Bob Parlocha gets well-deserved kudos

Is seems to me that most people will tell you they are from somewhere.  It’s the place of their roots, the area on earth where they feel grounded and most fulfilled.  Me, I’m a west-coast boy, specifically the San Francisco Bay Area.  Where ever I go, I always get that sweet, comforting  feeling when I return to my home in Alameda on San Francisco Bay. I spent some time in Europe and on the East Coast, and enjoyed it, but my soul was always ready to fold up the tent and return home. 

Part of “home” here in the Bay Area is Bob Parlocha.  We used to have a renowned jazz station here, KJAZ, and Bob was one of the best DJ’s on that station.  I listened to him and the sounds he played for all the years I was “home.”  KJAZ shut down in 1994 because of the money woes of its rich owner who had lovingly run it at a loss for many years.  But KCSM, a public radio station in San Mateo County filled the void and went to an all-jazz format, where it remains today.  Parlocha continued his “Dinner Jazz” program under KCSM’s auspices.

So I was pleasantly surprised today to find this article/interview in today’s SF Chronicle.  It turns out that Parlocha is recording his show in a garage studio in at his home in Alameda,  sending it to WFMT in Chicago via the Internet, where they download it to CDs and then upload the program to satellite. Then the satellite beams it to some 260 stations around the world. A number of stations put it online, including KCSM.

This revelation made me all warm and fuzzy because I live in Alameda too!  In all these years I don’t recall ever seeing a picture of Parlocha, so who knows, I may have walked by him dozens of times in the local Safeway store, or more likely one of the coffee places like Peets at the corner of Park St. and Central Ave. in Alameda.  If that happened I can assure you that he was not speaking during those moments because I would recognize his voice anywhere.  Now that I have recent pictures of him from today’s article/interview I’m going to be on the lookout for him!

If you are interested in hearing him and the music he plays for you tune into this station from 12am – 6am or 6pm – 12am; just click on the “Listen Live” button.   Or you can start here.

I’ll close with Bob’s terrific answer to the last question in the interview:

Q: What one CD would you take with you?

A: "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane. It came at a time (1960) when the door was open and my mind was seeing the universe.