The highlight of this week’s “Living Jazz” show will be a live telephone interview with Kenny Werner, the great Catskills-based pianist, educator, author, and composer. Kenny has been working on a tribute to his friend the late Toots Thielemans, the Belgian-born pioneer of jazz harmonica who would have celebrated his 100th birthday on April 29, 2022. We’ll listen to Kenny and Toots playing together, as well as Kenny playing with Gregoire Maret, the reigning master of jazz harmonica, with whom Kenny is working on his Toots tribute.
The other hour of the show will be devoted to two great jazz trumpeters: Kenny Dorham and Lee Morgan. We’ll celebrate Kenny Dorham’s birthday (Aug. 30, 1924; he died in 1972 at age 48) by checking out some of his seminal recordings, including “Afro-Cuban,” “Live at the Flamboyan Queens NY,” and the Joe Henderson album “Page One.” We’ll also check out a new, expanded edition of one of Lee Morgan’s legendary live recordings, “The Complete Live at the Lighthouse,” which was recorded in 1970 and was re-released by Blue Note in this definitive edition on Aug. 20.
“Living Jazz” airs Fridays from noon to 2 p.m. on WJFF, 90.5 f.m., and streams online at wjffradio.org.