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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1984)
— Kicker blues can be remedied Aggieland's swinging By BONNIE LANGFORD Stall Writer Text, term papers, quizzes, homework — longing for some thing cool and relaxing to take you away, but don’t have the en ergy to look for it? Forget AC/DC and Motley Crue, don’t even think about Waylon or Willie, jazz is what you need. Whether it’s bebop or Dixieland or even swing, it can be found in the area. Two local stations play some jazz, to keep the jazz listener happy, and a few clubs feature jazz bands. Armando Canales hosts All That Jazz on KTAW-FM every Sunday night from 7 until 10. For Canales, a senior engi neering technology major at Texas A&M, it’s an act of love that keeps him on the air. The music he plays is from his own collection of about 300 records, since the station has a top 40 format, and doesn’t own jazz albums. The show started as a service to offer different program ming, like the Sound of the 60s, Canales says. When he started working for the station, some one else had the show. Canales says that he told them if they ever needed anyone to take it over, he would do it; when they did, he got the job. His love for jazz music started several years ago, he says, when he heard the music, he became interested in being a jazz guitarist. This was when he started collecting albums, he says, to listen to how other art ists sounded. “I’d really like to make it as a jazz guitarist,” Canales says. “I’ll use the degree to pay the rent.” Some of his albums are bought, not to study the style, but because his listeners have requested them. “I’m willing to check it out, or ask the guy at the record store what he thinks of it,” he says. “If I don’t like it, or if it’s off-the- wall, I can always trade it in for something else.” Jazz has started to become popular in the area, he says, es pecially with college students, which are about 70 percent of his listeners. If the pressures have mounted, and you just can’t wait for Sunday night, KAMU- FM provides jazz during the week, as well as the weekend. The station plays about 25 hours a week, which is about half as much as the classical mu sic, syas Melissa Cotropia, who is radio program director at the station. Jazz music is offered Monday through Friday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:00, and Friday afternoon from 12:30 until 4:00. On Monday night from 7:00 until 10:00, Friday night from 7:00 to 11:00 and Satur day night from 11:00 until 3:00, jazz music can be heard. Some of the programming is done by volunteers, w'ho bring music from their collections, the rest of it is network program ming from places like the De- triot Institute of Art, says Catro- pia, v\'ho does the Fiday afternoon Thank Jazz It’s Fri day. “Each program features a differnt kind of jazz,” she says.“The station has a basic col lection, but much of it is do nated or loaned. That way we keep a variety, and each show has it’s own personality.” Though the station does not have to seek advertising, so rat ing aren’t considered when the programming is done, Catropia says the jazz shows are popular with the listeners. Quite a bit of the money raised comes be cause of them, she says. Local Live entertainment is a bit rougher to find. Occasion ally Dr. G’s offers some of the popular jazz bands, like Ex treme Heat, says Catropia, and sometimes Baker Street has jazz. A sure bet for a place to find some live jazz music will be at the Brazos County Jazz Festival. It’s April 28 from noon until midnight at Central Park. Some of the Bands featured will be Sun Rise, the Sam Houston State Jazz Ensemble, the Brian High School Jazz Band, Notro- pis and the Fred Nelson Trio. By BONNIE LANGFORD Staff Writer What do you do when it’s only Tuesday, the week will be easy and you’ve got that “Friday night fever” for some belly-rub- bin’ music? Several places in town offer the answer, like Far- ren’s, Rebels or the Stadium. One local musician playing country western music is Tara Short. She’s a senior horticul ture major at Texas A&M who likes to sing. “I get a lot of requests for Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain’ and old country songs,” she says. “About a third of what I play is really country, the rest is easy listening music like the Ea gles. There’s definitely a market icre, people follow me from one club to the next. “When I take a break during the act, I turn on the MTV. When I come back I get ap plause, so they must really like my music.” Short never played country music until she came to A&M, she says, since she lived in Phoe nix, and it wasn’t popular there. She says country music is what people in Texas want to hear; she got requests for a lot of country songs, so she started learning them. “I tried to learn the songs that were requested,” she says. “I started liking it a lot. It’s easy to learn and play on the guitar. People can’t expect a single act like mine to play rock and roll.” The programming and music director at a local country west ern station says that country music is starting to become more popular. Roy Gene, who works for KORA-FM, says that that the country music area is starting to grow, and the artists are getting more access to television shows and specials. “There’s the old joke that if you listened to country music, you sit with the car windows rolled up, and switched to an other station to roll them down,” Gene says. “Now that’s changed.” About 20 to 25 percent of the station’s listeners are college See Country page 14 »* * * . « *. • . - . t - • • •.•***. * ,«• > ** * * 9'j'f'jvrrrir-r*r