Jazz Break at Noon - August 2025

August 4 - 8

Bird Talk with Charlie Parker Hosted by JJ Lopez. 
This month marks the birth of Charles Parker Jr., affectionately known as Charlie or 'Bird' to those closest to him. Born on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Missouri, the alto saxophonist revolutionized jazz with his innovative approach to improvisation and composition. Along with his collaborators, including Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, he contributed to the establishment of bebop as a new style in jazz in the early 1940s. Parker's genius for improvisation went beyond the confines of traditional soloing, unlocking new possibilities that forever changed the course of jazz.

This week on The Jazz Break at Noon, we’ll honor his lasting legacy by enjoying select recordings from his time on the Savoy, Dial, and Verve record labels. These expansive sessions from 1945 to 1954 represent some of Parker's most accomplished and groundbreaking work from his short but prolific life. Join us this week for Bird Talk with Charlie Parker.

August 11 - 15

A Class All His Own: Remembering Mulgrew Miller
In late 2024, bassist John Clayton released Talk To Me About Mulgrew, a previously unreleased 2007 duet recording and a touching indirect tribute to the late pianist, Mulgrew Miller. The album, which honors Miller's lifelong friend James Williams, serves as a fond reminder of Mulgrew Miller—a sensitive, soulful, and brilliant pianist, composer, and educator. Born August 13, 1955, Miller passed away in 2013 at the age of 57, cutting short a promising and storied career that began in the 1970s with trumpeter Woody Shaw and continued with Betty Carter, Art Blakey, and later Tony Williams. Over three decades, Miller appeared on nearly 500 recordings, leading his own projects while supporting countless others.

This week, we'll spotlight Miller's work as a leader—including with his acclaimed band Wingspan—and as a masterful accompanist. We'll feature selections from his extensive discography, with a special focus on live recordings, as Miller truly loved performing! Join us for a musical tribute to the life and legacy of Mulgrew Miller.

August 18 - 22

Celebrating the Sun of Latin Music Eddie Palmieri
This week on The Jazz Break at Noon, we celebrate the monumental life and career of pianist and composer, Eddie Palmieri—the Sun of Latin Music. Hosted by JJ Lopez and special guest, percussionist and bandleader, Henry Brun, host of the Latin Jazz Brunch, heard Sundays, 11am-2pm on KRTU, 91.7 FM.

Eddie Palmieri was a true visionary and a rebel-with-a-cause, who saw no boundaries when it came to music. A catalyst for an entire culture, his artistry inspired generations of musicians, historians, and die-hard salsa and jazz aficionados. An innovative composer and orchestrator, his influence is felt every day in both Latin music and jazz. Palmieri was a genre-defying force, blending salsa and jazz with an unmatched intensity and brilliance. His trailblazing work earned him ten Grammy Awards and the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master recognition.

Palmieri died on August 6, 2025 at his home in Hackensack, New Jersey at the age of 88. He leaves behind an expansive and rich recording history that proves nothing is impossible. Join us as we pay tribute to the one and only Eddie Palmieri, a true giant of the music world, this week on the Jazz Break at Noon.

“I personally met the Maestro on Dec 2, 1972. I witnessed firsthand a bill that included Eddie Palmieri, Charlie Palmieri, and Mongo Santamaria, amongst others. I haven’t been the same since. Afro Cuban Jazz became my life.” - Henry Brun

August 25 - 29

Limitless: The Many Facets of Cécile McLorin Salvant
Singing with the diction and lilt of a Broadway musical actress and the cultural consciousness of an anthropological documentarian, Cécile McLorin Salvant vocalizes narratives that she doesn’t merely sing about—she inhabits them. Obscure operas, forgotten fables, and seminal standards are her playground. Whether she is singing in English, Haitian Kreyòl, Occitan or her native French, Salvant’s performances blend history, theatre and social commentary in a big cauldron of artistic innovations.

She was born Cécile Sophie McLorin Salvant in Miami on August 28, 1989 to a French mother and a Haitian father. She took up classical piano at five, and joined a youth choir at eight. As a teenager, she started classical voice lessons. At 18 Salvant decided to move to France where she eventually earned a bachelor’s in French law from the Université Pierre-Mendes France in Grenoble while also studying baroque music and jazz at the Darius Milhaud Music Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence.

It was thanks to the well-timed encouragement of her mother and the unrelenting behest of a music teacher in France, that Salvant became a jazz singer at all - and a highly decorated one at that.

Salvant won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz competition for vocalists in 2010 and received three consecutive Grammys for best jazz vocal album, and nominations for two more albums. In 2020, Salvant received the MacArthur fellowship and the Doris Duke Artist Award. In 2023, Angela Davis wrote: “She is, without a doubt, her generation’s most accomplished jazz vocalist.” Cécile McLorin Salvant has released seven albums as a leader and is featured on a number of significant recordings.

This week on the Jazz Break at Noon Bria Woods will curate a listening experience that follows the chronology of Salvant’s discography. We will also hear music from some of her top musical inspirations and snippets of a recorded conversation with KRTU before her San Antonio performance in April of this year.

Tune in Monday through Friday, 12 p.m.-1 p.m. CDT. You can listen on the dial 91.7 FM, stream at KRTU.org, or via the free KRTU app.

Prepare your heart for play.