This week on Afterglow we celebrate the 80th birthday of “vo-cool” singer Chris Connor, who jazz critic Larry Kart once described as “a dominating vocal presence whose music is full of hard-earned wisdom and truth.”

We’ll hear some of her earliest recordings with the Stan Kenton orchestra (the hit “All About Ronnie” and “And the Bull Walked Around Ole”, some of her mid-1950s work for the Bethlehem label, her Atlantic sides from albums such as Jazz Date and Chris Connor, her Roulette collaborations with Maynard Ferguson, and some of her late-period music as well.

Also on the program: saxophonist and clarinetist Anat Cohen (music from her recent release Poetica), the lost-legend 1940s progressive big band of Earle Spencer, Diana Krall, Jackie Ryan, and Kenny Burrell.