To celebrate the Centennial of Charlie Parker (b. 8//29/1920) WKCR will present a special eight day long marathon radio broadcast, August 27 through September 3, 2020.
For decades, we have always celebrated Bird AND Lester Young with a multi day broadcast at the end of the summer. So, to both maintain our Lester Young legacy and also devise appropriate programming to pay homage to Charlie Parker’s 100th, we’ve created this intriguing schedule, if you’ll follow along.
August 27, the birthday anniversary of Prez, Lester Young (b. 8/27/1909), we will be broadcasting 24 hours of Young’s music, as we always do.
To segue into Parker, on August 28 we will play a potpourri of both Bird and Prez songs, without any intensive commentary, for your listening pleasure.
August 29, Bird’s 100th, will begin the detailed production, as for five days around the clock we will play Parker’s complete discography, presented in specially prepared thematic segments. Additionally, we will pay homage to our mentor Phil Schaap, and broadcast various archived material from his internationally acclaimed “Bird Flight” programs during the festival. That’s Saturday August 29 through Wednesday September 2.
Our festivities will close on Thursday September 3, with “Beyond Bird”, 24 hours of student programming outlining the impact of Charlie Parker on various artistic disciplines going forward.
That’s WKCR, 89.9 on the FM radio dial in New York City and available around the world over the internet at
www.wkcr.org and on various mobile apps.
