User:Raven4989/sandbox

Wikipedia entry for Ron Cuzner Ron Cuzner, hosting his radio program Ron Cuzner: Jazz radio program host, columnist, record store owner, jazz promoter Born: December 4, 1938. Racine, Wisconsin Died: March 27, 2003. Milwaukee WI (age 64) Education: Racine Lutheran High School, Studied communications at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Known for: One of the nation’s longest-running jazz radio program hosts, in Milwaukee. Jazz concert-emcee and owner of a popular jazz record store. Spouse: Janet Cuzner Awards: Wisconsin Area Music Industry Hall of Fame in April 2002 for his radio work. Honorary Lifetime membership in Musicians Local 8 union. Ron Cuzner with (at right) internationally-known saxophonist Frank Morgan, who grew up in Milwaukee. Courtesy Pat Robinson. Cuzner (right) and his employee Sam Linde, welcome jazz trumpeter Kaye Berigan (left), the nephew of famed swing era- trumpeter Bunny Berigan, to Cuzner’s record store. Photo by Charles Queen.

A page from the photo history book “Milwaukee Jazz,” By Joey Grihalva. Courtesy Joey Grihalva Ron Cuzner conducts an on-air conference with Milwaukee jazz musicians. Seated ((L-R) are trombonist Steve Blonien, pianist Ray Tabs, saxophonist Hattush Alexander, bassist Lee Burrows, trumpeter Tom Baker, saxophonist Warren Wiegratz and Cuzner. Courtesy rickjonesjazz.com.

Ron Cuzner emceeing an outdoor jazz concert featuring (L-R: Cuzner, saxophonist Berkeley Fudge, guitarist Many Ellis and drummer Victor Soward). Courtesy Charles Queen

Ron Cuzner was a jazz radio program host for three decades in Milwaukee, a magazine columnist, record store owner and jazz promoter. Cuzner was well-known among jazz aficionados for his program The Dark Side, which spanned three decades and much of the radio dial. He worked for at least 10 radio stations. Billboard magazine reported in 1980 that Cuzner’s The Dark Side, then on a ten-year run on WFMR in Milwaukee, was the nation’s longest-running commercial jazz program. 1 Somewhat paradoxically, most of the modern jazz he played was not “commercial music.” He continued his midnight-to-6 a.m. program for three more years on WFMR. He’d started on public radio but held a tapping foothold in commercial radio much longer. One can extrapolate the distinction of his actual run of sustaining his show for three decades through different stations, as statistics on such movement seem unavailable. One could argue he was among the longest-running commercial jazz disc jockeys in America during his three decades. Through many format changes, he maintained the wide-spectrum of mainstream jazz. He avoided jazz fusion and smooth-jazz -- an integrity he felt necessary for the show’s identity and appeal, which involved a comfort level balanced by a certain latitude of discernment. “Maybe it’s an unconscious rebellion against all this pseudo-jazz. It’s distasteful and too heavy,” Cuzner told Billboard at the time. 2 Nothing exemplified that appeal more than his trademark program opening, which involved Cuzner interfacing with a six-minute recording of Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing his tune “Solitude,” which opens with furtive solo piano and grows into a sweeping orchestra crest, upon which Cuzner would enounce, “Good Morning! And welcome to The Dark Side…The Dark Side of Wednesday, the thirtieth of March, nine-teen seventy-nine. This is jazz.” 3 That interfacing with such a celebrated jazz artist also suggested that he felt he moved on a wavelength akin to the music, Accordingly, his ego, his knowingly theatrical flair, put off some people. “I was never big Cuzner fan,” wrote Mike Drew former jazz critic and radio-TV critic for The Milwaukee Journal. “The music was usually fine, and it was great to have it there. I liked his taste, but the style was too self-reverential and affected for me.” 4 But, as Drew suggested, the music’s quality brought many back to the dial. A contrasting opinion on his announcing style: “Ron Cuzner probably had the most distinctive style and voice in Milwaukee radio,” wrote Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel radio-TV critic Duane Dudek in 2011. 