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Instrumental Invasion, 3/16/22 March 17, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, History, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.
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NOTE: This post also includes scoped airchecks of the 57th anniversary programming that preceded me.

The March 16 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on January 26 (four segments) and 27 (two). Pickups were recorded on February 22 and March 3. More on that below.

The playlist was created on January 23, but I put off annotations until the 25th. (I saved the PDF in grayscale to hide the change in ink color when I switched pens.) The talk break script draft began on the 25th and was finished early on the 26th.

Jeff Kroll told me in December that March 16 was WCWP-FM’s 57th anniversary, so I played a song from 1965 to mark the occasion. That song was preceded by “Freedom Sound” by The Jazz Crusaders. I acquired Freedom Sound through a four-CD set containing seven early albums, plus one with Les McCann.

A few weeks before air, I learned from Jeff that the 57th anniversary would be treated like the original carrier current station’s 60th anniversary in October, led by a special edition of Strictly Jazz. He initially said Hank Neimark and John LiBretto would be hosting, and I redid the second talk break to acknowledge the ongoing celebration with just Hank and John as hosts. As noted in the 100th show post from two weeks ago, the spot breaks had promos for Strictly Jazz and Jeff and Pat’s edition of The Rock Show. I re-redid the second talk break because Jon Korkes was listed as a third host.

Here is the scope of Strictly Jazz (with so many great stories):

…and The Rock Show:

2:46 PM UPDATE: Pat posted two photos taken during Strictly Jazz. The first is with hosts John LiBretto, Hank Neimark, and Jon Korkes:

…and the second photo adds Jeff:

As you can see, the shows were done from Studio 2, board operated by Jeff (when not posing for this photo).

Getting back to my show, “All ‘n All” by Nelson Rangell was first played last January 20. I used it in this show to set up how composer David Mann borrowed from it when writing “With You All the Way” by Steve Cole, which Steve wrote with Dave.

“With You All the Way” was part of the second 2007-16 segment, which I opted for in place of a second 2017 to present.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 (also scoped, as usual) or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 3/9/22 March 10, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.
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The March 9 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days in mid-January: the first hour on January 17, two second hour segments on the 18th, and the last on the 19th. A pickup was recorded on the 21st after learning that it was the true release date of Someone’s Singing, Chieli Minucci‘s instrumental solo album. That makes “Bright Sky” the first song on a 2022 show from an album released in 2022.

The playlist was created on January 15 and annotated on the 16th. (The “11/16/21” annotation for Someone’s Singing was based on Amazon’s page for the digital version.) The talk break script for the first hour, and first break of the second hour, was drafted before recording on the 17th with the rest of the script drafted on the 18th.

I may have exaggerated the similarity between “Freight Train Joe” by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and “Santa Cruzin” by Grover Washington, Jr. Their A sections are the same key, but that’s it. Grover was the first of six juniors I referenced throughout the show, and Tyrone Brown, the “Santa Cruzin” bassist, was the first of four Browns.

While drafting the script, I was surprised to learn that so many players on Bob Mintzer‘s All L.A. Band are faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music, led by Bob himself.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Like last week, I included promos for WCWP-FM 57th anniversary programming in my scope.

Guest reading at my old elementary school: Year 6 March 4, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Books, Education, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, TV, Video.
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Other guest reading posts: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020

I returned to Leo F. Giblyn School in Freeport on Wednesday for Guest Reader Day, what they call National Read Across America Day. It was my sixth appearance as a guest reader (and photographer) and my first time inside Giblyn in exactly two years, a week and a half before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down anything and everything, taking education virtual. I had an opportunity to read virtually last year, a hybrid learning year (half a classroom’s students in person, half online), but I couldn’t get the pass code to log in.

It was so great to be back, and the faculty and students were glad I was back. This was the first year with Amy Lederer as principal, moving up from assistant principal following Amanda Muldowney’s retirement.

After photographing one guest reader, Ms. Lederer had me photograph the Freeport High School students who read to classrooms before I arrived at 11AM. I then mingled with my mother Lisa, a teaching assistant at Giblyn since I was in 4th grade there, and other faculty. Before photographing three more readers, Stephanie Huggard informed me which classrooms I would be reading to and when: 1:00, 1:55, and 3:00. I ended up reading to one more class after the third. The books I read were (teachers in parentheses):

Mrs. Connelly prompted me to tell Mrs. Souffront’s class about my WCWP radio show, which led me to promote that night’s 100th Instrumental Invasion, to share that I will be inducted into the WCWP Hall of Fame on June 11 in the Great Hall at LIU Post, and to view my website and YouTube channel. We listened to part of the aircheck from last Wednesday’s show and watched some of the video of my live Homecoming Weekend show in 2019. It was a lot of fun, especially using the large touchscreen monitor to scroll up or push buttons. I felt like a weatherman.

