The O'Zone | Forty Years, Forty Poems
By now, you likely know that 1985 saw the dawn of 89.3FM KUVO. A new day for jazz music in Denver.
There were previous iterations of jazz radio in Denver: two versions of KADX, the original with a stick on Iliff and Parker Road and the second one appeared after the first one turned country. The second was owned by impresario Dick Gibson after he bought out underground radio icon KFML, a truly beloved free form format station.
The first jazz radio I remember was when AM blowtorch KHOW set up an FM signal and largely broadcasted 70s jazz CTI and fusion from sunset to midnight. The rest of the time, it simulcasted its parent station. It’s worth noting that all these stations I’ve mentioned were commercial radio, and failed for various reasons.
When KUVO started broadcasting KADX II was working an AM signal until sunset and another station called the WAVE KHIH on 94.7 FM was playing only smooth jazz. KUVO started with competition on the dial in a very direct way. The fact that KUVO is still on terrestrial radio in addition to its internet presence is a testament to you the jazz listener and to Carlos Lando, my mentor and the man who made KUVO a “Jazz Station”.
All of that being said, this week, in addition to some origin stories, we will feature some jazz poetry and talk about music that broke through in 1985.
The world in 1985:
Donna Haraway’s essay “A Cyborg Manifesto” illustrated influential theoretical insights on identity and technology. Microsoft released its first version of the Windows operating system, a significant development in personal computing.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Center for Disease Control reported an 89% increase in new AIDS cases compared with 1984.
Important literary efforts like Don DeLillo’s White Noise captured the post-modern moment, while Margaret Atwood published her dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale and Oliver Sacks’ non-fiction book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat became phenomena in their own right.
Some significant events took place in art and music in 1985.
The art world saw the rise of graffiti-influenced Neo-Expressionism with the works of Keith Haring and Jean-Michael Basquiat, while pop culture supported themes of consumerism and highlighted social issues through music and art.
“We Are the World” and “Rock in Rio” for example.
Two albums by Wynton Marsalis stand out as important and beloved recordings, J Mood and Black Codes (From the Underground)
Black Codes was recorded in January 1985 and released in June that year.
J Mood was recorded in December 1985 but was not released until the following year. here were still vast excursions of sound arriving plugged into amplifiers and PA systems. But it was exciting to love jazz again.
This was a turning point in jazz: these two albums still stand up in the pantheon today. While we wouldn’t hear them on KUVO for a few more years, the effect they had in the culture was ear opening!
The return of acoustic jazz stood out, especially after the 70s decade of electric jazz. It seemed new again and it felt like a new direction, although clearly it was standing on the shoulders of Jazz Messengers and post bop soul. Black Codes won two Grammys:
Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Individual or Group and Best Instrumental Performance, Soloist.
The word was out and this band was the talk of the idiom. Wynton and Branford on the front line and Kenny Kirkland, Charnett Moffett, and Jeff “Tain” Watts in the engine room. A band like this and a new radio station to play the music! Exciting times!!!
Amidst Dick Gibson declaring that Miles and Trane killed jazz and KHIH concentrating on all things smooth…a new station ready to move into the music was so very welcome.
Not that fusion had run its course, there were still vast excursions of sound arriving plugged into amplifiers and PA systems. But it was exciting to love jazz again.
MIDNIGHT SKETCHES
It’s the overnight shift
it’s 2 am and the bars have closed
It’s a long ride home to Parker
and the radio unleashes Miles
on the wet rainy sidewalk night
Flamenco Sketches.
So melodic, for a song without a melody.
A four-bar vamp and five modes
where talent and wisdom collide
Softly with serenity
Like dandelion seeds and angel wings.
When I go
send me with Flamenco Sketches in my ears
One last thing of true unstained beauty.
The first song I heard on KUVO was by Brazilian Singer/Songwriter Milton Nascimento, to be clear it was the first tune I heard, not the first song played by the station. Released in 1976 on his eponymous American debut album, Cravo E Canela (Clove And Cinnamon)
Four years later I would become an overnight host at 89.3 KUVO.
Quite a year indeed…
As KUVO JAZZ celebrates its 40th anniversary I wanted to honor and pay homage with my poetry and so I made Forty Years, Forty Poems. This is my acknowledgement of the organization and its people and the music and musicians and so in upcoming weeks those poems will be included here in The O’Zone. I hope you enjoy them, it’s heartfelt and full of gratitude for a place I have dedicated half of my time in the world to.
FORTY YEARS, FORTY POEMS
A vision unfolds on the radio dial
Forty years later there aren’t any dials on radios
but this jazz is still around
Forty years of sound
glorious downbeats
clave and congas
ride cymbals taking us on a ride
Ritmo is the rhythm we do not hide
We are a community
gathering with impunity
the culture of survival and musical revival
Music, music, music, and music some more
We can never forget
What we do this for
we gather under a blue note
and call out to a new day
know that our cultural sounds and songs
Should never ever ever ever go away
Ancient and new and forty years after
through blues and tears to happiness and laughter.
Forty poems to represent
Where we were and where we went
Forty little stories to share the jazz joint
Forty little stories to make the point
Little bits of rhythm
Little bits of rhyme
Words that are shared in 6/4 time.
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