Ode to WWUH

by Maurice Robinson

Since October 1976, I have maintained a creative improvisational jazz format at WWUH. This station in its 30 years has allowed persons such as myself to find a home, and to help, in our own ways, to educate the listener to different ways of hearing whatever genre of music we program.
     Within the jazz format, I’ve watched WWUH broadcast live jazz from Bushnell Park and other Hartford sites. If has also aired wonderful syndicated programs such as the Miles Davis series and NEFA’s Jazz Portraits, plus the myriad interviews conducted formally and informally almost weekly.
     Some of my fondest and more intriguing memories include the innovative jazz series done in our old Gengras Campus Center studios during the late 1970’s, which included the very expressive pianist Don Pullen in a solo context - also spoken-word artist Jayne Cortez with her very electric blues band, the Fire Spitters.
     In our archives from the Monday Night Bushnell Park Jazz Series and the old Peace Train concerts, there are tapes of deceased masters like Bill Evans, Dexter Gordan and Stephane Grappelli.
     I would probably need a past life regression to remember it all, but - to sum it up - we’re here to stay, and me, maybe another 22.

Note: Maurice Robertson is one of the region’s finest jazz photographers. His work can be viewed regularly in New England Jazz News.