Dr. Richard Moore is a chronic pain specialist who has played the piano for jazz bands around the area for many years.
Cat Anderson, also known as Dave Andrews during work, began singing and playing the trumpet in Las Vegas-style acts in 1970. He now is the coordinator of video services at Southeast Missouri State University.
Together, Moore and Anderson will conduct "Jazz Alive!" a new program debuting at 1 p.m. Saturday on radio station KRCU. The station is at 90.9 on the FM dial.
The show will offer both recorded music and live studio performances.
"It will be like the feel of a piano bar," Anderson says.
Joining Moore and Anderson live in the studio on the first program will be Cape Girardeau drummer Don Ford, Carbondale bassist Jim Wall and Cairo percussionist Steve Williams.
Anderson said the musicians ordinarily will play four or five numbers during the hour and feature a local artist.
He will sing and hopes to work in his trumpet once the chops come back.
The playlist will run the gamut from traditional to progressive tunes, Moore said, adding:
"We want to more effectively promote jazz or modern American music in the area."
Anderson, who takes his professional name from a former Count Basie trumpet player, is the radio pro in the duo. He formerly ran jazz programs on KWMU, the National Public Radio station in St. Louis.
Jay Landers, the station's general manager, put Anderson and Moore together in hopes they might conjure up a volunteer program.
"We hit it off real well," Anderson said.
The one-hour program will be live every other week and taped on alternating weeks.
Eventually, phone interviews with name jazz performers will be incorporated into the format, Moore says.
His first choice to interview? Oscar Peterson.
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