I am sitting in the WREK studio, giving my 1000 jazz shift. It’s not ordinary, though. Today is the 40th anniversary of WREK Atlanta being on the air, and I have the last shift before we switch on our digital transmitter and therefore catapault into the 21st century. All this, and it is less than 12 hours since I’ve returned from Russia.
For this momentous shift, I decided to keep it jazz but to give it P. Rhea’s own interpretive twist. Therefore, I have played three tracks, all of them live Allman Brothers Band from the Fillmore East – Stormy Monday, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, and Mountain Jam (currently making my heart beat a nice rhythm). 40 years ago they were just getting ready to produce a Singularity in American music, defined by their fusion and subsequent integral elevation of traditional American musical styles. Each of these tracks exemplifies their jazz prowess. If you want to listen to this shift at all in the next two weeks, go to WREK’s website and click on “Listen to our 7-day archive.” I am the 1000 on Tuesday morning during “Just Jazz.”
EUROXPRO stuff will come later. Until then, party on.