performance Today

Noon – 3 p.m. / Classical Music *

(* Mon. – Thurs.: Matt Jackfert & Peter Van de Graaff; Fri: Frank Stowers)

For more details on the WVPB radio schedule: wvpublic.org/schedule/week

West Virginia Public Broadcasting tells West Virginia’s story through high-quality programming and services including radio, television, Mountain Stage®, wvpublic.org, WV LearningMedia and Ready To Learn®. West Virginia Public Broadcasting is a trusted resource for education, news, emergency services and community development.

Despite Jim Crow Laws and Segregation, Charleston W.Va.'s Nightclubs Were a Melting Pot

The 1930s, 40s, and 50s in Charleston- before the decline in mining jobs caused many African Americans to leave Kanawha County- those years were electric with music that could be found throughout the city on almost any night of the week. That’s what Hubert “Rabbit” Jones remembers.

Jones made his living as an accountant, but his love was playing improv jazz or the blues with so many of musicians who passed through the capital city. Back then, segregation was still officially law, but in Charleston’s night clubs, blacks and whites would often mingle. Jones played upright bass at many of the nightclubs in town, including many of the white bars, where officially, white people were not supposed to dance to music that was being performed by black musicians.
“And of course sometimes the policemen would stop them and sometimes they wouldn’t. And then following the dances some of the whites wanted to come over to the triangle district for the rest of the night, listening to and dancing to black music.”

Workers outside the Ferguson Theater, 1939.

By “the triangle district”, Jones is referring to The Block, a neighborhood in downtown Charleston that once flourished with many black owned businesses. Today, most of what can be found in The Block is a post office, and an interstate exit. both of which were built right on top of this once vibrant and ethnically diverse community.

The first C.H. James Produce Company was located in downtown Charleston on Summers Street

Thursday evening, Jones will discuss his role in some of that community’s history. His lecture will take place at 6:00 P M in at the Culture Center Archives and History Museum on the Capitol Complex in Charleston.

Music in this story was by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, playing “Just Gone”, courtesy of WFMU.

Jazzy Women Take the Stage

In the 1960s, as the civil-rights movement and other cultural changes gained momentum, a generation of women artists made their way through a jazz world that had long been less than hospitable to their aims.

This special program will air Thursday night, March 5 at 9 pm.

Singers such as Nina Simone and Jeanne Lee, composer Carla Bley, organist Shirley Scott, harpist Dorothy Ashby and fellow harpist and pianist Alice Coltrane, and trumpeter Barbara Donald all left behind notable recordings from this decade as they expanded the role of women in jazz in ways both traditional and groundbreaking.

“Jazz Women of the 1960s” offers a musical survey of these artists, including Nina Simone’s civil-rights anthem “Young, Gifted and Black,” Alice Coltrane’s Eastern-religion-inspired “Huntington Ashram Monastery,” Jeanne Lee’s take on an Ellington classic, and an early interpretation of Carla Bley’s jazz standard “Ida Lupino.”

Tonic Sol-fa Tenor Branches Out in New Holiday Special

Watch Shaun Johnson's Big Band Experience – The Spirit of the Season Friday, Dec. 20 at 9 p.m. on WV PBS.2Crooner Shaun Johnson — a founding member of the…

Watch Shaun Johnson’s Big Band Experience – The Spirit of the Season Friday, Dec. 20 at 9 p.m. on WV PBS.2

Crooner Shaun Johnson — a founding member of the popular a cappella quartet Tonic Sol-Fa — goes solo in a spirited new holiday special on West Virginia PBS.2

The Emmy®-winning tenor channels Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett in an era-spanning, up-tempo production that includes beloved seasonal staples, pop hits, fan favorites, an original composition, and even a few unexpected numbers.

Shaun Johnson’s Big Band Experience – The Spirit of the Season features the elegantly dressed singer and a seven-member band covering holiday classics “Rocking on Top of the World,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Silver Bells” and “Let It Snow,” as well as Sinatra standards “My Kind of Town,” “That’s Life” and “Can I Steal a Little Love?” Shaun also puts his own stamp on Elvis’ “Blue Christmas,” Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” and Michael Buble’s “Haven’t Met You Yet.”

Shaun’s band features accomplished musicians who have played with Jimmy Dorsey, the Temptations, Aretha Franklin and Johnny Mathis, among other luminaries. They include: Jim Bierma (bass), Jeff Carver (trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals), Aaron Moe (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, clarinet), Steve Pikal (trombone, bass), Sam Reeves (piano, vocals), Dave Stanoch (percussion) and Mark Yannie (tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet).

Taped at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, Burnsville, Minn., Shaun Johnson’s Big Band Experience – The Spirit of the Season features Broadway-style staging and lighting, a visit from Santa himself, and plenty of audience interaction.

Between performances, Shaun reflects on his Midwest upbringing, his humble beginnings in the music industry and his current “day job” with Tonic Sol-fa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pLyHURjaiw#t=12