Profile of Jazz Artist Gabe Baltazar Airs on Voice of America

The Paul Togawa Quartet, circa late 1950s.
The Paul Togawa Quartet, circa late 1950s. L to R: Gabe Baltazar, Paul Togawa, Dick Johnston, Buddy Woodson.

Broadcast journalist Heidi Chang‘s story on Gabe Baltazar Jr. as a pioneering Asian American jazz musician aired internationally on Voice of America. The show is archived on the VOA website; click here to read and listen (and comment!). It reveals just a sampling of what is in Gabe’s autobiography, If It Swings, It’s Music.

NPR Highlights Jazz Musician Gabe Baltazar Jr.

Baltazar-If It Swings, It's Music

On September 28, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Saturday will broadcast journalist Heidi Chang‘s profile of Gabe Baltazar Jr. as a pioneering Asian American jazz artist. The piece draws from his UH Press book, If It Swings, It’s Music, and features in-person interviews with the legendary saxophonist and coauthor Theo Garneau, along with some of Baltazar’s musical highlights.

Weekend Edition Saturday is a two-hour program hosted by NPR’s Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon. Please check your local NPR-affiliate listings for air times. For those in Hawai‘i, the Weekend Edition show will be on HPR-2, starting at 5 a.m. HST (O‘ahu listeners can tune in to KIPO 89.3).

UPDATE: The story is archived on the NPR site for listening and viewing. Click here.

To hear more from Gabe, Hawai‘i Public Radio‘s The Conversation aired an interview by Chris Vandercook in August last year.

For a sultry treat, listen to Gabe’s performance of Santana’s “Europa” at the Hawai‘i State Art Museum on July 22, 2012. . .when he was 82—fantastic!

Conversations with UH Press Authors

Besides the NPR “Crime in the City” interview with Victoria Kneubuhl that aired August 13, other “talk stories” with UH Press authors took place in the past month:

Hawai‘i Public Radio‘s The Conversation interviewed jazz saxophonist Gabe Baltazar about his memoir, If It Swings, It’s Music. Listen to the  “Book ’em, Gabe-o…with a new autobiography” in the HPR archives for August 7.

Gabe was also featured in the “Old Friends” column that appeared in the August 29 edition of MidWeek, mailed to over 270,000 homes in Hawai‘i. Read the online version here.

On August 27, HPR’s The Conversation caught up with Jim Tranquada at Occidental College to talk about The ‘Ukulele: A History. Listen to the “Madeiran melody maker morphs into a jumping flea…” in the archived show.

The editor of MauiTime interviewed author Tom Coffman about his inspiring new book, I Respectfully Dissent: A Biography of Edward H. Nakamura. Read Coffman’s take on Justice Nakamura’s legacy as a labor attorney and Supreme Court justice in the August 23 cover story, “Standing Alone.”