Illinois State University ISU ReD: Research and eData WGLT Program Guides Arts and Sciences Fall 11-1-2009 WGLT Program Guide, November-December, 2009 Illinois State University Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/wgltpg Recommended Citation Illinois State University, "WGLT Program Guide, November-December, 2009" (2009). WGLT Program Guides. 227. https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/wgltpg/227 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts and Sciences at ISU ReD: Research and eData. It has been accepted for inclusion in WGLT Program Guides by an authorized administrator of ISU ReD: Research and eData. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GUIDE GLT JAZZ CABARET GlT JAZZ CABARET Saturday, February 6, 2010 7:00 pm - Hot Jazz admission 8:00 pm - Cool Jazz admission Marriott Hotel & Conference Center 201 Broadway Avenue Normal, Illinois $50 Cool Jazz tickets include: • Belsante cabaret concert • Heavy hors d'oeuvres Champagne on table GLT Jazz Cabaret $100 Hot Jazz tickets include: Meet and greet with Matt Belsante prior to concert Talented young crooner Matt Belsante performs during an evening of sizzling jazz, • Autographed Belsante CD sparkling champagne, and succulent finger food in a club setting at the elegant Belsante cabaret concert • Heavy hors d'oeuvres new Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in Uptown Normal. • Champagne on table Influenced by Ellington, Coltrane, Basie, and Fitzgerald, Belsante's music Custom champagne glass encompasses jazz, pop, and swing, reminiscent of the style of the 1940s and • Personal box of chocolates 1950s. His latest release Blame It On My Youth is a collection of jazz and big band standards, with some original compositions. Tickets available on line at wglt.org or by phone at (309) 438-2255. The GLT Jazz Cabaret creates the intimacy of a jazz club within the luxurious and upscale ballrooms of the newest hotel in Normal. You can choose from two ticket The Marriott is offering a special overnight levels. Cool Jazz tickets include the Belsante performance, heavy hors d'oeuvres, hotel package just for GLT that includes a guest and champagne on the table. Hot Jazz tickets take it up a notch by adding a room and Sunday breakfast for two at $129. pre-cabaret meet and greet, an autographed CD, a custom champagne glass, Call 862-9000 or 800-627-7468 for reservations and a personal box of chocolates. and request the GLT Jazz Cabaret Package. Proceeds from this event benefit the GLT Equipment Fund, helping keep your public radio station going strong. -2- He's only 25, yet he croons like a seasoned pro. Matt Belsante is a hot, young MB: One of the things that I really like about Nashville is that it has the vocalist on the rise. A well-spent childhood in Naperville, IL listening to Frank perception of just a country music town, but there's a complete variety of genres Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald put Matt's feet on the right path to a solid career as of music in the city. There's a lot of songwriting going on here, so that's another a jazz singer. Surprisingly, though, his first instrument was not his voice but the really neat thing about Nashville. I feel like songwriting is dying as an art on its saxophone, which he played in the school band. That was where he discovered own and in Nashville, it still lives on very successfully. There are a lot of people who he had a talent for singing. During his senior year in high school, Matt wowed just write in Nashville still and I think that's pretty rare compared to other cities. everyone by winning the prestigious Louis Armstrong Jazz Award in both the LK: What about writing yourself? vocal and instrumental categories. Matt says winning the awards reaffirmed his love for jazz. MB: I have dabbled in songwriting and one of my originals was rearranged for my last record, Blame it on My Youth. Matt Belsante: That was a very neat year for me because I got to perform with a vocal jazz group as well as play and sing with the jazz band. When I went LK: You're on Twitter and you frequently post tweets. How do you feel about the to Vanderbilt, I kept singing by joining the big band there. It just allowed me Internet and these new ways to communicate, this new intimacy of posting your to make sure that it was something I wanted to keep pursuing, for fun or for innermost thoughts and such. You're reaching out to your fans in a way that no whatever it brought. one has ever done in the history of show business. How does that impact you? Laura Kennedy: As a student at Vanderbilt University, you majored in MB: I think that's actually one of the huge appeals of Twitter, people can follow engineering and economics, but not music. Why? what somebody else is doing, even people that they hold in a different regard. The thought of being able to follow what Demi Moore is doing at any point is appealing MB: It was not my intention to pursue music. It was something that I loved to to people. It's just the way the world is going, the marketing world, the entertainment do, but I never thought of it in a capacity where I could do it on a career level. world, it's all digital and it's all on the Web and it's all streamlined in a very unique LK: What changed your mind? way now. It's something that you pretty much have to be involved in in order to keep up, but at the same time, it's also something that's neat for fans because they I sang with the Vanderbilt Big Band, under director Billy Adair and he was MB: have that bit of closeness to whomever they want to follow or learn more about. just a huge help for me. He got me connected with a lot of different people in Nashville and a bunch of opportunities came from it. I started to get more gigs LK: You recently tweeted that you think Val Kilmer looks like the Geico caveman. and got in touch with people who were interested in making records. MB: (laughs) Yeah, every time I see that commercial I think of Val Kilmer. LK: You're based in Nashville. What does that city have to offer a rising Maybe I'm alone. young performer? LK: No, because now I will too. I'll never be able to look at him the same again, that's for certain. -5- During Laura Kennedy's conversation with Matt Belsante (see interview on previous john coltrane John Coltrane page) , she asked him about the musicians who were an influence on him. Here Blue Train (Blue Note) are a few of his favorite jazz albums that clearly have helped shape his own I had to include one of my favorite tenor sax players. singing style. I started with jazz by playing the saxophone. I played in jazz bands for seven years and didn't start singing Frank Sinatra jazz 'til the end of that run. I love the tenor sax and Live at the Sands (Warner Bros) Coltrane may be the best. All of his albums are great, but this was the first one of his that I ever got, so it's I used to listen to this album with my dad and my a little special to me in that regard. Great record from grandfather when I was a kid. It was one of my first a jazz giant. exposures to Sinatra and to the genre. I've definitely been influenced by Sinatra, partly because he sings all of the standards, and partly because he's just Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, and Dizzy Gillespie fantastic. It's hard to think of a chart that Sinatra Sonny Side Up (Verve) hasn't recorded. This album specifically shows how This record is just fun. It has one of my all-time great he was live. The Count Basie Band is second favorite versions of On the Sunny Side of the Street to none and they really swing as Sinatra's band on featuring Dizzy singing. Sonny Rollins is another this record. of my favorite tenor players and this is just an awesome record featuring two other jazz greats. Ella Fitzgerald Ella Wishes you a Swingin' Christmas (Polydor) This is pretty much the only Christmas record I listen to. Most people seem to love Christmas music and this record specifically will not let you down. I actually need to upgrade to the new re-release that was issued a few years ago. I've had my copy since I was about 13 and it's just a wonderful record. Great arrangements, great instrumentation, but above all else, it's Ella. In my opinion she's the greatest vocalist of all time. Chet Baker The Best of Chet Baker Sings (Pacific Jazz) This record is Chet Baker at his best and focuses on his vocal abilities. Obviously Chet Baker was a great instrumentalist, but I love him most for his vocals. He has such an honest and passionate tone to his voice. You can just feel every emotion he's feeling when he sings. It's a wonderful record from an underrated contributor to the jazz genre. -6- -7- We want your INPUT Weekend Programs: by GLT Program Director Mike McCurdy WireTap The Toronto Star describes WireTap as "[pitting] the absurd against the plausible." I presented the problem to my boss, Bruce Bergethon, with the classic Each episode swings back and forth between This American Life® contributor "good news/bad news" scenario.