“Think Out Loud” kicks off a series of monthly conversations with Meg Samples, general manager of member-supported KMHD jazz radio. Each month, we’ll hear about artists to add to your playlist, along with concerts and community events to attend.
In September, that includes the annual Montavilla Jazz Festival. The three-day festival kicks off today and features performances by local artists, including Jessie Marquez. The Portland vocalist joined “Think Out Loud” last month for an interview and studio performance of Cuban filin music.
In honor of the centennial birthday of jazz legend John Coltrane, KMHD presents “A Month Supreme,” a series of events held across Portland celebrating Coltrane’s music, influence and legacy. Fans of Coltrane’s seminal album “Blue Train” will want to check out a live performance of the entire album on Sep. 16 at the Aladdin Theater featuring Portland saxophonist MAE.SUN and other jazz artists.
KMHD General Manager Meg Samples joins us for more details and music.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed using AI and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We kick off a series of new monthly conversations with Meg Samples today. She is the general manager of member-supported KMHD Jazz Radio. Every month, we are gonna talk about upcoming concerts and community events, as well as new jazz releases on her radar. This month, all that includes a celebration of the jazz legend John Coltrane, who would have turned 100 this month.
Meg, it’s great to have you on the show.
Meg Samples: Great to be here, Dave. This is so fun.
Miller: So I want to start with this month-long celebration of John Coltrane. For people who are not that familiar with jazz or Coltrane, where do you put him in the 20th century canon?
Samples: Oh man, to just quote your last guest, he’s in the Big 10. [Laughter] So the idea is that Coltrane had a little bit of a shorter lifespan than a lot of the jazz legends that we think of, like Miles Davis, or even Thelonious Monk or Dave Brubeck. And Coltrane has this really saturated, two decades of music that’s ended up sort of permeating every musician after that. Yes, of course in jazz, but we can trace it to hip hop, R&B and soul. That sort of canon and that kind of legacy, we’re still feeling it today.
Miller: Let’s listen to one of John Coltrane’s most famous songs. Let’s have a little bit of a listen to “Blue Train.”
[“Blue Train” by John Coltrane playing]
Miller: [Music fading out] I always feel bad fading down when the actual solo comes on, but the refrain is amazing too. This is “Blue Train,” title track from his 1958 album.
Do you, Meg, have a Coltrane track that you’ve been listening to a lot as this anniversary has been approaching?
Samples: OK, so as I’m listening to Coltrane, throughout my life, I like to think that I have also grown with Coltrane. Like I listen back and I hear things I didn’t hear when I was in college and listening to him, which is interesting. A lot of artists, I think we do that when you love music. But for me, one of his biggest records is “Giant Steps” and hearing a song called “Countdown.” It’s also one of the shortest ones I love because it’s really bombastic. But I’ve also been digging into the songs that he didn’t write or aren’t as punchy like these big names. And one of them I keep coming back to is “Bemsha Swing,” which I think I shared with you a little bit.
On a particular recording he did called “Avant-Garde” … It’s with Don Cherry, who’s a trumpet player. He’s playing cornet, so he’s got a little more tubage on the instrument for this one. But they play this tune, “Bemsha Swing.” It was written by Thelonious Monk, who Coltrane spent a lot of time with, especially in these years in the ‘50s that I think really stuck with him and created his sound. And the melody just feels, now to me, like when I’m dragging something with me, if that makes sense. Like it’s upbeat and I’m trying to move forward, but I feel it’s something pulling on me, and that’s what I think about when I hear this melody.
Miller: Let’s listen. That’s “Bemsha Swing.” It’s a Thelonious Monk tune. We are going to hear John Coltrane.
[“Bemsha Swing” by Thelonious Monk playing, performed by John Coltrane and Don Cherry]
Miller: So you had this hugely influential artist that would have turned 100 this year in just a couple weeks that you decided you wanted to celebrate as a station. What kind of events are you putting on? How did you decide how to celebrate John Coltrane?
Samples: How do you decide? Well, we know that we have an incredible group of saxophonists in the Portland area. We have the jazz schools like at PSU, and so this is a great fodder for people learning and playing jazz. We are planning a panel discussion with three saxophonists here in town that have been playing for a long time, Devin Phillips, Mary-Sue Tobin and Tim Willcox at The Village Ballroom, and that’s happening next Thursday night, September 10. And we’re gonna let them talk about how Coltrane influenced their jazz playing, their saxophone sound. I’m really looking forward to that one.
That one is, of course, more seated, kind of a more structured event, but we also have a KMHD skate night, Dave. So we have a little something for everyone. That is all ages, happening September 14, and we’re gonna be playing some Jazz Without Boundary sounds, and we’re also going to be incorporating a lot of the Coltrane sound because it’s his birthday month.
Miller: So people can skate. And where is that?
Samples: This is at Oaks Park, the place to skate, right? Oaks Bottom and the Oaks Park skate rink. Like I said, it’s all ages. Tickets are available and it will be in celebration of our “A Month Supreme.”
Miller: There’s also gonna be a performance from the jazz performer originally from Portland – back in Portland – MAE.SUN. What is she gonna be doing?