5 Cuzner programmed his own music, drawing from his encyclopedic knowledge of jazz and vast collection of jazz albums; he owned more than 20,000. Cuzner also played an important influential, if indirect, role in the creation of what became one of the most acclaimed jazz nightclubs in his city’s history, The Milwaukee Jazz Gallery. Here is the testimony of Chuck LaPaglia, the club’s founder and owner (LaPaglia would later become the talent booker for Yoshi’s, the famous Oakland jazz club.) “Ron Cuzner was someone I listened to the entire time I was in Milwaukee. Being a late-night introvert, I spent a lot of time listening to his music. Ron had the unusual ability to make the music come alive with words. During my time in Milwaukee, I ran into (many) people who claimed that Ron introduced them to, and educated them about, jazz. Ron’s show and the Wisconsin Conservatory were two pillars of Milwaukee jazz that helped convince me to open the Jazz Gallery.” 6 He almost invariably emceed the most prestigious jazz concerts of both national and local artists. He was voted an honorable lifetime member of the Local 8 musicians union. Cuzner was also inducted in the Wisconsin Area Music Industry Hall of Fame in April 2002 for his radio work. Cuzner was a singular voice for the jazz art form. Jerry Horton, a sociology teacher at Park High School in Racine, a jazz music fan and listener of Cuzner's shows, said he remembers the host’s distinctive, molasses-like voice. His was a relaxing voice, Horton said. "I would say he turned a lot of people onto jazz over the years, in that respect," Horton said. "A lot of people who aren't even into jazz listened to The Dark Side. " 7 Some college students say The Dark Side served paradoxically as a sort of aural night light, especially for late-evening studying. The show began at midnight and ended at six each morning. Embracing “The Dark Side” didn’t simply mean being lulled to sleep. Cuzner’s music could be as stimulating as it was relaxing. Though he appreciated even the expressionistic extremes of the jazz vernacular, he employed those very selectively. Cuzner, who originally dreamed of a career in theater, developed radio announcing into a distinctively personal art form which understood the paces and sensibility of the night experience. So, his wit was dry and sly (paraphrasing): “Here are Major League Baseball scores for today: Six to three, eight to seven, five to two, nine to one, and three to zero.” He delivered sentences graced with frequent “whole notes,” of pure silence. As there was no visual presence, he used his somewhat spectral amiability to lure listeners into the music, enhanced by the rhythmic art of swing and the pulsing soul of the blues. His best on-air moments also held traces of dance, a Kelly-like jazziness, even more, an Astaire-like insouciance. Back then, pre-Internet, he never knew really who or how many people were listening. The music was quite often sophisticated, world-weary, or defiantly passionate, and sometimes sublimely simple, art in noir’s essence. Hearing Count Basie’s finger-poppin’ “One-O’ Clock Jump” had been his adolescent paradigm-shifter. "You'd look forward to midnight," Pat Fineran of Racine said, of his college years. "It made it easy for me to stay up and study because you always had something good to listen to." 8 He worked for 10 radio stations. In a medium of often re-vamped formats, Cuzner moved on, like a perpetually touring road musician. He almost invariably emceed the most prestigious jazz concerts of both national and local artists, and was voted an honorable lifetime member of the Local 8 musicians union. Cuzner was also inducted in the Wisconsin Area Music Industry Hall of Fame in April 2002 for his radio work. 9 In his late years his failing health, compromised by a smoking habit and diabetes, finally forced him to give up his self-produced nightly radio program, his wife Janet reported. He soon opened a jazz record store, Ron Cuzner’s Mainstream Jazz Cellar, aided by knowledgeable staff. That interaction with staff and customers helped to underscore the real human behind the cool, wry façade, and the passions beneath it all. Because this “jazz person” was also a “people person,” who relished chatting with appreciative fans and musicians who phoned him during his