May Member of the Month, H. Alonzo Jennings

H. Alonzo Jennings

I grew up listening to the music my mother loved gospel, the blues but my blues was tinged with big band jazz, Basie, Lunceford, Ellington, Henderson. I came to WPPM to support a friend Daryl Lloyd.  Daryl had a serious talk show he wanted to lighten up with some music. It worked so well the station liked what I brought and offered me a show with no strings attached as to my selection of music.

In addition to my regular programming, Jazz From An Eclectic Mind, which airs on Mondays 6-7pm on WPPM 106.5 FM, I do theme shows: Black, Women’s, Latinx Month; I do interviews and build shows around birthdays, jazz festivals and Philadelphia musicians and jazz clubs.

My showç reflects my life long love of all music but especially Jazz in all of its diversity, beauty and complexity. The music I play is from my personal collection and covers jazz, from Afro-Cuban to Zydeco with a huge helping of everything else blended in. That might include poetry, hip hop, country, latin - I am not a jazz historian or jazz scholar just an old head that loves.

To me there are connecting fibres through all music. I link Sarah Vaughn and Maria Callas, YoYo Ma and Charlie Mingus, Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker, Nina Simone and Joni Mitchel.

Listen to  Jazz From An Eclectic Mind, on WPPM 105.6 FM, Mondays at 6 PM and Mixcloud