For most of you, the radio call sign of KJAZ probably doesn't ring any bells. But, for me, having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, KJAZ was a monument, as much a part of our scene as the Golden Gate Bridge. From 1959 until it went off the air in 1994, KJAZ was was hailed as "The greatest jazz station in the world" by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Ahmad Jamal, Carmen McRae, Tony Bennett, Stan Getz, Bill Cosby and Herbie Hancock. For much of that time, I couldn't hear it as I lived in Sacramento and San Jose, just out of reach of their signal. But whenever I was in reach, the radio was turned on and its wonderful music poured forth. Now, KJAZ is back, not as a radio station or a poor imitation using the same call sign, but as an Internet radio station playing recorded tapes of the actual KJAZ programming from the true heyday of jazz music. What a special joy it is for me to hear the music and the familiar voices of the KJAZ disc jockeys from that era. It has been said you can't go home again...but I come close when I hear the music of KJAZ coming out through my computer speakers.
I don't expect you will have the same nostalgic feeling if you listen to it, but if you like good jazz, click on this link, sit back and enjoy what you hear. Like all radio stations, you won't love all the music they play. I definitely don't. But if you listen long enough, you will get the feel that special era when jazz ruled the airwaves over San Francisco and the greatest jazz musicians played in the jazz nightclubs in North Beach, like Basin Street West, The Blackhawk, and The Jazz Workshop. When I was old enough, I got to see so many great jazz artists live in these small, intimate clubs...artists like Dave Brubeck, Vince Guaraldi, Cal Tjader, Miles Davis, Jon Hendricks, Ahmad Jamal, George Shearing, Carmen McCrea, and yes, even Big Mama Willie May Thornton.
It was a special time.
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