Reading Horton to Mrs. Carney’s class was quite a workout, as I did the voices from the 1970 TV special while reading. My radio show and accomplishments came up again, and we talked about animation and voice-overs. The kids in all classes loved my performances and had many questions that I was happily answered. It was challenging to read the non-Dr. Seuss books cold (site unseen), but still fun. Before I read to Mrs. Nicholas’s class, I stopped in Mrs. Jonza’s room, and we agreed I’d read to her kindergartners when I was finished upstairs. The only class where we didn’t visit my website and listen to last Wednesday’s aircheck was in Mrs. Carney’s. Mrs. Jonza’s students loved the sound of “Feel It Comin’” by Grover Washington, Jr. when I played part of last Wednesday’s full aircheck. (Unedited airchecks for every week of Instrumental Invasion are available for download here.)

As I was talking to Mrs. Carney’s students about myself, Lori Downing came in to read Clovis Keeps His Cool by Katelyn Aronson. Mrs. Downing was a reading teacher at Giblyn until her retirement in 2020. I was pleasantly surprised to learn earlier in the day that she would be a guest reader, but this was the only room I was able to watch her read in.

Thank you, again, to everyone I interacted with on Wednesday. Special thanks to Anita Stevenson. Mrs. Stevenson has been highly supportive me through the years and yesterday was no exception. My photo with her is included in this year’s collage of select photos from the classes I read to:

I don’t want to limit our photo to the collage. Here it is in full:

Anita Stevenson, Mike Chimeri

Thanks again.

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

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Basketball, Film, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Rock, Sports, Video.
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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):

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.

Instrumental Invasion, 2/23/22 February 24, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, History, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, New Year, Personal, Radio.
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The February 23 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the first to be produced and recorded in 2022. One segment was recorded on January 3, two on the 4th, and three on the 5th.

The playlist was created on January 2 with annotations and the script draft on the 3rd.

The passing of Nick Colionne on New Year’s Day led me to add a tag to his liner noting the date it was recorded. It doesn’t feel right to run liners posthumously without a tag.

Someday, I’d like to visit the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal via the National Historical Park, immortalized in Ken Navarro‘s “Skating on the C&O Canal.”

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Shortly after hour 2 began, my internet stopped the stream from playing, which means everything after “in 1999, the year” was taken from my segment files with a multiband compressor filter applied.

Instrumental Invasion, 2/16/22 February 17, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.
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The February 16 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the last show recorded in 2021. One hour per day was recorded on December 28 and 29.

The playlist was created on December 26 with annotations and the script draft on the 27th.

Return to Forever appeared in the first segment for the second week in a row and it was also the second week in a row with a Rippingtons song featuring saxophonist Kirk Whalum. The show was chock full of past and present members of the Rippingtons.

I mentioned that Nelson Rangell recorded “The Island” under its translated original title (“To Begin Again”), but I didn’t mention that he also whistled “How Insensitive” live at Smooth Jazz for Scholars in 2013. In that case, he did not disclose its original Portuguese title, “Insensatez.” Depending on your source, that translates to “foolishness” or “foolish one.” Marilyn Bergman, co-writer of “The Island” with her husband Alan, died on January 8, just over a week after I recorded this show.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 2/9/22 February 10, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.
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The February 9 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded one hour per day on December 20 and 21, 2021. Pickups were also recorded on the 21st and on January 2nd after learning of guitarist Nick Colionne’s passing on New Year’s Day.

The playlist was created on December 19 with annotations and the script draft on the 20th, followed immediately by recording.

“The Closer We Get” by Dave Koz and “Heart to Heart” by Norman Brown made their second appearance as they were singles in mid-December. “The Closer We Get” was first played on January 6, 2021, and “Heart to Heart” on September 30, 2020.

Four of the first five songs were originally considered for last week’s show, but dropped when the duration standard was reduced from 18:30 to 18:00. Those songs were:

The “fun fact” I shared in the January 26 post made it to air this week while back-selling “Captain Marvel.” This was the first show where I didn’t refer to bassist James Cammack as Jim, while back-selling “Pittsburgh,” and the show where I finally learned guitarist Ramon Stagnaro had been misidentified as Stagnero in album credits, leading me in previous shows to use an Italian pronunciation (“stahn-yair-o”). 3/7 UPDATE: It turns out I got the Italian pronunciation right; it was pronounced “stun-yahr-o.” I say “was” because, sadly, Ramon died February 16, a week after this show aired.