Samples: Oh man, we are really excited about this one. So we were just listening to “Blue Train” early on in the segment. His incredibly classic album. It’s a lot of favorites for folks. We’re going to present that in its entirety by a band that MAE.SUN has picked out. And MAE.SUN, like you said, is from here in Portland, back in the area. She has played with Beyoncé, Cleo Sol, Demi Lovato, Incubus (do you remember Incubus?) just to name a few, but she has her roots in the jazz sound. She leads her own band and project. She has a particular connection with Coltrane that I think will be really interesting, and we’re going to present that at the Aladdin Theater on September 16, the full album.
Miller: She’s actually going to be joining us next week, this coming Wednesday, for an in-studio performance and interview. But let’s have a listen now just as a preview to one of her own tracks. This is a song “Change” from her album, “Vol. 2: Into the Flow.”
[“Change” by MAE.SUN playing]
Miller: This is MAE.SUN with her song “Change.”
Meg, the Montavilla Jazz Festival is happening this weekend, starting today. What can people expect?
Samples: Oh, starting tonight, it is a weekend full of regional jazz sounds, original jazz sounds. So you’re not going to be hearing a lot of the jazz standards or things that you might hear in a restaurant or in the background. This is really about music-forward players and people that are doing it now.
Miller: This is the Without Boundaries part.
Samples: This is Without Boundaries. You got it. So, it kicks off tonight with Rebecca Sanborn doing all original music in town with the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. So a huge ensemble with this incredible vocalist. That’s just tonight. There’s also shows happening at the Caldera Amphitheater in Mount Tabor, which if you haven’t been, it’s basically like you’re inside the defunct volcano part of Mount Tabor. Really cool. They set up a stage there. Greaterkind with Lo Steel will be there this weekend. There’s also shows popping up at Portland Metro Arts and Show Bar. They kind of plant things around Montavilla and in the Southeast to get people out, seeing jazz that is a little more adventurous but is also deeply connected to Portland and [the] Pacific Northwest.
Miller: So, speaking of a jazz festival that’s just happening starting this weekend, folks may have seen earlier this summer, the organizers of the Vanport Jazz Festival announced that they had to cancel what was going to be an early August event because of what they called “historically low ticket sales.” Did you see this as a one-off, as something about the particulars of this festival, or I don’t know, a cause for greater concern for jazz in the region?
Samples: That’s a good question. I have been thinking about this because there was also the festival in LA that had the same thing. It was the first year of an LA jazz festival that didn’t even happen, and it was canceled within a day before. I think what we’re seeing, with the particular state of our economy, is that when musicians need to travel to go do these things, it costs more to get them there. Just the cost of life is going up. So, to be a musician, to be a working musician, to go to these festivals, it will cost more, production will cost more, and ticket sales will also cost more, right? That’s just the nature of things. I feel that people are feeling the strain of that.
My worry is that when the economy gets tight, we also start to cut the things that we feel we can live without like arts and culture, but I think we need to remind each other that those things are important for our well-being. They’re important for our wellness. And Montavilla Jazz Festival [is] happening this weekend with a lot of ticket sales at the door or affordable prices, but also some free shows. It’s kind of an incredible thing to have.
Miller: All right, so speaking of live shows that people can go to, what else is on your radar for this month?
Samples: September is cooking. So, there is a duo that is out of Eugene that’s really interesting. They have taken TikTok by storm. OK, so for whatever reason, we now find all of our music and book recommendations on TikTok. Don’t know when that happened, but it’s happening. And Dana and Alden, this duo out of Eugene, just made a name for themselves, not only in this area when they were playing. But they now live in Brooklyn, and I believe one of the Kardashians used their song in a TikTok video. So you can imagine that that catapulted them, but they play a really fun sort of punk style of jazz at times. And then at other times, it’s a very more somber, sort of true jazz feel, whatever that means.
But Dana and Alden will be in Eugene on September 14, Portland on September 12, and I’m just excited to have them back in this like hometown area and for people to also be excited about seeing them.
Miller: Let’s listen to one of their tracks, part of one of the tracks. It’s called “Kelp Forest Palace.” Again, this is Dana and Alden.
[“Kelp Forest Palace” by Dana and Alden playing]
Miller: This is “Kelp Forest Palace” by the duo, the brothers Dana and Alden from Eugene, now living in New York City.
All right, Meg, what is a new release that you’re excited about? We’ve been talking about some live performances, but what about recordings?
Samples: We are in what I like to say release season in a lot of the music. I think the fall is a great time for new records to come out, for people to notice it. It’s kind of like past festival season. So I’ve been keeping my eye open, and a particular saxophonist that has roots here in Portland, studied at PSU and is a saxophone player by the name of Nicole McCabe is putting out new music. I always take a listen because I really like her style and what she does on the horn. But this time she’s pairing up with someone brand new who I had been following for a while, a drummer by the name of Savannah Harris, who lives on the East Coast. So they’ve been doing this back and forth, a little West Coast, East Coast, sort of bringing together, and they have a great sound. Savannah’s sound is more, sort of like a soulful and R&B feel behind the drum set, and Nicole is pretty adventurous with her saxophone playing. It’s making it sound pretty great, and like I said, it’s the one I’m excited about. It’s coming out September 18, and it’s called “All Together Now,” which is a great title.
Miller: We’re gonna go out on the recent single from this new album. The single is called “Lonely People,” Again, the duo is called Nicole McCabe and Savannah Harris. Meg, thank you so much.
Samples: Thank you, Dave. It’s been fun.
[“Lonely People” by Nicole McCabe and Savannah Harris playing]
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