Instrumental Invasion, 3/2/22: Show 100! March 3, 2022

The March 2 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the 100th Wednesday night show! It was recorded on January 10 (four segments) and 11 (two segments). A pickup was recorded on the 12th.

The playlist was created on January 8, annotated on the 9th, and the script was drafted on the 10th before recording.

With the LIU Sharks men’s basketball team in the NEC (Northeast Conference) tournament, I had to prepare for the possibility of the show getting bumped back a week. Not only would that mean realignment of the six shows that followed, but I had to redub any references to March 2 in the 100th show. Here’s a compilation of those dubs:

My worries were for nothing and those dubs went unused. Yes, the Sharks’ quarterfinal against Sacred Heart University was at 7:00, but I was told the show would be joined in progress after coverage concluded. However, listening to the stream around 7:30 and 8:00, I noticed The Rock Show was running as scheduled. Apparently, the game – which the Sharks won – wasn’t going to be streamed. The 100th Instrumental Invasion aired in its entirety, as you’ll hear (scoped) below. (7:15 PM UPDATE: The game was not broadcast because of a telecommunications issue which should be resolved by Saturday for the semifinal game against Wagner College.) (3/6 UPDATE: They lost.)

The format for this milestone show – as I said on the air, I couldn’t have imagined this when I volunteered to record shows to fill airtime – is the same as the one last March 24. This was only the second show without a David Benoit song, but there was plenty of Jeff Lorber to go around.

Starting with this show, I don’t say “on 88.1 FM and WCWP.org” at the top of hour 2. The legal ID has run without fail every week but the first, so it’s unnecessarily redundant. It took me 99 shows to figure that out, including the shows where I said “on WCWP Brookville.”

Three songs were played for the second time as they were singles when making the playlist (first time in parentheses):

• “People Power” by Al DeGregoris (September 16, 2020 [show accidentally replayed the following week])
• “Lunchbox” by Marion Meadows (June 30, 2021)
• “March Forth” by Bill Heller (October 20, 2021)

I had the reverb shout for “People Power” in mind since hearing the song on SiriusXM’s Watercolors. I’d been meaning to play “Lunchbox” for a few weeks, but kept forgetting to include it. I learned “March Forth” would be the next single from Passage through Bill himself.

I was inspired to play the Jeff Lorber Fusion cover of “King Kong” after seeing Zappa, the Frank Zappa documentary mostly culled from his personal archives, on Hulu on Christmas Eve. I knew that Jean-Luc Ponty was part of The Mothers of Invention and post-Mothers ensembles, but I was surprised how many others were associated with Zappa, including one other performer on the JLF cover: Vinnie Colaiuta. Still another Zappa alumnus to play on the cover was Ed Mann.

I mentioned after “Sooki Sooki” by Gerald Albright that I saw his daughter Selina, who sang background vocals, at the Tilles Center in December 2017 as part of Dave Koz‘s 20th Anniversary Christmas Tour. Here’s a recap. Tilles is a short walk from WCWP’s Abrams Communications Building.

The last talk break was a pain to record because there was too much to say and too little time. It’s just as well since Hudson‘s cover of “Wait Until Tomorrow” started slowly fading out in its last minute. Plus, I didn’t get any sleep the night before, an occasional nuisance.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

As you’ll hear, I included promos for WCWP-FM 57th anniversary programming to air before my show on March 16.