Jon Armstrong
Host of Don't Call It JazzHost of Don't Call it Jazz (DCiJ) on KISU-FM. DCiJ air's twice monthly on Saturday nights at 7:00 pm.
Jonathan Armstrong is an Idaho based creative musician, bandleader, composer, and innovative educator. In 2015, he moved to Pocatello to take the job as the Director of Jazz Studies at Idaho State University. Before that he resided in Los Angeles, where we worked as a professional musician. He has released two critically acclaimed albums: “Farewell” (2013) features compositions for a 25-piece large ensemble, and “Burnt Hibiscus” (2015) sets surrealist poetry to Indian ragas for a 10-piece ensemble. He is also a member of the Kobie Watkins Grouptet, a jazz quintet that regularly performs all throughout the country. Their debut album "Movement" was released in 2018.
Jon was recently awarded a 2019 Idaho Commission on the Arts Performing Arts Fellowship. He enjoys long walks in the Pocatello hills with his wife, daughter, and dog.
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For this episode of Don't Call it Jazz, we are proud to introduce our listeners to Stubborn Moth, a new local jazz quintet comprised of ISU students, alumni, and staff. -
In this episode of Don’t Call it Jazz, I’m diving into three albums that I’ve been listening deeply to recently, Erika Oba’s new album Strange Moon, Kassa Overall’s recent release Animals and Lean In which is the result of a wonderful collaboration between vocalist Gretchen Parlato and guitarist Lionel Loueke. Each one of these albums are unique and expansive, so we’re gonna dive in by listening to a couple tracks from each one.
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For this week’s episode, Jon Armstrong continues his annual tradition of celebrating LGBTQ creative musicians in recognition of Pride month.
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For this week's episode of Don't Call it Jazz, Jon sits down with Dan Simms, founder and producer of the inaugural Meadowlark Music Festival, which will run from June 2nd-4th at his ranch just outside of Aberdeen. We'll also listen to the performance by the ISU big band from our recent spring performance at Jensen Hall.
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Continuing our theme from last week, we listen to recent recordings that have caught my ear, some really incredible music being released by wonderful contemporary artists.
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This week and next we'll hear recent recordings that have caught my ear, some really incredible music being released by wonderful contemporary artists.
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City Creek Records is the innovative new record label run out of ISU’s commercial music program and co-run by program director Jon Armstrong and his CM students. In this episode, Jon discusses the new label and plays some tracks from the albums City Creek Records has launched thus far.
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Don't Call it Jazz is proud to host Brad Goode, an amazing jazz musician who was kind enough to sit down with our host Jon Armstrong for an interview and to listen to three of Goode's own recordings.
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Don't Call it Jazz is proud to present the debut album of Idaho Falls based drummer Caleb Coleman, Concentric Circles, released on City Creek Records.
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Don’t Call it Jazz is thrilled to host Bay Area musician Saxreligious (Eli Maliwan) to listen to and celebrate his new album Elysia Marginata, out on Hot Record Societe.
