KPCW has a new show airing tonight, starting at 10pm, right after the Park City high school football game. It’s called “Rich Tones, Curated Jazz." The host, Rich Rector, isn't a professional musician. He played clarinet in the high school band and had what he calls a “garage band” growing up. But when he went to college in the San Francisco Bay area, he had a roommate who was a jazz saxophone player.
“He taught me a lot,” Rector says. “We would listen to the radio in the bay area, it was the original KJAZ, K-J-A-Z. And they would play an amazing amount of music and he would help me learn who was playing what.”
Rector was hooked, and jazz became a passion that he now wants to share with KPCW listeners. He says his goal with his first show is to share a “smorgasbord” of music, but subsequent shows will have more of a theme.
“I’ve got a show coming up that I call Jazzy Beatles, it’s a whole bunch of very familiar Beatles songs that you’ll recognize, the melodies and everything, but they’re done by jazz artists in ways that you’ve never heard before,” says Rector.
He says he wants to reach out to people who may be intimidated by jazz, and make it more approachable.
“There’s something known as the jazz snob, sort of like a wine snob,” he says. “When it comes to wine tasting people can get a little snooty about it, but it really comes down to what you like and what you don’t like and Jazz is the same way. There are a lot of people who don’t like Kenny G, light jazz, and then there are purists who get deep into the John Coltrane saxophone solos. It’s just a wide variety of things.”
So, what do you want to hear? Rector hopes to get input from listeners. You can email him at rich@kpcw.org.
“Rich Tones, Curated Jazz” will air Friday night at 10pm. NPR’s “Jazz Night In America” will follow the show at 11pm. Then, on Saturday night, the shows will rebroadcast on KPCW in reverse order, with “Jazz Night” coming on at 10pm, and “Rich Tones” at 11pm. We hope you enjoy it.