This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Art Porter, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Evans. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM Central, at kasu.org.
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a great Arkansas jazz pianist play everybody’s favorite song.
I can remember, back in the day, when I used to watch the Art Porter Trio play jazz on AETN. Older listeners will remember a time when all the world’s music wasn’t at your fingertips and it wasn’t that often that you got to hear a piano trio on television.
Art Porter led a full life with church, family, music education, and performance, often intertwined. That is he started playing at church and later he played at church with his own family, who he taught to play. He also taught in Little Rock, Arkansas, at Horace Mann High School, Parkview High School, and Philander Smith College while performing nights with a jazz trio that sometimes included his son, Art Porter Jr., and sometimes a guest, Pharoah Sanders.
My friend, Suzanne Michell, loved his music and she sang with him as a guest. He even played with his long time friend, Bill Clinton, and Art Porter and his son performed “Amazing Grace” at Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993.
When I’m about to play this song I say, “Ok now, here’s everybody’s favorite song, “Summertime”.
So now, here’s Art Porter, a great man and a genius on jazz piano playing everybody’s favorite song, “Summertime”.
Something Blue – Pepper – March 15, 2025
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Common Time, Nigel Harpur, and Charlie Hunter. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM Central, at kasu.org.
DJ Hairy Larry Presents Common Time Playing Autumn Leaves
From the Archives Of Something Blue 2025-03-09
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear ASU students play my favorite song.
Common Time was a working jazz combo, playing every week. I was in school with them and they all helped me, playing at my composition recitals. Of course I invited them to play at the bandshell.
Playing in Common Time On June 3, 2017 were
Josh Carter – sax
Alex Ditto – guitar
Spencer Rawlins – bass
and
Chris Isom – drums
Although they were still in college in 2017, these are all top rank musicians, still playing today.
I can’t tell you what a joy it is to hear young musicians deliver the goods playing jazz standards. But I’ll try. Their set was tight with exciting solos and ensemble work. And they were playing some of my favorite songs. There’s something about live jazz that gets the message across. The audience loved them.
So now, recorded on June 3, 2017, at the Craighead Forest Bandshell here’s Common Time playing “Autumn Leaves”.
Something Blue Archives Featured Concert
Common Time Quartet Live at Craighead Forest Bandshell on 2017-06-03 archive.org/details/ct2017-06-03
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Dave Holland and Steve Coleman. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
DJ Hairy Larry Presents Art Porter Playing Lay Your Hands On Me
From The Archives Of Something Blue March 2, 2025
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to listen to Arthur Lee Porter Jr.
Born in 1961 he started playing drums in his father’s band, The Art Porter Trio, at the age of nine. When he was a teenager he picked up the saxophone. He went to school at the Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School in Little Rock.
This is where it gets interesting. He was barred from playing in clubs because he was under 21. He was arrested and charged with working under-age in a nightclub serving alcoholic beverages.
Bill Clinton was Arkansas Attorney General at the time and he got the charges against Art Porter dropped. Later Clinton got the law changed to allow under-age musicians to appear in adult facilities as long as their legal guardians accompanied them. This law became known as “The Art Porter Bill”.
In the eighties Porter moved to Chicago where he played with Jack McDuff and another Arkansas saxophonist, Pharoah Sanders, who also played with Art Porter in Little Rock. Pharoah Sanders, Art Porter Jr. and Art Porter Sr. are all recognized in the Arkansas Jazz Hall Of Fame.
Porter and his father performed for President Clinton during his 1993 inauguration, playing Amazing Grace at a prayer breakfast.
In 1996 Porter died in a boating accident after playing at the Thailand International Jazz Festival. He was only 35 years old when we all suffered this great loss to jazz music.
Go to the Something Blue website at sbblues.com for links to more about Art Porter and his music.
Today we’re going to hear Art Porter play the title track of his last album, “Lay Your Hands On Me”.
Art Porter Jr. – Straight To The Point | North Sea Jazz (1993)
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Taper’s Choice and Sam Bush. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
From The Archives Of Something Blue – 2025-02-23 John Shepherd Playing Guitar At Blues Fest 2024 photo by Gretchen Hunt
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear the real blues recorded at Blues Fest on October 6, 2024.
John Shepherd has been playing at Blues Fest for many years so it was great to get him back in 2024. As always, he played an amazing set, really knocking it out of the park. And, of course, that’s Craighead Forest Park.
I had already arranged to sing with his band on a couple of songs but he had something like a concept of a set list so he told me not to let him forget. When I heard him play “As The Years Go Passing By” his guitar knocked me out so much that I knew that was the song I wanted to follow.
Playing with John were Mike Cobbs on bass and Brian Browder, drums, both exceptional Northeast Arkansas musicians.
“As The Years Go Passing By” was written by Peppermint Harris for Fenton Robinson, who first recorded it in 1959. Fenton Robinson was a Little Rock guitarist who also played on the Larry Davis hit, “Texas Flood”, later covered by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
So now, here’s John Shepherd playing “As The Years Go Passing By” live at Blues Fest.
Something Blue – Easy – February 22, 2025 Marshall Allen – New Dawn
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, and Marshall Allen. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
Joy Sanford and Ron Horton
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear our favorite pianist play the Bossa Nova.
I was thrilled when Joy Sanford agreed to play KASU Jazz Thursday on February 24, 2011. She had helped us so many times on so many shows but always as an accompanist, never as the star of the show.
She put together a great band of regional musicians with Ron Horton on trumpet, Craig Collison drums, and Tom Mason, bass. And they really delivered, song after song. I was fortunate to get good recordings at this once in a liftime event.
Bossa Nova is Portuguese for new wave. It’s a Brazilian style incorporating Samba and Jazz. The most prominent composer of Bossa Nova songs is Antonio Carlos Jobim and one of his most played songs is “Wave”.
So now, here’s Joy Sanford playing “Wave” at KASU Jazz Thursday on February 24, 2011.
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