October 19, 2026

Largely new releases featured this week, the last episode of Breaking The Tethers before the 2026 CJSW Funding Drive (more on this below). While BTT does often lean to the free or avant or experimental sides of jazz (and jazz-adjacent music), sometimes these styles are actually in the minority on the show. This might have been one of these weeks. Everything that was presented was cool, however, and there were still one or two more out-there tracks played (e.g. "Logic" by Micah Thomas from Lucid). You can listen to this show here.

Here's when I'll be back on air at cjsw.com or 90.9 FM:

*I'll be filling in for regular host Kerry Clarke (thanks Kerry!) on Alternative To What once again, this time on Thursday, October 22. Things get going on at 4 pm MT.

*I'll be hosting Breaking The Tethers again on Monday, October 26, starting at 10 am MT. But it won't be the usual BTT show, because next week, from October 23 through October 30, it's the 2026 CJSW Funding Drive! And next week's BTT show will be the BTT Funding Drive program! I'll have more on the Drive and the BTT show soon.

Thanks.

Andrew

October 12, 2026

On the page on the CJSW site for this edition of Breaking The Tethers (you can listen to the show on this page), I said that this show was "a solid six". I meant that six solid tunes were featured in the program. And solid they were, I think. We had some avant jazz with Cecil Taylor, some new boy Canadian jazz from Josh Warren and Ardeshir, a trip to the 70s that wasn't a trip to the 70s from Azar Lawrence, a real trip to the 70s by Marion Brown, and more. Be sure to give it a listen.

As normal, I'll be back with another BTT outing on Monday, October 19. Please come hang with me and dig the music starting at 10 am MT. Go to cjsw.com or 90.9 FM.

I've also been called back for service on Alternative To What. I'll be filling in for Kerry twice, very soon, on Thursday, October 15, and Thursday, October 22. The start time will be 4 pm MT, same station.

Thanks.

Andrew

PS Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving, one and alll!

PPS CJSW Funding Drive 2026 is coming... October 23 to 30... more info to follow... 

October 5, 2026

Lots of music squeezed into a mere 60 minutes, 11 tracks in all. We had a couple of jazzy Bowie covers for kids, lots of piano, some free jazz, grunge turned jazz, and more. Simply, this was a fun show. To give it a listen, go to shorturl.at/lfNKy. 

We keep on going into October, musically, with the next BTT show on Monday, October 12. Come hang out with me on CJSW, 90.9 FM or cjsw.com, at 10 am MT. 

Thanks.

Andrew

PS CJSW Funding Drive 2026 is coming!

September 28, 2026

I’ve said it before, maybe too many times, but some episodes of Breaking The Tethers (BTT) just work well and this was one of them. Eight tracks played, nothing too long and nothing too short, with nice stylistic variation. It all came together nicely. And you can listen to the whole thing here (which I recommend you do!)

Thanks.

Andrew 

September 21, 2026

I was back doing my thing on Breaking The Tethers after last week's absence and all went well. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this was a super-solid show (at least musically 😂). The right tracks were played at the right time. In addition, there was one song that caused some (positive) hubub, the tropicalia-infused cover of Nirvana's "In bloom", sung by Benny Benack III, from the new release Kind of grunge by Ulysses Owens Jr and Generation Y. A bunch of folks texted in - "What is this??!!" It was nice to have this reaction. Please listen to this edition of BTT here.

There's one more September show for Breaking The Tethers, in a week's time, on Monday, September 28. Please go to cjsw.com or 90.9 FM at 10 am MT.

Thanks.

Andrew

September 14, 2026

Breaking The Tethers is my program on CJSW but this wasn't my show. I took sick that morning (or I was locked in a tiger cage) and didn't make it to the station. CJSW station manager, Adam Kamis, stepped in and hosted BTT in my place and did a fine job, playing some great tunes. It was very smart the way he did this; basically, he played music that I would play when I guest-host Alternative To What but he did this on Breaking The Tethers! Listen to it all here.

Everything returns to "normal" (should such a thing actually exist) on Monday, September 21. Barring disaster, I'll be back behind the board and on the mic for the next edition of BTT. Please join me for this last-day-of summer 2026 (or last-day-of-winter 2026 if you're in the southern hemisphere) show at 10 am MT at 90.9 FM or cjsw.com.

Thanks.

Andrew

September 10, 2026 - Alternative To What?

This week, I felt the call back to host Alternative To What. Well, actually, Kerry Clarke messaged me and asked me if I could host this show. And, of course, as always, I said "yes"! There were 19 tracks featured in two hours, from here, there, everywhere, and beyond. Here's a word list (salad) of some of what showed up on the program, in no order:

an Ace Frehley live guitar solo

Arab instrumental pop

Captain Beefheart

late period John Coltrane

new Dinosaur Jr.

new (yes, new) Strawberry Alarm Clock

creepy ambient sounds

Indo-violin

And much more.

You can take in the whole mess here.

Thanks.

Andrew