show. Then he would often dedicate a piece of music to the caller, or work their names into a traffic announcement, as in, “Bob Henry hopes you drive safely tonight because, you see, his life may depend on it.” Cuzner also enjoyed hosting, with Janet’s able assistance, swimming pool parties in the backyard of his suburban home. That full persona cultivated a dedicated listenership, which followed him from radio station to radio station. The following anecdote illustrates the humane power of Cuzner’s program. It came from Daron Hagen, a Milwaukee-raised composer and a Guggenheim Fellow who is known especially for his operas, such as “Shining Brow,” based on the most dramatic and tragic period of architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s life. Here is Hagen’s story: “Cuzner was my partner in insomnia for years growing up in Milwaukee. I will never forget that soothing, knowledgeable voice, or his eclectic, always-superb taste in music. One night, working the register in an all-night “White Hen Pantry” convenience store in Brookfield, I remember, all alone, around four in the morning, freaking out when a crazy-looking dude walked in and began pulling stuff randomly off the shelves. I was playing WFMR. On came Cuzner’s soothing voice. I swear, the guy just dropped everything, sat down in the aisle, and began listening to him. A half hour later, when the police came by for donuts and coffee, he was still there. They asked him to get up and go. He left, peaceably, and smiled at me on the way out.” 10 In the pre-streaming era, The Dark Side remained a regional phenomenon. But it is easy to imagine The Dark Side eclipsing at least a healthy sliver of the moon in popularity, figuratively speaking, given the host’s musical taste and distinctive personality, even if his quirks weren’t for everyone. And Cuzner went away only temporarily. Many of his listeners have rediscovered his program, resurrected as a popular podcast. At least 10 fans have contributed hundreds of hours of recordings of Cuzner’s programs, and The Dark Side podcast has over 1,000 subscribers, and is growing. The podcasts are available on iTunes and PodBay, reports podcast administrator Al Jewer. The “Ron Cuzner” Facebook page today has 1.7 K followers. 11 ________________ 1 Martin Hintz, “It’s 10 Years for ‘Dark Side,’ Billboard magazine, Oct. 25, 1980 2 “It’s Been 10 Years for ‘Dark Side’ ” 3 Here is Cuzner’s opening theme and introduction to his program, “Solitude” by Duke Ellington, from the 1957 album Ellington Indigos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhycM79gSYs. Podcasts of Ron Cuzner's The Dark Side jazz shows aired in Milwaukee between 1975 and 2002. First edition of Cuzner podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dark-side-with-ron-cuzner/id482531748 Second edition: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dark-side-with-ron-cuzner-2/id1355448750 The following statistic is limited by the range of this writer’s blog readership. But three Culture Currents blog posts about Cuzner (one originally published in OnMilwaukee.com) have received a total of 2,203 hits, to date. For information on accessing the podcasts on various devices, visit http://www.roncuzner.com/ 4 Mike Drew, former jazz critic, and radio and TV critic for The Milwaukee Journal. April 12, 2014, https://kevernacular.com/?p=3409 5 Duane Dudek, “Milwaukee Radio Voices: Ron Cuzner,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Dec. 1, 2011, https://archive.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/134835333.html/ 6 Chuck LaPaglia, in a message to jazz journalist Kevin Lynch, originally published in the blog Culture Currents (Vernaculars Speak) https://kevernacular.com/?p=3409 7 Jeff Wilford, “A Sad Day on The Dark Side,” The Journal Times https://journaltimes.com/news/local/a-sad-day-on-the-dark-side/article_bd64b9f2-1d9b-568b-8d22-eeb7495fb415.html 8 “A Sad Day on the Dark Side” 9 WAMI Hall of Fame website: https://www.wamimusicwi.com/hall-of-fame 10 Daron Hagen, Culture Currents (Vernaculars Speak) blog https://kevernacular.com/?p=3343 11 Ron Cuzner Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Andthisisthedarkside His podcast program had 8.5 K views on March 28, 2011