Some of you may remember that in the 1980s and 1990s, KNPR was renowned for producing a Monday night jazz program.
"Four Queens Jazz Night from Las Vegas" aired for 14 years. For 13 years, the program was broadcast across the country. And yes, the program featured live performances from the Four Queens hotel-casino in Downtown Las Vegas.
Now, tapes of that program are the source of a new record that features the late jazz guitarist Emily Remler.
Cookin’ at the Queens comes out on disc Dec. 6, but in limited quantities — and only at participating Record Store Day locations like Zia, Moondog, and Record City — on vinyl Nov. 29. It's the first Remler album release in 34 years (she died in 1990).
Someone who helped make that record happen in many ways is Brian Sanders. He’s currently the program operations director and announcer of KNAU, Northern Arizona University's public radio station. But for 17 years, he served as — among other roles — the senior producer and engineer of both KNPR and its "Four Queens Jazz" program. He had previously worked with producer Zev Feldman on a 2016 "Four Queens Jazz" recording featuring Shirley Horn. But eventually, they got to speaking about the lesser-known Remler.
"All the ['Four Queens Jazz'] tapes are now at ... the UNLV archive," said Sanders. "So Zev had me go over to [UNLV] and look at the physical tapes. And many times there was a lot of writing on the tape boxes, as well as legal pad paper inside the boxes. So I was able to refresh my memory... what are the good takes? Is this a duplicate? I mean, just the basic nuts and bolts of the tapes themselves."
The two-hour, 40-minute release draws from three different Remler appearances at the Four Queens for the program. "[Normally], we would record two sets, if not three," said Sanders. "So we'd take the best material from those two hours of performance, cut it down to one hour for broadcast. There'd be things left over. So what we're hearing with this release are some outtakes, as well as previously released or at least broadcast material."
Assisting with Cookin' brought back a flood of memories for Sanders — a jazz musician himself — as he was afforded the chance to feature and meet many mainstream jazz players of the era, many he regarded as his heroes.
"Some of the notables — I mean, [pianist/vocalist] Dave Frishberg comes to mind," said Sanders. "I sat at the bar all night with [saxophonist/flautist] Jerome Richardson one night after the gig. That was fascinating. [Pianist/vocalist] Bob Dorough [and trumpeter] Freddie Hubbard made the show. [Trumpeter/vocalist] Chet Baker was on one of the very first programs. The list is actually substantial, and when I go back to the list, I think, 'I met these people.'"
Guest: Brian Sanders, former senior producer and engineer, Nevada Public Radio; current program operations director and announcer, KNAU (Northern Arizona University)
