Riverwalk Jazz is a popular weekly public radio series distributed by Public Radio International

Public Radio International

Public Radio International is a Minneapolis-based American public radio organization, with locations in Boston, New York, London and Beijing. PRI's tagline is "Hear a different voice." PRI is a major public media content creator and also distributes programs from many sources...

.

History

The series began broadcasting in 1989 and is produced by PVPMedia. The principal performing band on Riverwalk Jazz is the Jim Cullum Jazz Band

Jim Cullum Jazz Band

The Jim Cullum Jazz Band is an acoustic seven-piece traditional jazz ensemble led by cornetist Jim Cullum, Jr.. Since 1989, the band has been featured nationally on their own weekly public radio series Riverwalk Jazz...

. The series co-hosts are bandleader Jim Cullum, Jr.

Jim Cullum, Jr.

Jim Cullum, Jr. is an American jazz cornetist noted for his contributions to the Dixieland jazz tradition.Cullum's father was Jim Cullum, Sr., a clarinetist who led the Happy Jazz Band up until his death in 1973...

 and folklorist and storyteller David Holt. Jim Cullum's Landing Jazz Club http://landing.com on the Paseo Del Rio (San Antonio River Walk

San Antonio River Walk

The San Antonio River Walk is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath downtown San Antonio, Texas...

) in San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

 serves as the venue where most of the hour-long shows are produced.

Jazz era

Through the use of live music performance, narration, autobiographies, historical recordings and musical demonstrations, the series focuses on jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 from before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 as played by the great pioneers such as Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....

, Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

, Bix Beiderbecke

Bix Beiderbecke

Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...

, Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...

, Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

, Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...

 and many more. Also featured are the lives and music of the great interwar pop composers such as George

George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...

 and Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....

, Rodgers and Hart

Rodgers and Hart

Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist Lorenz Hart...

, Harry Warren

Harry Warren

Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...

, Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...

, Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...

, Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern

Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...

 and many others.

Guests

Frequent guests include playwright and actor Vernel Bagneris

Vernel Bagneris

Vernel Martin Bagneris , playwright, actor, director, singer, and dancer, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the third child of Gloria Diaz Bagneris and Lawrence Bagneris Sr. Bagneris’s mother was a housewife and deeply religious woman who “quietly outclassed most people,” and his father was a...

, pianist Dick Hyman

Dick Hyman

Richard “Dick” Hyman is an American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer, best-known for his versatility with jazz piano styles. Over a 50 year career, he has functioned as pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and, increasingly, as composer...

, vocalists Topsy Chapman and Nina Ferro, cornetist Bob Barnard, as well as guest bands such as the Hot Club of San Francisco. Other notable musical guests in past years have included Benny Carter

Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...

, Linda Hopkins

Linda Hopkins

Linda Hopkins is an African American actress and blues and gospel singer. She has recorded classic, traditional, and urban blues, and performed R&B and soul, jazz, and show tunes, all with distinction and style since the 1950s....

, Bob Wilber

Bob Wilber

Bob Wilber is an internationally recognized American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and band leader living in Chipping Campden, England. Although his scope covers a wide range of jazz, Wilber has been a dedicated advocate of classic styles, working throughout his career to present traditional jazz...

, Bob Haggart

Bob Haggart

Robert Sherwood Haggart was a dixieland jazz double bass player, composer and arranger...

, Yank Lawson

Yank Lawson

John Rhea "Yank" Lawson was a jazz trumpeter known for Dixieland and swing music....

, Kenny Davern

Kenny Davern

Kenny Davern , born John Kenneth Davern, was one of the premier jazz clarinetists of his generation.-Biography:He was born in Huntington, Long Island to a family of mixed Jewish and Irish-Catholic ancestry...

, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Clark Terry

Clark Terry

Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...

, Bucky Pizzarelli

Bucky Pizzarelli

John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli is an American Jazz guitarist and banjoist, and the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and upright bassist Martin Pizzarelli. Pizzarelli has also worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett and also ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in...

, John Pizzarelli

John Pizzarelli

John Paul Pizzarelli, Jr. is an American jazz guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader. He has had a lengthy career as a recording artist, performing for a variety of labels that include Telarc Records, RCA Records and Chesky Records, among others...

, Rebecca Kilgore, Ralph Sutton

Ralph Sutton

Ralph Earl Sutton was an American jazz pianist born in Hamburg, Missouri. He was a stride pianist in the tradition of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller....

, Ken Peplowski

Ken Peplowski

Ken Peplowski is a jazz clarinetist born in Cleveland, Ohio, known primarily for playing in the swing music idiom. He is sometimes compared to Benny Goodman in terms of tone and virtuosity...

