20th Anniversary Show of the R&B Jukebox

Join hosts Easy Bill and Rolando Garcia on Saturday night, August 4 from 6-8pm as they celebrate 20 years of the R&B Jukebox! They’ll be spinning some of the iconic hits as well as their personal favorites, and will be sharing the history and memories of the show from the past two decades.

Whether you’ve been listening since 1998 or just recently discovered The Jukebox, tune in to celebrate this radio milestone this Saturday night from 6-8pm on KUVO Jazz.

In 1997, Rolando Garcia had only been on the air as a jazz substitute for about a year. He started regularly substituting for JC (Mama Kat) “The Senior Citizen of the Airwaves” on Saturday nights.

In that evening slot, Rolando played some traditional blues, along with jazz on the bluesy side, and some of his own R&B favorites. With positive audience response, Carlos encouraged Rolando to do more of “that R&B thing”. The seed was planted.

In early January 1998, the R&B Jukebox as we know it was born.  At this point, it’s extremely important to recognize just how the Jukebox got started.  Rolando has been called the “father” of the R&B Jukebox, but not many know that Carlos Lando is the “godfather” of the R&B Jukebox. It was Carlos’ idea to turn the 2-hour slot into a full-fledged R&B show dedicated to featuring the music from the Golden Age of R&B.  After brainstorming ideas for the new show with Carlos, they came up with “The R&B Jukebox” because the jukebox represented how people listened to R&B in those days. Based on the book Honkers and Shouters, by Arnold Shaw, the Jukebox played music from the mid-‘40’s swing era to the rockin’ 50’s, and into the early 60’s before the genre moved into Motown, Muscle Shoals, Stax, and Soul music.

The story of the music: There is so much rich information that brings the music to life. The music itself is a reflection of black culture/society in the late 40’s, through the 50’s, and into the 60’s and it’s influence on white America culture and music genres. It’s safe to say that R&B is the foundation for Rock and Roll, pop music, and other musical expressions. The evolution of R&B, in a nutshell, can be described as Post-war swing bands (orchestras) became smaller, tighter sextets that evolved into “jump” R&B styles featuring the saxophone as the “lead” instrument. In the mid-50’s, the electric guitar started taking the stage alongside, but many times instead of, the saxophone. This led to the birth of Rock and Roll as we know it.  The late Denver trombonist, JD Kelly, would say, “R&B is Rock and Roll, and Rock and Roll is R&B.” Indeed, popular Rock and Roll is the direct product of 50’s R&B. There are several sub-genres to R&B that contributed to this: Doo Wop vocals, New Orleans-based R&B, Latin-infused R&B for example. While the Jukebox is dedicated to the Golden Age of R&B, the date-range of the music has expanded over the years to include mid and late 60’s R&B to bridge the early R&B influence to popular, recognizable R&B artists such as Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and Wilson Pickett to name a few.

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