Annual free shows set for August Thursday nights in Noelridge Park
The 2009 lineup of Jazz Under The Stars will include two national touring performers, who along with two popular regional performers, will appear free in the month of August at Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids.
General Manager Dennis Green says, “Normally, Jazz Under The Stars features local or regional talent. Every once in a while, however, we have the chance to present a national performer with Iowa roots. This year, for the first time, we’ll be the premiere Iowa stop for not one, but two national tours.”
Jazz 88.3 KCCK, public radio from Kirkwood Community College, will stage the 22nd year of Jazz Under The Stars in August. The free concerts will take place each Thursday in Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids.
The performance schedule includes:
• August 6 – Fred Woodard Trio
• August 13 – The Al Naylor Quartet
• August 20 – Funk-Stop
• August 27 – Lake Street Dive
All concerts begin at 7pm. The scheduled rain date for all concerts will be Thursday, September 3.
August 6 – Fred Woodard Trio
Leading off the series on August 6th is the Fred Woodard Trio. A jazz guitarist, Woodard was raised in Iowa City, before attending the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Named Best New Jazz Artist of 2002 by GBOS Magazine, Woodard has toured with classic R&B artists like Sam & Dave, The Drifters and the Marvelettes.
Jazz Under The Stars will be a rare Midwest stop on tour to support his new CD, ‘Urban Garden.’ Woodard describes the band’s music as “straight-ahead jazz spiced with R&B. I like to take sounds from styles other than jazz and adapt them to the jazz format.”
August 13 – Al Naylor Quartet
Al Naylor has been entertaining audiences in Iowa for more than three decades. Early in his career, Al toured with a variety of rock & roll horn bands, one of which, The Pages, earned him an induction into the Iowa Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. As the leader of the I-380 Express, he performed for tens of thousands of TV viewers each year during the Variety Telethon.
Currently, he teaches at Coe and Kirkwood, and is a member of The Blue Band, in addition to his own group. Mr. Naylor has performed professionally in a wide variety of settings including the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, the Barnum and Bailey Circus, and for such touring Broadway shows as A Chorus Line and South Pacific. As a composer and arranger, Naylor’s works have been performed by the Cedar Rapids Symphony, the I-380 Express, and his own middle school and high school groups.
August 20 – Funk-Stop
Funk-Stop is an eleven member group playing Funk & R&B in the style of Tower of Power, Earth, Wind & Fire and Kool & The Gang. Members are music educators and professional musicians who use the band as an outlet to cut loose and have fun.
August 27 – Lake Street Dive
Lake Street Dive is led by Iowa City West graduate Bridget Kearney. Bridget was one of Iowa’s most honored musicians as a high school student. Her high school combo, “Sax Attack,” won Downbeat Magazine’s High School Combo of the Year award in 2003. Her original song, “Sometimes When I’m Drunk and You’re Wearing My Favorite Shirt” won the John Lennon Songwriting Award a year later.
Lake Street Dive features Kearney on bass, vocalist Rachael Price, Mike Olson, trumpet and Mike Calabrese, drums. The band’s sound combines country, R&B, pop and jazz. Based in Boston, each member of the quartet studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. Price is a group leader in her own right. She headlined at the Iowa City Jazz Festival in 2007.
Lake Street Dive released their second CD, “Promises, Promises,” earlier this year.
Food and refreshments will be available for purchase at the concerts. Attendees are also invited to bring lawn chairs, blankets and their own picnic if they wish.
Major support for KCCK’s Jazz Under the Stars series comes from Pat McGrath Chevyland, Dr. D.M. Fitzgerald & Associates, Collins Community Credit Union, The Gazette, Rockwell Collins, Latta, Harris, Hanon & Penningroth, Northtowne Cycling & Fitness, West Music and Kirkwood Community College.
# # #
Jazz 88.3 KCCK-FM is a locally-programmed public radio station owned by Kirkwood Community College, broadcasting in analog FM and HD Radio at 88.3 FM. Johnson County translator at 106.9 FM and webcasting at www.kcck.org . KCCK has presented Jazz Under the Stars every summer since 1988.
For more information contact KCCK at (319) 398-5446.