"Don't call it jazz! This is social music!" Miles Davis gave us that gem of a quote as he was admonishing a reporter for using "that dirty word, jazz" in an interview. What is a confusing remark at first becomes clear when you dive deeper into the mind of a professional musician. All great musicians are poly-genre, meaning they care less about the style of music than the quality of it, and its cultural resonance.
Host Jon Armstrong is a professional musician, and a professor of jazz music and recording technology at Idaho State University. Before moving to Idaho, Armstrong worked in Los Angeles for seven years as a player, composer, and educator. He's performed jazz, rock, funk, hip-hop, R&B, bluegrass, country, folk, reggae, and everything in between. He still gigs and writes a lot of music and is constantly checking out recordings from every corner of the creative music world.
Each show, Armstrong will play tunes that have caught his ear over the years, while telling fun stories and informative anecdotes from his unique perspective. On special occasions, he will also bring in a guest musician to do an in-studio live interview and performance!
Don't Call it Jazz. First and final Saturdays of every month at 7pm.
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Enjoy this two-part conversation and listening hang with Alexander Noice, an awesome composer, guitarist, improviser, and friend. To talk about his album Perpetually and Forever on Orenda Records.
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I was so happy to invite my good friend, colleague, and collaborator, Eddie Ludema, to the show to discuss his recent album, Modulus, released on Summit Records in late 2025.
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I was so happy to invite my good friend, colleague, and collaborator, Eddie Ludema, to the show to discuss his recent album, Modulus, released on Summit Records in late 2025.
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I’m happy to welcome back good friend Grant Harville for another conversation about music and culture. In this episode, Grant takes the lead to discuss Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2018 for his album, Damn.
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For these episodes, I was joined by three commercial music students, Sky Olsen, Max Fedotov, and Brandt Moon, to talk about their trip to Treefort 2026.
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For these episodes, I was joined by three commercial music students, Sky Olsen, Max Fedotov, and Brandt Moon, to talk about their trip to Treefort 2026.
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Friday, May 1st, join us on the Quad from 2 pm-10 pm to hear an awesome lineup of great music by great musicians. In this episode, I’ll discuss the festival and play music from all of these incredible acts.
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Jon is happy to welcome back his good friend Grant Harville for another invigorating conversation about music.
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Jon is happy to welcome back his good friend Grant Harville for another invigorating conversation about music. This time, Grant asks Jon to read the infamous article, “Who Cares if You Listen”, written by the serialist composer Milton Babbitt in 1958.
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Bad Snacks, the artist name for musician Jesse Hanson, came to ISU in January of 2024 as our 3rd annual commercial music artist in residence. She worked directly with ISU Commercial Music students, producing an EP of their music. She returns this month, on March 20th, to perform with ISCS and the ISU Big Band.