CKUA Live Broadcasts
How I Hear It celebrates The Works at Churchill Square
Friday June 20, Noon to 3pm
Winston Churchill Square, beside the 3 Bananas Café, Edmonton
Join Monica Miller on How I Hear It live from The Works Art and Design Festival, as she helps kick off this fabulous 13 day extravaganza of art and design.
CKUA is pleased to sponsor The Works Street Stage – a free series of concerts held each day of the festival at Winston Churchill Square.
A Time for Jazz Live from the Yardbird Suite
Saturday, June 21, Noon to 3 pm
11 Tommy Banks Way (Corner of 102 Street & 86 Avenue), Edmonton
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A Time for Jazz Live From the Ironwood Stage and Grill
Saturday, June 28, Noon to 3pm
Ironwood Grill, 1429, 9th Ave SE, Calgary
CKUA jazz programmer and noted musician Don Berner is making the Jazz Festival rounds – broadcasting A Time For Jazz live from the Yardbird Suite in Edmonton and the Ironwood Stage and Grill in Calgary to present some of the great treats you'll find at the Edmonton and Calgary Jazz Festivals. Come on down and enjoy some live music - it's a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
CKUA proudly supports the Edmonton, Calgary and Medicine Hat Jazz Festivals as part of a month long celebration of Jazz in June.
Live From Alberta Stages
Fridays at 8 PM on CKUA
Live from Alberta Stages presents some of our favourite concerts from the 2007-2008 Season:
June 20 - Kat Danser and the Polyjesters, recorded in Rosebud Alberta
Kat Danser throws down an acoustic fusion of funky, laidback rhythms and thought provoking lyrical poetry. Her ‘Swamp Blues’ style is delivered on the waves of her deep, resonant vocals and the soulful sounds of her Weissenborn lap slide guitar. She is one part backwoods juke joint, one part plow puller and two parts dusty ol’ canvas tent revival.
The Polyjesters play everything from Billie Holiday to The Beatles…from old swing/jazz standards to alternative country. This breadth of musical appreciation produced their special home-grown blend called CHUNK - a unique sound that is highly energetic, completely contagious, unfailingly entertaining and appeals to a wide range of musical taste.
June 27 - The Wailin' Jennys, recorded at Edmonton’s Myer Horowitz Theatre
Three extraordinary voices, two founding singer-songwriters, and one singular vision: The Wailin' Jennys continue to evolve into far more than the melodious sum of their individual talents five years after blowing in on a fresh acoustic breeze from Canada's mid-western heartland.
Dead Ends and Detours – The Poster
Peter North, host of Dead Ends and Detours, has teamed up with rock poster designer extraordinaire, Bob Masse, to produce this incredible poster. Sure to be a collectible, this 16"x 24" print is finely reproduced on a quality stock, signed by Peter and ready for framing. Get yours now for the special introductory price of $20.
Recent Artist Interviews
Recently, CKUA has had the privilege of interviewing a diverse selection of musical artists including Gord Matthews, Bill Werthmann, Dan Aykroyd, and Michael Kaeshammer.
If you missed it live, it is not too late to listen to what these artists have to say, visit our Audio Archives to get caught up.
Up Close & Personal with Don Berner
Each month, we’ll bring you insights about what our hosts are up to these days, as well as experiences that have inspired and shaped their lives.
This month we had the pleasure of getting up close and personal with Don Berner, host of A Time for Jazz.
How long have you been at CKUA? How long have you been doing A Time for Jazz?
I've been at CKUA and doing A Time for Jazz since January 2007.
Why did you decide to join the CKUA team?
Besides the fact that CKUA does a great deal for the Canadian music community and industry, anytime I can get paid to listen to albums is super duper.
Click here for more Up Close & Personal with Don Berner
The Bull Family Fund
In 1995 Michael Bull, along with his family, moved from Toronto to Edmonton. Since turning his dial to CKUA Michael has become one of our valuable volunteers and donors, heading building tours, answering phones during the campaign, sitting on the Edmonton Chapter Board and attending events as a CKUA ambassador.
Michael believes in music and its ability to broaden one’s knowledge in all things, exclaiming, "Can you imagine a world without music?"
After the passing of his father last year, Michael evaluated what a person’s responsibility was to society. His wish was to give back to areas that were important to him and the community including CKUA. Through the Edmonton Community Foundation, Michael and his family created the Bull Family Fund, housed within CKUA’s Endowment Fund. It made perfect sense to him that these funds put away today, will support CKUA far into the future. To Michael and his family, it is "…all about helping to secure the future of CKUA for new and subsequent generations of CKUA listeners, it made sense to plan now, for tomorrow."
If you would like more information on the many benefits of making gifts to the CKUA Endowment Fund, how to build an emerging fund, or other ways you can support CKUA, please contact us at donors@ckua.com.
Scenes From the Library
Every month in the CKUA Library we receive CDs from all sorts of different sources, from mainstream labels to Indie groups. In this new CKUA Library section of the Newsletter, every month we’ll highlight new CDs considered to be undiscovered gems of the Alberta music scene.
Artist: Karen Porkka
Album: Karen Porkka (4 Song EP)
Edmontonian Karen Porkka, a regular in the Edmonton music scene, has just released her self-titled 4 Song EP. She began her musical life as a saxophonist, but switched her emphasis to singing, citing jazz singers such as Carmen McCrae, Betty Carter, Shirley Horn, Abbey Lincoln, and Cassandra Wilson as some of her influences. Karen lends her own brand of soulfulness and grooviness to jazz singing, with her velvet voice being comfort food for the ears, the sort of thing that one would want to hear as one is winding down upon a summer evening. An accomplished song writer, three of the four songs on the EP are written by Karen Porkka. The last song on the EP is her own fresh, slightly swinging jazz arrangement of Bob Dylan’s "Blowin’ in the Wind."
Karen regularly plays gigs all over town, playing by herself, as musical accompaniment for the Mile Zero Dance Company, in a duo with musician Mark Klemm, and with the jazz band The Parkers.
Besides being a working jazz vocalist, Karen also teaches jazz voice from her home studio, as part of the Grant MacEwan Community College Outreach Program, and also organizes vocal workshops for her students. She is also a holistic health practitioner, and gives workshops on Sound, Breath and Body Awareness. And if that were not already enough hats to wear, she also is an accomplished artist, working mostly with mixed media.
Karen Porkka will be performing Sunday, June 22 at Hulbert’s as part of the Edmonton International Jazz Festival.
For information on Karen Porkka, and where to purchase the album, visit: karenporkka.com.
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