KAZZ-FM returns with smooth jazz
KAZZ-FM (107.1) is back on the air with a format new to the Spokane market: smooth jazz. This Deer Park station, which covers the Spokane metro area, is now calling itself KAZZ-FM, 107.1, The Oasis. What, exactly, is smooth jazz? You might call it a hybrid between easy listening and jazz.
“The best known artist would probably be Kenny G,” said Michael Joseph, the station’s operations manager, program director and morning host. “Others would be Lee Ritenour and Boney James.”
You might also hear a number of other stalwarts of the national smooth jazz charts, including George Benson, the Ramsey Lewis Trio and many newer artists. Occasionally, KAZZ will play an adult-contemporary artist such as Mariah Carey, Celine Dion or Eric Clapton (strictly in his “Tears of Heaven” mode).
Yet the majority of songs are instrumentals, featuring sax, guitar or keyboard.
The Spokane market has one predominantly jazz station, KEWU-FM, a noncommercial station affiliated with Eastern Washington University, but no station playing commercial “smooth” jazz.
“This format was something that this market needed,” said Joseph, who came here from a similar station in Las Vegas. “All of us here really love this kind of music.”
KAZZ was a nostalgia station when it was sold last November to First Broadcasting Investment Partners, a Dallas company.
The station went dark for months while improvements were made to its signal and a market study was conducted.
The station is introducing its new format with “20,000 songs in a row,” which should take it into mid-November.
After that, ads, news, traffic reports and other local DJs will be gradually introduced as the station gets up to speed.
First Night cappers
First Night Spokane 2005 has unveiled its theme: “Hats Alive for 2005!”
What that means, is that everybody will be encouraged to wear “their most unique, most outlandish hat” for the opening procession and opening ceremony of this downtown New Year’s Eve community celebration.
In other First Night news, the children’s festival part of the event has a new name: “Kid’s Night Out at First Night Spokane.” The name was submitted by students at Roosevelt Elementary.
Stay tuned for more First Night developments.
A CenterStage switch
The show “Voices,” a one-man play written and performed by Tim Behrens, has been shelved at CenterStage.
Instead, Behrens will perform “Pot Luck: A Salad of Seldom Seen Stories Served A La Carte,” a show consisting of Patrick F. McManus stories.
Behrens is certainly familiar with this material. This is one of several McManus shows that he has toured around the country. An earlier version was previously done in Spokane under the name “Pott’s Luck.”
It includes stories such as “The Grasshopper Trap,” “The Canoe Doctor” and “The Ghost at Misty Lake.”
Previews begin Oct. 28 and the show will run through Nov. 20. This is a dinner theater production. Call 747-8243 for reservations.
The originally scheduled “Voices” has been postponed “until the voices make a dramatic and comedic return,” said a CenterStage release. The show was billed as a work-in-progress about “growing up in a family of actors in New York and Hollywood.”
Pink Martini is served
Back in March, when Pink Martini came to play with the Spokane Symphony, leader Thomas Lauderdale said the band was on the verge of issuing a new CD. This was big news, since this Portland-based world-music combo hadn’t released a CD since their 1997 smash debut, “Sympathique.”
Now, at long last, Pink Martini’s “Hang on Little Tomato” arrives in stores on Tuesday. It’s on their own label, Heinz Records.
The CD will certainly further the band’s reputation as an eclectic act. It contains songs sung in French, Italian, Japanese, Croatian, Spanish and, yes, even English.
Will it rival “Sympathique” in popularity? That’s a tall order. About 650,000 copies of “Sympathique” sold worldwide.
A Beaux Arts Ball
Here’s a way to combine dancing and dessert: The First Annual Davenport District Does Broadway: A Beaux Arts Ball and Dessert Festival, at the Davenport Hotel on Saturday at 8 p.m.
This is a costume-optional ball featuring the 18-piece Spokane big band Men of Rhythm. There will also be a dance demonstration and an array of desserts from the Davenport’s executive chef, Matthew Young, including the intriguingly named “Chocolate Fountain.”
Tickets are $75 per person, available at the Lorinda Knight Gallery, 523 W. Sprague Ave., and Peters and Sons Flowers and Gifts, 170 S. Lincoln St. All proceeds benefit the Davenport District Arts Board.