On the Scene on WZUM - we salute Duke Ellington at the close of April, Jazz Appreciation Month. We’ll also hear sounds from the special 70th birthday party event held by President Nixon in 1969.

Celebrations of Duke by many notables, and also some Pittsburgh natives, too!

Thursday at 6pm, Friday and Saturday at noon, Sunday afternoon at 5.

The MCG Jazz Spotlight show this week focuses on jazz educators with updates on what they are doing during the stay at home order.

Jazz makes connections. Hear some of them on the Scene on WZUM.

This time on the program, we connect some dots between Horace Sliver, Roger Humphries, trumpeter Louis Smith, Kenny Burrell, Art Blakey, Andy Warhol - and more.

Thursday at 6, Friday and Saturday at noon, Sunday at 5pm

This week on the MCG Jazz Spotlight show, Marty Ashby and Renée Govanucci visit, at a distance, with two innovative presenters of jazz in Pittsburgh - Terrri Bell of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and John Shannon of Con Alma.

We revisit our conversationwith Stanley Nelson, the Director of the recent Miles Davis documentary, Birth of the Cool, and also hear a track that Miles crafted with Gil Evans, Lee Konitz and more for some revolutionary sessions in 1949 that the film’s title came from. Lee Konitz passed away this week at the age of 92 - he was the last of the performers from the Birth of the Cool sessions..- the SCENE on WZUM! Thursday at 6, Sunday at 5, Friday and Saturday at noon.

This week on the MCG Jazz Spotlight show, Marty Ashby and Renée Govanucci talk about jazz families. From the Brubeck’s and the Marsalis’ to the Aliquo’s and DeFade’s, with the Ashby’s and Clayton’s thrown in, 10 jazz families are represented (and a few of them share the billing on single tracks!)

A chat with guitarist Gene Bertoncini, and music with Gene, and also, recordings with Scott Hanley and Gene from a few years back.

On the Scene, on WZUM

In these times of COVID-19, studios are now where you are - and the the MCG Jazz Spotlight this week has four hosts from four homes - with Marty Ashby and Renée Govanucci visited, remotely by two stalwarts of the Pittsburgh music scene - bassist Paul Thompson and trumpeter JD Chaisson.