, Doc Cheatham, Savion Glover

Savion Glover

Savion Glover is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer. As a learning prodigy, he was taught by notable dancers from previous generations. Glover is currently interested in restoring African roots to tap...

, Milt Hinton

Milt Hinton

Milton John "Milt" Hinton , "the dean of jazz bass players," was an American jazz double bassist and photographer. He was nicknamed "The Judge".-Biography:...

, Jay McShann

Jay McShann

Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....

, Joe Williams

Joe Williams

Joe Williams may refer to:* Cyclone Joe Williams , Negro Leagues baseball pitcher, a.k.a. "Smokey Joe" Williams* Joe Williams , achieved prominence in the late 1950s* Big Joe Williams , delta blues singer...

, Shelly Berg

Shelly Berg

Shelton Glen Berg is a jazz pianist from Cleveland, Ohio. His father was trumpet player Jay Berg. At the age of six Shelly Berg entered the Cleveland Institute of Music studying classical piano...

, Catherine Russell

Catherine Russell

Catherine Russell is a British stage, television and screen actress.-Personal:Catherine Russell is the daughter of actor Nicholas Smith and his wife Mary. She is married to film producer Richard Holmes and they have two children, Sam and Poppy...

, Bob Havens

Bob Havens

Bob Havens is an American big band and jazz musician who appeared on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1960 to 1982. His instrument is the trombone....

, Carol Woods, Harry Allen

Harry Allen

Harry Bernard Allen was one of the United Kingdom's last official executioners, officiating between 1941 and 1964. He was chief executioner at 29 executions and acted as assistant executioner at 53 others at prisons in London, Manchester and Leeds. He was for 14 years an assistant executioner,...

, Howard Alden

Howard Alden

Howard Alden is an American jazz guitarist born in Newport Beach, California. He has recorded a long series of albums for Concord Records. His performances were dubbed over Sean Penn as 'Emmet Ray' in the 1999 Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown...

. Marty Grosz

Marty Grosz

Martin Oliver "Marty" Grosz is an American jazz guitarist, banjoist, vocalist and composer born in Berlin, Germany, perhaps most notable for his work with Bob Wilber, performing with and doing arrangements for him. Grosz has also been involved in projects involving Kenny Davern, Dick Sudhalter and...

, Lionel Hampton

Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...

, Vince Giordano

Vince Giordano

Vince Giordano is a musician, arranger, and leader of the New York-based Nighthawks Orchestra. Giordano specializes in the jazz styles of the 1920s and early 1930s. Giordano and the Nighthawks have contributed to a number of films and he is especially noted for orchestrations featured in the...

, Warren Vaché Jr. and William Warfield

William Warfield

William Caesar Warfield , was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor.-Early life and career:Warfield was born in West Helena, Arkansas and grew up in Rochester, New York, where his father was called to serve as pastor of Mt. Vernon Church. He gave his recital debut in New York's Town...

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Broadcasts

The Riverwalk Jazz official web site provides weekly streaming of the radio broadcasts as well as JazzNotes about each week's show, as well as enabling registered users to receive monthly and weekly email newsletters.

In addition to PRI affiliates on FM/AM radio, Riverwalk Jazz airs weekly on Sirius XM Radio's Real Jazz

Real Jazz

Real Jazz is a Sirius XM Satellite Radio station devoted to classic and contemporary jazz and bebop music. It can be heard on XM channel 67 , Sirius channel 67 and Dish Network channel 6072. Until February 9, 2010, it was heard on DirecTV channel 850...

 channel (XM 70/Sirius 72).

Personnel

The current personnel of the Jim Cullum Jazz Band

Jim Cullum Jazz Band

The Jim Cullum Jazz Band is an acoustic seven-piece traditional jazz ensemble led by cornetist Jim Cullum, Jr.. Since 1989, the band has been featured nationally on their own weekly public radio series Riverwalk Jazz...

 includes Jim Cullum, Jr., leader and cornet; Ron Hockett, clarinet and saxophone; Kenny Rupp, trombone; Jim Turner, piano; Howard Elkins, banjo and guitar; Steve Pikal, bass; Hal Smith, drums. Past personnel heard in encore performances on the radio series include John Sheridan, piano; Allan Vaché, clarinet; Mike Pittsley, trombone; Brian Ogilvie, clarinet and saxophone; Evan Christopher

Evan Christopher

Evan Christopher is an American clarinetist and composer based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Recognized mainly for a personal brand of "contemporary early-jazz,” he strives to extend the legacy of the unique clarinet style anchored in the musical vocabulary created by early New Orleans clarinetists...

, clarinet; Don Mopsick, bass; Mike Waskiewicz, drums; Ed Torres, drums and Kevin Dorn, drums.