Big changes continue to roll out over at KMHD, which became a partnership with OPB and Mt. Hood Community College last year.  Today, they’ve announced a new lineup of shows and hosts, including Tim DuRoche, Bill Rhoades, Nick Gefroh, Carlton Jackson, Krishna and Rebecca Kilgore.

“Our daytime schedule will continue to tell the whole story of the music; its heroes, its trends and artistic accomplishments, with shows that mix classic jazz and the side trips it’s taken over history,” said Matt Fleeger, KMHD assistant program director. “And our evenings and weekends will break out with specialty shows that will bring listeners fresh ideas about jazz while maintaining the vibrant spirit of KMHD!”

The trend of bringing on musicians as hosts of KMHD is a wonderful thing to watch — having an informed host to guide listeners through the music is something that few stations manage and Matt Fleeger is making sure that KMHD is moving towards the top of the pack.

For more information, visit KMHD.fm#mce_temp_url# on the web.

Lynn Darroch’s KMHD program (Fridays from 1-4 PM) is being rebranded as “Bright Moments” — “Live performances, interviews, musical stories and recorded music exploring local routes with a global reach.”

As part of the rebranding, they’ve setup a YouTube channel with some of the past in-studio guests that Lynn has had on the program.  Because of the size of the studio, they’re limited to solo and duo performances, but this can lead to some interesting performances that you might not get to hear otherwise.  For example, Carlton Jackson plays solo drums:

Mike Horsefall solo vibes:

Tim Gilson solo bass:

Check out the YouTube channel for more and be sure to tune into the program to hear more performances live.

In 1997, percussionist Bobby Torres organized members of Portland’s drum and percussion community for a project called “Convergence.”  The 20+ minute piece featured some of Portland’s most well-known drummers.  Watch and see how many you can find.

This Friday, April 9th, bassist Damian Erskine will be releasing his new CD, “So To Speak” at Jimmy Mak’s. The CD features eight of Erskine’s original compositions, featuring performances by Chris Mosley on guitar, Ramsey Embick on piano, Reinhardt Melz on drums, a horn section featuring John Nastos on tenor sax, Jason DuMars on soprano sax, and Paul Mazzio on trumpet, and percussion by Rafael Trujilo and Derek Rieth.

For the CD release, Erskine’s current working band will be performing — Ben Darwish on keyboards, Justin Morrell on guitar, Reinhardt Melz on drums, and John Nastos on saxophones.

Ben Darwish’s band will be playing the opening slot for the evening.

Friday, April 9th at Jimmy Mak’s

8:00 PM

$12

In this month’s issue of the Jazz Society of Oregon’s magazine JazzScene, Lynn Darroch and John Pomietlasz tackle the issue of whether or not jazz from Portland can be branded in the same way that jazz from Norway was branded during the recent Portland Jazz Festival.

The article has interviews with a number of people involved in the local scene in different capacities, including KMHD’s Matt Fleeger, pianist Ben Darwish, the Oregonian’s Barry Johnson, PDXJazz’s Bill Royston, and more.

Head over to the JSO website to read the interviews.

The Portland-based piano/saxophone duo project Duo Chronicles (featuring Clay Giberson and John Nastos) will be performing live at Brasserie Montmartre on March 18th.  Music starts at 8 PM.  No cover.

This year’s Silverton Wine and Jazz Festival is quickly approaching.  The one-day extravaganza happens at the beginning of May each year and features some of the best local jazz in the Northwest.  The festival is one of the best opportunities you’ll get during the year to do a sampling of the local jazz scene in small and intimate settings.  Keep May 8th open on your calendar.

Here’s what the festival has to say:

The 4th Annual Silverton Wine and Jazz festival is happening Saturday, May 8th and features many leading local jazz artists, including Nancy King, Glen Moore and Dan Gaynor, Dave Frishberg and Retta Christie, Tom Grant with Dave Captien and Jeff Frankel, John Moak with Chris Woitach and Dan Schulte, Art Resnick with Brian Casey and Jonas Oglesby, the Ben Darwish Quartet featuring Tim Wilcox, and the Peter Piazza large band featuring Dan Balmer and Carlton Jackson, George Mitchell . Vocalists Kirsten Rian and John Gilmore, guitarist John Stowell, Vionist Danny Seidenberg’s “Unbande”, John Nastos and Clay Giberson’s “Duo Chronicles” will appear, as well as legendary jazz icon Dick Berk and others to be arranged.

Also featured are the big bands from Silverton High, Western Oregon University, Portland State University and an educational series of “young lions”, 4 or 5 promising artists with eyes on a professional career. Tree Palmedo and Hailey Niswanger included, as well as bassists Brett McConnell, Heidi Christianson, pianist Ryan Wolfe and others.

The Bridge Quartet (Alan Jones on drums, Tom Wakeling on bass, Darrell Grant on piano, and Canadian saxophonist Phil Dwyer on tenor saxophone) will be doing a rare Portland performance (perhaps the only one this year according to Wakeling) on Monday, March 8th.

The group will be performing at Cafe Mango (1215 SW 16th Ave) starting at 8 PM.  Just a $10 cover charge.