Jazz Finds Home on Local NPR Affiliate
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 9, 2011) − Starting this weekend there is a new show devoted to jazz on the airwaves in the Bluegrass. Local jazz musicians and educators Miles Osland, director of University of Kentucky Jazz Studies, and Vince DiMartino, W. George Matton Professor of Music at Centre College, will host the new weekly two-hour radio show "About Jazz" on WEKU-FM and WKYL-FM. The show featuring jazz and conversation can be heard from 10 p.m. to midnight starting tonight, Sept. 9, at 88.9, and 8-10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at 102.1 on the radio dial.
"About Jazz" will premiere with special guest Randy Brecker, an award-winning trumpet player. Future guests of the show will include such critically acclaimed jazz musicians as Bob Mintzer, Chris Botti, Joe Lovano and Jeff Coffin, as well as students from the award-winning UK Jazz Ensemble.
Through WEKU and WKYL's affiliates, the new jazz radio program should be heard in several markets including Frankfort, Hazard, Corbin, Harlan, Barbourville, Middlesboro and Pikeville.
Miles Osland has distinguished himself as an educator, recording and performing artist, author, arranger and composer. At UK School of Music in the UK College of Fine Arts, the professor of saxophone also directs the university's jazz ensemble and Mega Sax. He has appeared throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia as a guest conductor, performer and clinician for Selmer Saxophones, Rico reeds and Bay Woodwind mouthpieces. His compositions and arrangements, available through Walrus Music, have been recognized and supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Arts Council, and by numerous other arts foundations.
Vince DiMartino has performed worldwide both as a trumpet soloist and with fellow musicians. DiMartino was co-founder of the New Columbian Brass Band, is a featured soloist with the Advocate Brass Band, and frequently showcases his talent at the annual Great American Brass Band Festival, held on Centre's campus each summer.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, (859) 257-8716 or whitney.hale@uky.edu