Song of the Day 7/1: Donald Byrd, “A Portrait of Jennie”
Last night was bittersweet for jazz fans — it was the last weeknight broadcast by DJ Bob Perkins on Temple University’s WRTI (90.1 FM), where he held down the 6-9 p.m. slot for the past 25 years. Now 88 years old, Perkins will continue to host his Sunday jazz brunch from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Perkins’ only nod to his semi-retirement came a few minutes before the end of his final shift, when he told listeners that after 57 years behind the microphone, “BP with the GM (for good music) needs a little rest.”
One of the last songs he played was Donald Byrd, recorded live at the Blue Note in 1960, playing “A Portrait of Jennie,” the theme song to a 1948 film that Nat King Cole had a hit with the year it debuted. Byrd died in 2013 in Dover, where he twice served as a distinguished artist-in-residence at Delaware State University.
When Donald Byrd was teaching at Delaware State he said he sometimes practiced playing his trumpet while driving on the roads around Dover. Now that’s multitasking, Byrd is considered one of the best jazz trumpet of the post-bop era.
Yikes! Only realized who Perkins was when I came to “BP with the GM”, I listened to him for years.