After this show, the only song I haven’t played from Jay Rowe‘s Groove Reflections album is the last track, “Almost Kool.”

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 2/2/22 February 3, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Podcast, Radio.
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The special 2/2/22 edition of Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded from December 13 to 15, 2021: one segment on the 13th, two on the 14th, and the second hour on the 15th.

The playlist was created on December 10 so I could devote the weekend to Festival of Games and the subsequent blog post. I had to tweak the playlist on the 13th after it was suggested that I make segments exactly 18 minutes long. That brings me full circle as it was the original segment standard for the first seven months of the show. The six shows leading up to this one had some segments shortened to as close to 18 minutes as possible.

After the tweak, I annotated the playlist and drafted the talk break script. Every segment but the last had to be padded out with extra liners, script additions, and ad-libs. A dozen songs ended with fadeouts and “Theme from M*A*S*H” by Ahmad Jamal (from Digital Works) was one minute short. I should have picked a 7:30+ song, not 6:30+. Incidentally, while back-selling the song, I dedicated it to M*A*S*H writer/producer Ken Levine (“laVYNE”), then plugged his blog, By Ken Levine, and podcast, Hollywood and Levine.

Thanks to Jeff Kroll for reminding me that the day was 2/2/22. I tend to have blinders on, so to speak, and miss anomalies like that. It allowed me to search my catalog for songs with the same title by different artists. I’m proud of the six I chose. Lisa Hilton‘s “Getaway” and Fourplay‘s “Lucky” were both played for the second time; respectively heard the first time on February 10, 2021, and November 18, 2020.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 1/26/22 January 27, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Film, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Politics, Radio, TV.
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The January 26 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded from December 7 to 9, 2021. The first segment was recorded at home on the 7th, four segments at the remote location on the 8th, and the last segment and pickups back at home on the 9th. More pickups were recorded at the remote location on the 14th as I shortened four segments. Starting next week, all segments will be 18 minutes long, bringing me full circle as that was the standard duration for the first seven months of Instrumental Invasion. (Going forward, I will not specify where segments are recorded; only when.)

The playlist was created on December 5 with annotations on the 6th. The talk break script was drafted on the 6th and 7th.

The stream cut out seven minutes into the show. Audio returned 39 minutes later, but uncompressed and initially fluctuating between channels. I will reuse the songs that didn’t air in future shows.

I played “Sundance” by Boney James because it was on the smooth jazz radio charts at the time of recording. I also wanted to work in the line “without Butch” in reference to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You won’t hear that on Watercolors!

I didn’t realize “Legacy” by Kenny G – a “duet” with Stan Getz – was new to the charts. I chose it as the first of six tracks to play from New Standards because it was featured in Kenny’s episode of the HBO documentary series Music Box that aired on December 2, the day before the album’s release. Plus, I got to call back to the Return to Forever song at the top of the show (“Medieval Overture“) since Stan Getz collaborated with Chick Corea during the RTF era. Fun fact: Chick’s compositions “Captain Marvel” and “500 Miles High” were recorded with Stan before RTF, but Light as a Feather came out first.

And yes, it’s true. I once let slip my political views on air, as noted after Jeff Lorber‘s “Anthem for a New America.” These days, the less I know about politics and current events, the better, and I don’t want to clash with people. I want to be everyone’s friend, regardless of politics. Incidentally, this was the second week in a row where I played a song from Jeff’s He Had a Hat album.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

The dead air portion was filled with segment file audio. The audio afterward was hard limited with the fluctuating portion converted to mono.

Instrumental Invasion, 1/19/22 January 20, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, Travel.
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The January 19 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded from November 30 to December 2, 2021: the first segment at home on November 30, the next three at my remote location on December 1, and the last two back at home on December 2. Pickups were recorded on the 3rd and 14th, the latter date for shortening three segments.

The playlist was created on November 28 with annotations and the script draft on the 29th.

The John Favicchia liner played after his song “Horizons” was one of a handful of Instrumental Invasion liners repurposed from my Mike Chimeri Show days. “The,” “show,” and “WebRadio” were edited out of those liners. Here are recaps of John’s Dharma All Stars gigs that I attended since starting this blog:

July 24, 2008

September 7, 2008 (preceded by Alan Bates)

June 4, 2009

July 30, 2009

April 8, 2010

August 19, 2010

September 14, 2011

January 16, 2015

June 24, 2016 (Dharma 2.0)

As for Wednesday’s show, I finally got to play Will Donato‘s cover of “Play That Funky Music.” I didn’t have the CD to reference for musician credits when working on the October 27 show, but I bought it, and a few other CDs, days before working on this one. I bought many more CDs in the last two weeks, and you’ll start hearing tracks from them in mid-March.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below: