S1: Welcome in San Diego. It is Jade Hindman. On today's show , we'll talk about the love of jazz and what's happening over at San Diego's other public media station , jazz 88. This is KPBS Midday Edition , connecting our communities through conversation. You know , by now , I'm sure you've heard about the public media stations loss of federal funding earlier this year , impacting radio stations across the nation , including us here at KPBS. But we're not the only public radio station in San Diego. Jazz 88 is San Diego's only jazz station and one of just a handful in the entire country , from bop to free jazz and the blues. Jazz 88 plays it all and has been since 1970 from the campus of San Diego City College. SDS station Manager Ken Poston is here with me in studio. Ken , welcome to Midday Edition.
S2: Thank you. Happy to be here.
S1: So glad to have you here. Um , okay.
S2: Short term , we've designed some fundraising to try to replace the funds that were lost. Now our funding is about a little over $200,000. That was our grant money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting , which represents between 10 and 20% of our overall budget. So it's substantial , but it's something that we feel we can that we can survive. But , you know , it's just it's one of those things , like I said , we're cautiously optimistic about it and what we've tried to do is we did an emergency fundraiser right after , uh , word came down and we were kind of prepared for it. So we did an emergency fundraiser , and we got about halfway there , and now we're chipping away at the other half. And of course , that is all dependent on that. We're still able to raise the money that we normally raise. So this is on top of that. But that's kind of our goal , the $200,000 that we need to make up. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S2: Like I said , we did a three day , um , fundraiser right after this happened , and we brought in in the three days , a little over 100,000. And we've done a lot of mailings and things since. And so we've continued to chip away at it. So we're well over halfway there , but now we just need to continue to do that. And like I said , we got to continue to make sure that our normal fundraising comes in as normal and then things will work out okay. So that's what so far , that's what we've done. And I think we'll just react as we go along to see how things are going , but I think that's probably about as well as can be expected under the circumstances.
S1: Yeah , well , I want to talk about what jazz 88 means to the community. And so much of it is you sharing your love of jazz.
S2: And so I discovered jazz just by being curious about listening to different kinds of music. I started to get records of trumpet players , and I didn't know the difference. I didn't know if it was , you know , so it would end up being Herb Alpert and Miles Davis and , you know , Chet Baker , whatever. If it had a trumpet on the cover , I would. By then I'd try to play along with it , and I kind of slowly discovered what I liked and what I didn't like by doing that. And it was something that I just continued to be fascinated about. And once I kind of realized it was jazz that I responded to the most that I was most interested in. I tried to check the books. You know , I was a little kid , but I tried to get books out of the library , and I tried to learn what I could , and I got more and more interested in it that way. So it goes back to when I was. However , however old you are when you're in fifth grade. I'm pretty young. You know.
S1: That's when it all happens. Well , you grew up in Kansas City , which has a rich jazz history. Tell me about. That.
S2: That. That helped a lot because I was aware of that. Just because you couldn't help but be aware of it. Because on on the radio and in the news newspaper , there would always be something about Charlie Parker or Count Basie or the Kansas City jazz era. And I remember when I got really interested one time when it really kind of pushed me over , was when I really realized the significance of Kansas City to the overall jazz scene. And I remember , I remember distinctly we were visiting my grandmother , who lived about about a two hour drive north of Kansas City. And my dad had thrown the Sunday paper into the back seat. And I must have been , I don't know , sixth or seventh grade somewhere in there. And the Sunday calendar had a big feature on Kansas City during the depression. And , you know , I didn't have anything else to do in the car for two hours. So I remember looking at it and I read the part about jazz , and I got really interested in the fact that , well , hey , this this all happened where I'm from. And it kind of sparked an interest from that , that that made me more curious about Charlie Parker and Count Basie and Andy Kirk and Mary Lou Williams and all the people they talked about. So and I realized that my grandparents and my parents , too , for that matter , but really , my grandparents , I realized that they'd been alive during this. And so , you know , I couldn't wait to ask them about it. And , of course , the Kansas City jazz scene was such an underground thing that happened during the time , really , that they didn't know anything about it. You know ? I mean , it was , you know , they knew about the same. You know , they knew about Count Basie and the names that had come out of there. But while it was happening , it was very much under the radar , even to the general population in Kansas City. So I learned that part of it , too. And that made me even more curious as to why that was.
S1: Well , you know , we've pulled a couple of your favorite tunes today. The first one is from jazz titan Miles Davis. It also includes John Coltrane. Uh , this track is called milestones. Yeah.
S2: And what made me realize how much , uh , that I really liked Miles Davis , because this was one of the , you know , when you're first starting out , especially , at least for me , younger. You know , it's hard to hear the instrumental things , you know ? I mean , people can associate with the human voice much more. So. So when people are singing lyrics , you've got something at least you can latch on to. When it's instrumental music , it's harder when you're younger , especially to kind of hear what's going on and to kind of hear it. And Miles was one of the first ones that I could kind of follow to a degree , what was happening. Other things like , you know , I desperately wanted to hear Charlie Parker because I knew Charlie Parker was important. And I remember saving my money and going to the record store in the mall , Music Land and buying a Charlie Parker record out of the budget bin , and it just sounded like a bunch of noise to me. I'd have been in sixth grade , maybe , but it just sounded like a bunch of noise. I couldn't hear it didn't. I didn't get it. I'm like , well , what's the big deal ? I don't , you know , I couldn't. But Miles , for some reason and I don't think I'm the only one. Miles seems to be a gateway to a lot of people. People can really associate with Miles Davis and the sound of his trumpet to it. And , you know , Miles used a lot of space in his plane and all. It's not as dense. And so for me , anyway , it was easier for me to have some sense of what he was doing and try to play along with it on the trumpet , the Charlie Parker thing that the first. You know , I couldn't , I couldn't. I couldn't hear anything that was going on. It was just , you know.
S1: Well , Miles is sound is so distinct. So let's take a listen.
S3: Here , okay ? This is milestones.
S1:
S2: There's correlations between that and the Constitution and the , you know , things like that. I mean , as silly as that may sound , I mean , it's it's it's a democratic approach where everybody's working together and they're listening to each other's ideas and they're playing off of each other's ideas , and they're introducing ideas of their own. But yet they have to be aware of what everyone else is doing. There's a change in hierarchy , as on the bandstand , as as people are playing , the person soloing is in the driver's seat , but then it becomes somebody else's turn , and then things shift and change. And to me , it's just it's an expression of human , uh , it's an expression of human emotion , and it's an expression of , um , things that , like I said , relate to all these different things that have to take place for that to happen. And it's a pure expression , you know , it's not a it's not a made up or a forced thing. Uh , it's something that is someone that learns their instruments so completely that it becomes an extension of their personality. And I think that's one of the things about Miles , and I think that's why so many people are attracted to Miles is because they can hear that , you know , it's an extension of , you know , what he's saying , even though there's no words , you know , the words become easy , you know , becomes easy when you can hear the lyrics to something and you can hear what the meaning of that is and things like that. With instrumental jazz , you don't have that same thing. You don't have that. You have to listen in a different way to hear what the artist is trying to convey. And that , to me has always been what's exciting about it. And I think , again , as an art form , it's something that has to be available. It has to be , uh , it has to be there for future generations , and it has to be treated with the respect and the dignity and everything else that goes along with it , that something of that magnitude should be treated with.
S1: Well , and , you know , it's you're right in that it's such an art form and it's foundational to. I mean , given that , what do you tell someone who says , you know , I only listen to rock and roll or I only listen to hip hop ? I don't listen to jazz.
S2: I think what we hope for is by exposing the music and the artist and trying to do it in a way that , um , when people do listen that they , they , they get it , or at least it gives them an opportunity to , you know , with , you know , have a we enhance things by , uh , the way we present the music is hopefully it and especially for students , for young people. As a young student , I was very dependent on radio , on jazz , on the radio , because I'd have access to much else other than , you know , the few records that I would get here or there. So radio was everything , and I would listen to the jazz programs every night. And I would , you know , I was able to , you know , to learn things that way as an edge , you know , even , you know , because what we do is educational , even though it may not be outward , you know , it may not be as noticeable as educational. You know , everything we do every day , there's an educational component to it. So and from a historical standpoint , I think it's so much a part of American history that needs that people need to understand as well , because it I never have felt that again. We have to convert people , but I think people need to be aware. I think people need to be aware of jazz and blues in particular , and where it came from and why it's such an important part of our history , because it should be appreciated from a historical and sociological standpoint as much as it is from an entertainment. And I used air quotes there , but as entertainment or whatever. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Yeah. Well , it's and it's funny too , because like , for someone who says I only listen to hip hop , well , much of what you're listening to is sampled. Jazz. Absolutely. You know , so it's it is kind of it's foundational in that sense.
S2: And blues in particular. I mean , you know , so much popular music through the years has a direct connection to the blues , uh , especially , you know , rock music and , and elements of , you know , and there's certain elements of , of hip hop and things that. R&B.
S1: R&B.
S2: That may not be blues , but I mean , it comes from a lineage of , um , of things being passed along and all that is so important and really can't be lost. It would be ridiculous for that to be lost. And so that's why we feel it's so important to to do what's necessary to maintain a jazz radio station. And as you said , there's not too many left in the entire country , uh , entire world for that matter. So we feel what we do is really , really important and significant , and we understand that it's a smaller segment of the audience , and we know that it's always going to be a smaller segment of the audience. The key is , is that there's enough people within that audience willing to support it so that it maintains itself. And that's what the struggle is. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , it's it is time to take a listen to some more music. Up next , we've got the Gerry Mulligan Quartet featuring Chet Baker on trumpet with Bernie's Tune. So is this a good example of what we hear called , like , West Coast jazz ? Absolutely.
S2: That is one of the pioneering recordings , if you will , of what we think of as West Coast jazz. And personally , I was very drawn to to this back in Kansas City As much as I loved the Kansas City sound , as much as I love Miles Davis and all the things that I was discovering , a lot of the West Coast things really spoke to me for some reason. Chet Baker , Gerry Mulligan in particular , Shorty Rogers and some of the others. And I think one of the reasons I ended up on the West Coast was for that very reason. Um , you know , I was I was drawn to , um , I was drawn to that. And it was just something that I kind of made a specialty of early on by not necessarily on purpose , but just in studying the music and learning it. And it was something I was drawn to , I think the compositional elements to it , in addition to the improvisation of the jazz elements , I think was something that because I was always interested in the compositional aspect of things as well. And , um , you know , there's there's an element to that in the West Coast Sound. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. Well , before.
S1: We close out , how would you characterize San Diego's jazz scene in history.
S2: San Diego has always has had a much stronger scene , I think , than it gets credit for that people are aware of. And I think that's I think it doesn't get , um , as much credit , mainly because , um , there wasn't a scene here of where there was like recording activity and things like that that was going on. But what there was and there still is today , an incredibly strong local scene that turns out brilliant musicians , and it always has been. And San Diego's also always been an extension of things happening on the West Coast in terms of people coming here and performing and so on.
S1: All right. Well , I've been speaking with Ken Post and he is the station manager with jazz 88 located in San Diego City College. Ken , thank you so much.
S2: Oh thank you.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
