After Hours featuring Dean Grech, air date Nov. 10, 2021

Join me at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 10, for After Hours Alaska on KRBD-Rainbird public radio in Ketchikan, Alaska, as I’m joined in conversation with jazz guitarist, composer boca and producer Dean Grech.

As with many artists of his caliber, Grech’s music career and his long road to success started at a young age. Grech began his devotion to music and guitar at age 7. He played his first paying gig at age 11. His dedication only increased when he took lessons from world-renowned classical guitarist, and Decca recording artist, Rey Delatorre, at the age of 14.

With the advanced technique that comes with classical training, Dean later found his niche playing jazz and emulating guitarists who would become Grech’s guide to improv in the years to come. His interest started with a gift. Grech’s jazz influence can be traced back to a friend of the family who gave him a stack of records. In that stack, Grech found “Kaleidoscope” by Johnny Smith and “Boss Guitar” by Wes Montgomery. The passion was placed. The sounds of these two guitar players haunted Grech relentlessly from that point on. Dean is extremely talented and well versed in many facets of music.

Click here to visit Dean’s personal website. Click here to listen to this episode of After Hours.

After Hours featuring Madeleine Peyroux, air date Oct. 19, 2020

Join me for the Oct. 19, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with American jazz singer and songwriter Madeleine Peyroux.

Madeleine began her career as a teenager busking with her guitar on the streets of Paris, much like her idol Edith Piaf. She sang vintage jazz and blues songs before finding mainstream success in 2004, when her album Careless Love sold half a million copies.

Madeleine’s dusky voice was likened to that of Jazz greats Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Featuring top musicians Marc Ribot, Vernon Reid, Cyrus Chestnut, Charlie Giordano, Greg Cohen, Kenny Wollesen, Regina Carter, Leon Parker and James Carter, her 1996 debut album, Dreamland, included Madeleine’s renditions of Holiday’s Gettin’ Some Fun Out of Life, Bessie Smith’s Lovesick Blues and Fats Waller’s I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.

Dreamland cemented Madeleine Peyroux as a ‘classic’ musical talent that was here to stay, and the soulful singer found herself touring the world, singing with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and opening for Cesaria Evora.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Madeleine Peyroux, originally broadcast on Oct. 19, 2020. Click here to visit Madeleine’s personal website.

After Hours featuring John Pizzarelli, air date Aug. 17, 2020

Join me for the Aug. 17, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with world-renowned guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli.

John has been hailed by the Boston Globe for “reinvigorating the Great American Songbook and re-popularizing jazz.” The Toronto Star pegged him as “the genial genius of the guitar.” And the Seattle Times saluted him as “a rare entertainer of the old school.”

Established as one of the prime contemporary interpreters of the Great American Songbook, Pizzarelli has expanded that repertoire by including the music of Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Antônio Carlos Jobim and the Beatles. His themed shows, often performed with his wife, Jessica Molaskey, suggest there is no limit to Pizzarelli’s imagination or talent.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring John Pizzarelli, originally broadcast on Aug. 17, 2020. Click here to visit John’s personal website.