From DJ Tom Schnabel:
KCRW started playing Fela Anikulapo (he who looks death in the face) Kuti in 1980, long before Fela and his style, afrobeat, became popular. It was fitting that an LA-based station should give him airplay, since it was here in that Fela, an upper middle class boy from Lagos, discovered Black Nationalism and the Black Power Movement while living here in LA in1969.
Fela was also the first “KCRW Presents” show ever — in 1986, at the Olympic Auditorium in Downtown LA.
KCRW debuted King Sunny Ade (Nigerian juju …

From KCRW DJ Tom Schnabel:
Goethe once observed that “architecture is frozen music”.
When I told people a few years ago that I taught at SCIARC (Southern California Institute Of Architecture), people would inevitably ask “what’s music got to do with architecture?” To me the differences in the two disciplines were never that great.
Here are two great artists making the connection:

Claude Debussy, French composer (1862-1918), said this after being blown away by the 1889 Universal Exhibition, where he heard Balinese gamelan and other exotic music:
“Music is a free art, gushing forth—an …

From KCRW DJ Tom Schnabel:
I recently revisited some of Toru Takemitsu’s work, which I first heard in college with a recording called “Coral Island.”  It was way too far out for me then.
But listening now, years later, I am amazed by the color, shadings, the dialectic of abstraction and order that inhabit his work.   A few months ago, after reading the obit for boxer José Torres, I was reminded of Takemitsu’s dramatic piece in the film about the fighter, “Music of Training and Rest.”
Lately I’ve been listening repeatedly to the …

By KCRW DJ Tom Schnabel:
I recently bought a book compiled and photographed by the one and only jazz patroness, Baroness Pannonica (often called Nica) de Koenigswarter, a member of the old-world aristocratic and fabulously wealthy Rothschild dynasty.
The Baroness took the pictures and wrote down the wishes; the introduction is by her daugher Nadine, and the foreword is from Gary Giddins.
Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild was the daughter of Charles Rothschild and the Hungarian baroness Rozsika Edle von Wertheimstein.  She was named after a species of butterfuly her father had discovered.   She …

A few years back I got an email blurb from Giant Step Promotion in NYC, an organization KCRW used to do concerts with here in LA.  They featured a download of a band called The Bahama Soul Club, from their album “Rhythm is What Makes Jazz Jazz.”  The cover was lifted from a classic Blue Note side by trumpeter Kenny Dorham, so it caught my eye right away.
The sampler cut was called “But Rich Rhythms” and featured the voice of the late great alto sax player, Cannonball Adderley, famous for …

The other day I got the new Michael Franti & Spearhead album in the mail.  I knew—once again—that I’d enjoy the music and words inside. It’s called “The Sound of Sunshine.”
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
KCRW has a long and close history with Michael Franti, going back to the 80’s with his first group, the industrial punk band The Beatnigs, and even more so with his next group, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.  I was stuck on the air on April 29, 1992 when the LA riots broke out, …

From KCRW DJ Tom Schnabel, who interviewed Herman Leonard in 2008. Leonard passed away Saturday at age 87 :
I’m not the only person who considers Herman Leonard his favorite jazz photographer. Quincy Jones and Miles Davis felt the same way. He captured something that no other photographers did.  Looking at his pictures makes you feel joy.
His interest in photography was sparked by seeing a picture of his older brother’s wife—nude.  Titillated by this early experience, he decided to become a photographer.  He found a way to get out of Allentown, …

KCRW DJ Tom Schnabel was compelled him to write a remembrance for three unusual musical personalities who passed away recently, including Harvey Pekar.
KCRW will be paying tribute to the cult phenomenon by broadcasting an original radio production of Pekar’s “American Splendor” on Friday, June 16 at 7:30pm. Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, stars as Pekar in the production, which first aired on KCRW in 1991. More from Tom:
Three Passings: Tuli Kupferberg, David Fanshawe, and Harvey Pekar

Three unusual musical personalities passed away this week. The first is Tuli Kupferberg, …

The latest entry in our 5Things blog is from jazz aficionado Tom Schnabel, sharing his 5 favorite Jazz Record Covers. As someone with a fine appreciation for cover art –I’m so old school I still prefer CDs over MP3s and my box sets are part of my home decor — I thought this was worth sharing. Enjoy!
5 Favorite Jazz Record Covers
By Tom Schnabel KCRW Music Host
One of the things I love most about vinyl, besides the tactile aspect is the visual aspect, album cover art, something that has been lost …

KCRW DJ Tom Schnabel:
For eons, traditional cultures have used music to mark important milestones:  fertility rites, birth, puberty, marriage, and death.  So it’s not surprising to learn that operating rooms in major hospitals have music piped in as well.  Surgeons create playlists that help focus and calm them and others in the operating theatre.  Sometimes patients and close relatives bring their own.
The other day in the hall I ran into Anil Dewan, KCRW’s Webmaster.  Anil and his wife Laurie just celebrated, at the end of April, the birth of their …